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Title: Avelynn: The Edge of Faith
Author: Marissa Campbell
Publisher: Marissa Campbell
Published Date: 13th September 2016
Page Count: 392
ISBN: 978-0986627217
Price: $13.49
Reviewer: Gwendoline SK Terry (26 November 2023)

Blurb

A brand new stand-alone historical romance from the Avelynn series!

It’s the year 871. Charges of treason, murder, and witchcraft follow Avelynn into exile as she flees England with Alrik. Arriving in Wales, they find refuge among Alrik’s friends in the Welsh nobility. Cast out by his half-brothers, Alrik seeks to regain his honor and earn favor with the gods. When war threatens, Alrik embraces gold and the opportunity for his crew to become mercenaries, aiding the Southern Welsh kings in their fight against Rhodri the Great.

Desperate to return home, Avelynn seeks to find a way to prove her innocence, but she is pitted against Alrik as their desires for the future clash. With battle looming, Avelynn’s faith in their relationship is further tested through a bitter struggle with Marared, a jealous lover from Alrik’s past. Marared’s threats turn deadly, and Avelynn runs afoul of magic and sorcery, causing her to question her beliefs and role as priestess.

When Avelynn and Alrik are betrayed, Avelynn is captured and Alrik is charged with regicide. The two become separated, a chasm of greed, deceit, and ambition driving them apart. In an act of harrowing faith, Avelynn will stop at nothing to find her way back to Alrik and break them both free from Wales’s bloodthirsty grasp.

Review – may contain spoilers!

Avelynn: Edge of Faith is the sequel to Avelynn, a book I enjoyed enough to give four stars on Goodreads. I was surprised to see I hadn’t reviewed Avelynn even though I distinctly remember taking notes as I read it, but apparently, I didn’t get further than that. I am not making the same mistake for this, the sequel.

I was really excited to read Edge of Faith because it’s set in Wales. My father and his side of my family are from Wales, so I have an affinity for the country. I was thrilled to read a novel about Vikings, a historical culture I have a penchant for, in Wales, a country I love.

Just like its predecessor, there were a lot of lovely descriptions, the romance scenes were steamy, and there was a lot of intrigue and excitement – would Alrik save Avelynn, could Avelynn get to safety, how will she escape the English, etc, etc. I found the politics between the Welsh, Norse and English fascinating, and the discord between the two Welsh kings was particularly interesting. Angharad was my favourite character in this entire book (and not just because, coincidentally, my Welsh father wanted to call me Angharad when I was born, but my English mother put a stop to it). She was entertaining, sweet, loyal, funny, and just an all-round wonderful character.

I distinctly enjoyed the first book in this series, but unfortunately, this novel fell short. Firstly, the title of the novel doesn’t seem to have any dwelling on the story itself. Though Avelynn’s faith is very central to the story, she’s very comfortable with her beliefs. She never wavered or found herself on the edge of it at all.

A lot of sections dragged, particularly toward the middle, and this novel definitely needed to go through an extra round of editing. Some parts seemed disjointed, as though a sentence was removed during editing that shouldn’t have been, or the paragraph hadn’t been reworked to suit the absence of that sentence. Nearer the end of the book, Abbot Rhys’s name bounced between being spelt with a h and without one (Rhys being the traditional Welsh spelling so that’s the one I’m going with), and quotation marks were either backwards or missing altogether, among other overlooked errors. Sometimes it felt as though the book was set in the 16th century rather than the 9th – for example, books were not common in the 9th century at all, let alone the ability to read, yet Avelynn reads through a mountain of them in this book.

There was a part at the beginning that was hilarious. [Avelynn and Alrik are talking, and she assures Alrik that Bertram is her ally and will back her up no matter what, then Bertram immediately appears and doesn’t back her up at all – he’s renounced paganism in favour of Christianity and tells her to leave because she’s a heathen. This story immediately begins where the last book ended and, even though there was a large amount of time between me reading Avelynn and Avelyn: Edge of Faith, it seemed like such a sudden change in personality for Bertram’s character. I need to check the first book and see if the change of belief is sudden or not. If it is sudden, I’d like to have more of an explanation assuming there is a third book in this series and assuming Bertram returns in it.

Avelynn scolds Alrik for being overly close with Marared, for letting her sit on his lap, etc, which, in my opinion, is entirely justifiable. Alrik was ridiculously physical with the woman, at the start he just brushed Avelynn off for being overdramatic and he didn’t make any boundaries with Marared about what was appropriate between them or not. I would’ve gone mad if I’d seen my partner be that intimate with his ex in public, especially flaunting it in front of me. Avelynn, in my opinion, had every right to chop his head off. However, any shred of credibility Avelynn possessed absolutely flew out of the window the minute she and Angharad became intimate. What a hypocrite! Avelynn spends most of the book cursing Marared for trying to steal her man, she and Alrik fight because he’s being touchy-feely with Marared (though he never kisses or sleeps with her), he’s too dumb to see why Avelynn is upset and takes forever before he draws any line in the sand with Marared, then Avelynn literally has oral sex with Angharad, on top of many other sensual and intimate moments. Of course, when Avelynn eventually admits her unfaithfulness to Alrik, he’s fine with it because lesbian sex is hot and he would love to watch them be intimate one day, so she gets away with cheating.

Throughout the majority of the book, Avelynn comes off as being overly suspicious and flat-out accusatory of Marared. Marared was awful and obviously jealous of Avelynn, wanting Alrik back, but she didn’t come off as the murderous type. I spent 75% of the book waiting to find out that Marared was nothing more than a love rival who was being framed. Though that kind of ended up being the case with Sigy being the Big Bad, I got the feeling that the author didn’t want Avelynn to be wrong (that happens a lot in this book, Avelynn is wrong but the author tries to justify her actions because she wants Avelynn to always be in the right), so she tried to make Marared worse than she was. Again, I disliked Marared, but Avelynn wasn’t great either – they were six of one, half a dozen of the other. Also, Avelynn and Alrik’s relationship really didn’t seem worth fighting over, but I’ll get to that later in the review.

There were other stupid parts, like when Avelynn was decoding letters using a twig in the dirt. Really? Come on, now. Also, how did Gwgon know it was Avelynn and Angharad who caused the mass of flies? He kicks down their door seconds after they cast the spell. That was so coincidental, far too quick a discovery to be believable. I want to point out the absurd spellings for certain insults – bicche and kunte. I rolled my eyes every time I came across those words. I’m not sure if they’re historically accurate, but I feel the author should’ve used their common spellings or not used them at all because the bizarre form of censoring by misspelling them was just dumb.

The biggest moment that ruined Avelynn for me was when she demanded Alrik to abandon his child the moment they discovered he had one. That was so out of line! Just because she hates the mother of the child, and just because he doesn’t love the mother, doesn’t mean he should abandon his child (yes, it was directly said that since Alrik doesn’t love Marared, he should be okay with not having anything to do with their child. What the hell?!). Honestly, though, the whole Branwen situation seemed kind of abrupt in its appearance and swift to end. It had some importance to the big reveal, but not as much as intended. In my opinion, it was unnecessary. The Branwen situation could’ve easily been skipped with just a little reworking of the storyline. Also, Avelynn’s sudden change in feelings toward Branwen was stupid. Was this supposed to redeem Avelynn? When Branwen is supposedly Alrik’s bastard, Avelynn wants to abandon the kid, then she finds out the child has nothing to do with Alrik and NOW Avelynn is concerned for her safety?

Speaking of odd things, the cheese shed was a strange location for make-up sex. I really couldn’t get my head into that scene. The moment it was mentioned that they were standing in front of a cheese shed, I knew where the scene was leading and I didn’t care for it. Unhygienic, random, and just plain weird. Cheese shed sex … Cheese shed. Sex. Just nah. Those words don’t need to be next to each other. Sex in a shed, sure, sex surrounded by cheese? That’s a whole different kettle of fish.

I remember in the first novel Avelynn and Alrik had moments together, but they spent a lot of time separated by location, whereas in this novel they are separated because they’re just in moods with each other. As I mentioned before, they really aren’t a very good couple. Even in the first novel, there was no real basis for such a passionate, sturdy relationship, it really did seem like they lusted for each other rather than love each other. Avelynn and Angharad, however, had a phenomenal relationship. In every scene they were together, it struck me how wonderful they were together, they understood one another, they saw each other as equals, they communicated with each other – they did everything that Alrik and Avelynn did not. I would’ve been over the moon if Avelynn and Alrik broke up for good and she’d stayed with Angharad for the rest of forever. There was even a scene in the book at the apex of her and Alrik’s fight where I would’ve found it believable if Avelynn chose to be with Angharad instead.

Honestly, Avelynn was just irritating in this book and Alrik is flat. Though I was intrigued by the storyline, those two just don’t have the magnificent relationship to launch a thousand ships like the author tries to portray. Their relationship is based on sex, they spend a lot of time apart in book one, and then in book two, they spend most of their time arguing and fighting. That’s a pretty realistic reaction to two strangers being in close proximity, but it made me question why they were even together. I’m completely team Angharad, but, again, Avelynn and Angharad had a much more endearing, enchanting relationship, and Alrik lets his ex-girlfriends sit on his lap when he is betrothed to someone he supposedly loves. Come on. If I were Avelynn, I know which one I would choose.

Finally, the magic was too much in this novel. In the first one, Avelynn cast ‘spells’ and performed rituals in a realistic manner, enough that the magic could be explained by modern people but realistically been viewed as magic by people of that time period. In the beginning of this novel, magic can be explained by the ‘potions’ – herbs, food, etc with psychedelic effects – but then magic becomes fantastical and real. I would’ve preferred the magic be explained away rather than become an actual thing – it ruined the historical fiction aspect of the story and just became a low fantasy with a medieval backdrop. (hide spoiler)]

I’ll admit that I skimmed the final fifty or so pages of this book just to get it over and done with (I finish what I start and refuse to DNF a book). I honestly do enjoy Marissa Campbell’s writing and I enjoyed the first novel too much to give up on this one.

This story ended on a perfect note where Avelynn and Alrik’s tale could end happily, or the author could expand their story into a third and even fourth novel – one about their travels along the Pictish lands, and the Rus lands.

Despite the mostly negative tone of my review, if Campbell does continue this series, I will definitely buy it. Her first novel was great; this one had potential and just fell short. If she gets a better editor for a third novel, I think she would benefit.