Lost Covenant by Ari Marmell, Widdershins Adventure #3It’s been six months since Widdershins and her own “personal god” Olgun fled the city of Davillon. During their travels, Widdershins unwittingly discovers that a noble house is preparing to move against the last surviving bastion of the Delacroix family.
Determined to help the distant relatives of her deceased adopted father, Alexandre Delacroix, she travels to a small town at the edge of the nation. There, she works at unraveling a plot involving this rival house and a local criminal organization, all while under intense suspicion from the very people she’s trying to rescue.
Along the way she’ll have to deal with a traitor inside the Delacroix family, a mad alchemist, and an infatuated young nobleman who won’t take no for an answer.
Earlier this year I started in Ari Marmell's YA series: Widdershins Adventure and from the first book, Thief's Covenant it has been a mad race (meaning this in the positive way!). The first two books in Widdershins Adventure, Thiefs Covenant and False Covenant were fresh and exciting to read about. With Widdershins herself, Ari Marmell has created a very strong protagonist that readily helps to take his stories take the next few steps further. So far the first two books have centered around Widdershins and her adventures in the city of Davillon. She has bested the supernatural twice but in False Covenant it was all just to much for her and she decided that she needed a break and departed from Davillon.
So Lost Covenant picks up the story in a totally place. And as I mentioned in my review of False Covenant that it left the story at an open ending and the continuation in Lost Covenant would nicely broaden the scope of the story, well this is exactly what Ari Marmell does. Widdershins has left Davillon behind and traded it for Lourveaux. I did have a few reservations as to how introducing such a new place would impact the story itself. With Thief's Covenant and False Covenant Ari Marmell neatly build the world around Davillon and many of its character, abandoning this and sort of starting a new could have broken up the story, getting acquainted with new characters and a new city mid series can be difficult. I enjoyed the move that Ari Marmell takes with going into this direction, but I do have to say that the tone of Lost Covenant is quite different from that of the first two books. It definitely seems that the events of those books have started to weigh on Widdershins and she isn't the rapscallious young girl anymore. With all that she has been through, she has started to grow up and think about these events. This added a more serious and darker tinged air to the story.
In retrospect, when you not only take Lost Covenant into account but the whole series so far, it does fit perfectly in the grander scope the series. This more darker and serious tone might come to a lot of readers as a shock, they might expect another happy Widdershins Adventure. But there had to come a time for Widdershin to process as that she gone through and place those things AND come back tougher and better on top of it all. I think this is the most important development for Widdershins character so far, she is still one of the best thieves and fighter out there, she can best everyone with her sword and quick witted mind and tongue. Added to this is that Olgun, her personal God, is still with her and gives her that extra edge when she needs help. I do have to say that each Widdershins Adventure has been made a pleasure to read by mainly the relationship between Widdershins and Olgun. Though you don't get to read the replies of Olgun when he and Widdershins discuss several things, it's in the way that Widdershins relates these events to the reader, acting up in different ways that you just know how Olgun has reacted. This created some very funny moments. Since there are more darker tones to the storyline than the first two books, these brief flashes of humor greatly livened up the storyline.
The story of Lost Covenant is more or less separate than that of what we have read so far. The Davillon chapter has been put on a hold and Ari Marmell introduces the new city Louvreaux and it's characters to the readers. Even though she left Davillon, there is one thing that is hard to leave and that is your past. Widdershins wanted to get a break from everything, but she soon stumbles upon a plot where one of the noble houses of Louvreaux plan to eliminate the last of House Delacroix from the city. If you have read the previous two books of the series, the name Delacroix should ring a bell. When Widdershins was young she was taking into House Delacroix. She still has a strong alliagance to Alexandre Delacroix and his house and she does her best to prevent the down fall of the last remaining branch of Delacroix in Louvreaux. However this all sounds pretty easy, you have one of the best fighters with her personal god, but reality proves to be from it. Next to Widdershins adventures in Louvreaux trying to save the downfall off House Delacroix, Ari Marmell does introduce another storyline. Brief interludes in between the chapters show what happens in Davillon. These interludes made sure that you didn't loose any focus on Davillon and some pretty interesting things did start to unfold... The story of Widdershins does end more on a ends well tone, but the one that features in Davillon is far from that. Widdershins will be in for quite a surprise when she gets home...
One thing that I do want to stress. Have you looked at the covers of the books? On the cover of Thief's Covenant Widdershins is a young girl and you can already see on the cover of False Covenant, not only in Widdershins developing in the story itself, she is also visibly growing in appearance! Have you seen the cover of Covenant's End??
With Lost Covenant, Ari Marmell again manages to hit all the right snares and delivers another thrilling adventure featuring Widdershins. The tone of this third book is different from the previous two in that the storyline has a much darker tone. Also venturing outside the city of Davillon creates a whole new atmosphere surrounding the story and for some reader this might take some getting used to. However I do think that it was a wise decision to have Widdershins go for a break in Louvreaux as this allowed Ari Marmell to neatly set several plays into motion back in Davillon to setup on one big last final encounter between an old rival of Widdershins. Within the Widdershins series Ari Marmell has created a very strong protagonist that never keeps on developing and the relation she has with her personal god Olgun keeps the story lighthearted at moments but also very compelling. These books are a definite recommendation and aren't only suited for the young-adult audience, they do suffer from one thing though. Sadly they are over to soon...! The fourth and final book, Covenant's End, is set to be released later this year. Enough time for you to catch up on this series!
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