Review: Holes In The Veil, by Beth Overmyer

Having killed his lifelong enemy, Aidan Ingledark finds himself in possession of a map to the Questing Goblet, one of the Goblets Immortal that gives the drinker luck beyond measure. Meraude seeks this Goblet to wipe out magickind. Aidan and his traveling companion are determined to find it first but they must battle through illusion and doubt.

Jinn’s a Sightful seeking the Summoner. She wants to kill her mother, but her foresight ends in darkness. Can she enlist Aidan’s help and change her fate?

The threat of Meraude and her dominion are imminent in this sequel to The
Goblets Immortal.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing.
Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

My Review

Thanks to Anne Cater for arranging this blog tour and to the publishers for sending me a copy of the book.

Aiden and Slaine travel northwards in search of the grave of Cedric the Elder in search of the Questing Goblet so that they can defeat Meraude and get revenge for the deaths of their respective parents. They are struggling with their feelings for each other and trying not to get killed. Aiden is also dealing with a mysterious stranger called Salem that keeps dragging him into the world of the magical dead and a dead elf called Treevain who also have their own motives.

Jinn is also seeking the Goblets, for reasons of her own.

The second instalment in a series can be hard to get into, or they can happily stand alone. This one is a mix of both. It can stand by itself as a YA fantasy adventure, but it was a bit difficult to get the hang of the world and to understand the back story.

The relationship between Aiden and Slaine was frustrating to read because they desperately fancy each other but won’t act on it. Is there a reason I missed from the first book? Something to do with how Slaine’s curse works? I don’t know, and that made it more frustrating to read. They argue with each other over how to proceed, but actually seem to like each other and are in agreement about their end goal. Their emotions and actions didn’t always line up, but I think that is because they’re confused about how to behave towards each other.

The plot is quite entertaining and rolls along at a steady pace, picking up when you least expect it, as the action blows up and the pair have to escape or jump into another adventure. The description of the landscape as they travelled and the places and people they meet was a little lacking at times, I couldn’t get clear images but that might just be my aphantasia.

Probably best to read the first book before this one, but otherwise a pleasant read, (even though YA fantasy with too much (any) romance isn’t really my thing).

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Author Bio

Beth Overmyer is the author of several works of genre fiction, the middle grade novella In a Pickle being among them. Fuelled by tea, loved by cats everywhere, she balances her home life with writing novels and leading a
creative writing group at her local library.