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This is a book club for a read through of The Bridge of D'Arnath Series by Carol Berg

Carol Berg and I will be reading the books one after another starting from tomorrow, April 22nd.
Yep. THE Carol Berg - as in the author. She'll be doing this buddy read with me. Isn't that cool?! And you cannot blame me for doing a happy dance here. :D

Here are the books:



All of them republished with brand new covers.

And we'll be reading them in this order:

Son of Avonar
Guardians of the Keep
The Soul Weaver
Daughter of Ancients

Please feel free to join at any time. Or butt in to ask her questions, even if they aren't related to this series. She's pretty awesome and will answer.

That's so cool! I'm thinking of joining, even though I have several other books I should be reading. 😂

It's going to be fun. A good old feel good BR with lots of bookish chat. And we'll be taking our time so do join us if you can.

Plus... It's THE Carol Berg!😍
Let the TBR give you the stinkeye and push it a bit aside. 😂
This series is really great.

Is it cool if I join as well?

Of course Choko. You don't even have to ask. ❤️😘

Awesome!!!

Should we postpone this a bit and start on Monday or Tuesday?

Carol is also at a writers' retreat till Tuesday and she will be able to pop in here freely only after she gets back.

Tuesday sounds good to me:))

I'm fine with whenever you start.

I would love to join--and Tuesday definitely makes that easier for me!! So excited!! Never done a BR with an author joining in before, and I LOVE Carol Berg's works!!

Nirkatze wrote: "I would love to join--and Tuesday definitely makes that easier for me!! So excited!! Never done a BR with an author joining in before, and I LOVE Carol Berg's works!!"

You are more than welcome. :) We're happy to have you and we'll start on Tuesday.

I may have started yesterday 😂. But I'll be slow and probably end up finishing last anyway. I have to say that I'm already hooked, so that's a good sign!

I just picked up the audiobook for the reread. I think this was my first ever Carol Berg book... I just loved how the story started in the middle, and that discovering the characters' pasts was just as much a puzzle as the future going forward...

Nirkatze wrote: "I just picked up the audiobook for the reread. I think this was my first ever Carol Berg book... I just loved how the story started in the middle, and that discovering the characters' pasts was jus..."

I haven't read this series of hers still. For a very long time, one of the books was not available on Kindle in my place (that is India at the moment) and the paperbacks were insanely expensive due to shipment charges from the US so I couldn't afford them. But I grabbed a copy of them all after Carol republished them.

Have you read all of her books?

Tammie wrote: "I may have started yesterday 😂. But I'll be slow and probably end up finishing last anyway. I have to say that I'm already hooked, so that's a good sign!"

LOL. That IS a good sign. :D
I started reading Weyward yesterday to keep me occupied till Tuesday when I'll start Son of Avonar. It is really good and I'll probably finish it this evening.

This will be my first read too... I am looking forward to it:)

Laura wrote: "Have you read all of her books?..."

I've read everything published under "Carol Berg"--minus random short stories I haven't come across in various collections. I haven't read her Cate Glass works yet... sort of waiting to see if those are open-ended ongoing like the Mercy Thompson series or if they'll have a closed arc-story like her Carol Berg works. I suppose I could just ask her if she stops by! *giddy butterfly feelings*

I remember reading the Bridge of d'Arnath books and thinking it was a trilogy... then just as I finished book 3, discovering book 4 newly published in the book store... I was so excited! I've been meaning to do a reread for a while... If I had to pick a favorite series though, probably the Valen/Lighthouse duology--Flesh and Spirit & Breath and Bone, though I really love all the books...

Choko wrote: "This will be my first read too... I am looking forward to it:)"

I started it today. Couldn't wait. :D But I'm taking it slow.

Nirkatze wrote: "Laura wrote: "Have you read all of her books?..."

I've read everything published under "Carol Berg"--minus random short stories I haven't come across in various collections. I haven't read her Cat..."

The Lighthouse duology is among my all-time favourite series ever. But then I love her Rai-Kirah series too, especially book 1.

Carol will be here so you can ask her anything you'd like to. She is really great to chat with. And I will probably ask her questions for just about every chapter. :))

I'm taking it slow with this series and doing a bit of a deep dive into it chapter by chapter.

Chapter 1

As usual with any Carol Berg book, the first chapter had me hooked.
I have an on the spot aversion towards captain Darzid from the very beginning. And I am very intrigued about (view spoiler)[the fugitive.

He is clearly more than a commoner and very important to Lady Seriana's brother. And I'm already itching to know who he is. And to know why a lady is spending her life like this - a poor recluse. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 2

I would have gone back too. (view spoiler)[To see if he's ok, even after he behaved like a madman. (hide spoiler)]

Seri is (view spoiler)[35 years old. I love it when we have an FMC who's not a teenager anymore. Lately I've found my patience for teenage drama has dwindled considerably.
But the main point - she says she would not abandon anyone to the mercy of Evard or Darzid or Thomas. Since Darzid is the right hand of Duke Thomas - Seri's brother - and the description of Chapter 1 states - 'Year 14 in the reign of King Evard' I am now wondering if there is any connection in between Seri and Evard.
Is Seri royalty?

I am also intrigued by the fact our fugitive cannot seem to be able speak. Is it just me suspecting some 'magical' thing keeping him silent? He does seem frustrated that he cannot communicate and he seems to be used to speaking. (hide spoiler)]

also Chapter 2

I would have seriously trashed 'Lord Particular'!! Big time.

The dumbass has the cheek (view spoiler)[ to kick her door open and ransack her cottage! A frying pan straight to his head is what I would have given him!
And when he threw the bread on the floor!!! Insert intelligible cussing that would make a hardened sailor blush like a fair maiden.
You do NOT throw food You Asshat!! Especially when it comes from a person who clearly cannot afford more or doesn't seem to have anything else to eat!
As someone who has once known hunger, and how important even a piece of stale bread is when you have little else, scenes like this get to me. They matter. And even if Lord Particular got the rabbit afterwards,... (hide spoiler)] I would still push his sorry naked arse on a big fat cactus.

Carol - I'm going to go ahead and leave a question here also, for whenever you get to pop in here. :)

How did this series come to be? From where did the idea for it spark?

Laura wrote: "also Chapter 2

I would have seriously trashed 'Lord Particular'!! Big time.

The dumbass has the cheek..."

That made me so mad at him! He's not easy to like right now. Also (view spoiler)[I agree with you that maybe some kind of magic is keeping him from talking (hide spoiler)].

Up to chapter 4. Seri's backstory (view spoiler)[is so heartbreaking. I don't know how she made it through all that with her sanity

Also, unless I missed something, it seems Darzid just left her when she collapsed even though he was supposed to be following her and keeping an eye on her.

Just like Seri, I'm wondering if the mute guy has lost his memory. (hide spoiler)]

Just finished Ch. 3...

Ch. 1... I am enjoying the writing style. It's very readable and has a nice cadence to it, which I find enjoyable:)) (view spoiler)[ The fugitive is obviously more than Seri thinks... He was lucky she didn't want to hurt him... (hide spoiler)]

Ch. 2 ... (view spoiler)[Haha, Laura, I hear you girl! I love when we have a bit more mature MCs! I just started what was obviously the first try of a YA series and the 19 year old MC was dancing on my nerves a bit, although not as bad as I have read before... An adult MC is definitely something I am here for!

Evard, who apparently is the king, Dizrid and Thomas don't sound very likable, at least from her perspective so far. I don't know if she is royalty, but definitely nobility... And I am interested to find out more about the people whose cottage she is living in. She seems very protective of their property... And what happened to them?

Yeah, why can't the fugitive speak? I am sure we shall read and find out:) And yes, hahaha! Lord Particular! That was hilarious from the outside, but I am sure she wasn't enjoying his little tantrums:))) And I agree with you - you never throw away food!!!

Laura, you and I have been reading books together for a very long time, but I don't know if I have told you the story of the only time in my life I stole something and I still don't feel guilty about it?... My dad was out of the country working, my mom had depression, because she had just lost my brother and was not able to work at the time, and still had to take care of her blind elderly mother and us two surviving kids... We were living in Bulgaria, it was the mid 80's, and I was in middle School... I came home and saw my mom sitting on the kitchen floor, the pantry doors open, and she was crying... I thought she was sad for my brother, but when I asked her what was wrong, she said there was nothing for her to cook, and the money my dad sent every month was not to arrive for a week yet... I just wanted her to stop crying. I told her no problem, I had money saved from New Year's Eve, since it was a non-secular country, New Year Eve was our big holiday, when we gave each other presents, and I was going to go shopping with what I had saved:) She quieted a bit and gave me a list of what we needed to make it for a week.... I went to the store and I knew I had very little money, not nearly enough for what we needed... But I put the baggiest coat I could find and had pockets everywhere, so I would go down the aisle and for every item I could afford, I put a couple in some of my pockets... My mom was an ethnic Roma, or Gypsy as most people call them, but my grandma had left the clan before getting married for love, and she had done everything to raise us all with the strictest code of honor, trying to separate us from the stereotype of the Gypsies as thieves, so my heart was racing with not only fear, but guilt and shame for doing this... I thought I was going to faint when at the register, but somehow I got out of there with two bags of bread and cheese legitimately bought, and another couple of bags of things I filled while away from the store from my pockets, so my mom wouldn't find out I stole them... I felt horrible about what I had done, relieved that I wasn't caught, and anxious to see if my mom would think it's enough... When I put the bags of groceries on the kitchen table, the look of relief and gratitude on her face, the pure smile of love she gave me, erased all the guilt and all the worry from my heart and was the moment I stopped complaining about food in any situation and never, ever wasted any (that has not gone bad, of course) again... It's also the moment I understood my dad, who grew up very poor during the war, who never threw away any leftovers, no matter how small...

This scene with him throwing the bread on the floor really riled me up too! Isn't it funny, the different things that can get to us emotionally? I wonder how many of the people who are reading with us would have as visceral a reaction from this one little sentence as we did??? (hide spoiler)]

Ch. 3... (view spoiler)[ Man, Tammie, you are right! Seri's back story, what they did to her child and husband and all their friends, just heartbreaking! However, I wonder, could they have kept her baby alive for themselves, and maybe killed another person's child and presented him to her with his throat slashed? The child had been cleaned up and even she wandered at that for a second, but she was too overwhelmed by grief to think more on it... But to what end?

Also, why was her husband and family targeted this way? Only because he was a sorcerer? They want to remove all sorcerers' blood from their world? Why?

Oohh, the old people who saved her, they must be the ones whose cottage she is living in! (hide spoiler)]

Hi all! So awesome to see such a nice group!

Laura wrote: "Chapter 1

I have an on the spot aversion towards captain Darzid from the very beginning. And I am very intrigued about the fug..."

I love, love hearing reactions to these early bits. Because openings are always where I obsess. I want to drop hints, intrigue, lay down clues that became important later. Entice the reader to turn the page. Oh, Darzid....

Laura wrote: "Chapter 2

I would have gone back too. [spoilers removed]

Seri is 35 years old. I love it when we have an FMC who's not a teenager anymore. Lately I've found my patience for teenage drama has dwin..."

Yes, I purposely made Seri in her thirties. I, too, was tired of all the teens and twenty-somethings having all the adventures.

Laura wrote: "also Chapter 2

I would have seriously trashed 'Lord Particular'!! Big time.

The dumbass has the cheek to kick her door open and ransack her cottage! A frying pan straight to his head is what I w..."

Alas, no cacti or yucca in this part of the Four Realms. But a good notion. She was definitely ready to explode.

Laura wrote: "Carol - I'm going to go ahead and leave a question here also, for whenever you get to pop in here. :)

I have popped!

How did this series come to be? From where did the idea for it spark?"

I really like writing about people who are out of their element. Think Seyonne - Aleksander (in the cold) - Aidan (just out of prison), Valen (in the mud), Lucian (in a graveyard), Romy (exiled)... Sheesh it really is a thing with me!) As I mentioned, I wanted someone more mature to have an adventure...and I wanted it to be a woman who was smart, articulate, well-educated, not a pushover. I thought that in the formless world I started with, an educated woman was more likely to be an aristocrat...but I didn't want her to have that advantage going into this adventure. And I decided I did not want her to have magic, but to become involved in a magical adventure. I wanted her "power" to be something else.

So as with all my stories, I started asking myself questions. So who had the magic? Why is she hanging out on a hardscrabble farm? Why alone? Exile made sense. So Jonah and Ann...rescuing her from...what? And so came the story of who and why she ended up where she was. And then I asked what would break her out of the wretched life left to her?

Tammie wrote: "Up to chapter 4. Seri's backstory is so heartbreaking. I don't know how she made it through all that with her sanity

Also, unless I missed something, it seems Darzid just left her when she collaps..."

The careening haywagon blocked his passage. That was his whip and cursing she heard behind her. So he lost her!

Carol, thank you for writing about all of these people out of their element! As one who almost always feels out of her element, but figuring out ways to survive anyway, I say the core of making it is relationships! As long as people are willing to open their hearts to you and you are willing to meet them halfway, you can always make it... I see Old Jonah and Anne are that for Seri, and in turn she does the same for Aeren... :)))

I will see you again tomorrow, friends!

Also, I forgot to thank you for reading with us:))) We truly appreciate you taking your time and sharing with us your thoughts!

Choko wrote: "Also, I forgot to thank you for reading with us:))) We truly appreciate you taking your time and sharing with us your thoughts!"

[smile]

Choko wrote: "Carol, thank you for writing about all of these people out of their element! As one who almost always feels out of her element, but figuring out ways to survive anyway, I say the core of making it ..."

And, indeed, that does seem to happen in my stories. Some of the relationships Very unexpected.

Carol wrote: "Tammie wrote: "Up to chapter 4. Seri's backstory is so heartbreaking. I don't know how she made it through all that with her sanity

Also, unless I missed something, it seems Darzid just left her w..."

I knew I must have missed something! Sometimes I get distracted and have to backtrack, but clearly I didn't that time.

Choko, I am wondering the same thing about (view spoiler)[her baby. Maybe he isn't really dead. Also, I feel the same about wasting food, even though I didn't have those types of personal experiences growing up. I was horrified that he did that to the bread, especially because it was obvious she didn't have much, but she was willing to share it with him (hide spoiler)].

Carol wrote: "Hi all! So awesome to see such a nice group!"

Carol, thank you for popping in here! I can't wait to read more of this book.

Oh how exciting! I bought the series on Kindle as a Christmas present to myself, to complement my rather battered paperbacks. Looking forward to a reread!

Welcome, Jennifer! Join us:)))

I listened through Chapter 6 today and really enjoyed reading all y'all's spoiler tags! This is the umpteenth reread for me, so it's really cool seeing all y'all's guesses and I am biting my fingers to keep from saying anything spoilery. And OMG Carol Berg herself came and answered questions and commented!!! I am totally fangirling over here!

I also love that Seri is 35 y/o--the first time I read this book, I was closer to Seri's age in the flashbacks, and I was such an ageist as a teenager--I had trouble connecting to characters too much older than I was (I quit reading Outlander after the time-jump, for example), but I loved Seri's story... but I also remember thinking (view spoiler)[that Karon was so old!! I mean, he was like, in his late twenties! OMG! How could she like him? He was like, a decade or more older than her!! Now I'm like, nah, that's cool... though I do wonder what a 20-something sees in a 16 y/o now... but now I also I look back on both of them and think... they were just kids still! (hide spoiler)]

Tammie wrote: "Up to chapter 4. Seri's backstory is so heartbreaking. I don't know how she made it through all that with her sanity

.."

I was also wondering about the memory loss and what happened to (view spoiler)[ Darzid and Seri's brother. Why didn't they try harder to find her and get her back? Maybe they were happy they lost her and didn't even bother to search properly for her?

As for that backstory, YES! Absolutely heartbreaking for me too. (hide spoiler)]

Choko wrote: "Just finished Ch. 3...

Ch. 1... I am enjoying the writing style. It's very readable and has a nice cadence to it, which I find enjoyable:)) [spoilers removed]

Ch. 2 ... Haha, Laura, I hear you gi..."

My heart goes out to you Choko!! I have been through hard times like that too, so I think I can openly say I understand. It took courage to do what you did and I wish I could give you a big strong hug right now!!!

And yes. I too wonder how many readers out there had such a visceral reaction to that particular gesture. Probably more than we suspect if you ask me.

Carol wrote: "Laura wrote: "Chapter 1

I have an on the spot aversion towards captain Darzid from the very beginning. And I am very intrigued about the fug..."

I love, love hearing reactions to these early bit..."

I don't think I have read any book of yours that didn't make me react from the very beginning. Either at characters or their actions, their gestures or backstories. And this one is is such a great mystery that I am itching to set together. Already trying to gather pieces along the way.

Carol wrote: "Laura wrote: "Chapter 1

I have an on the spot aversion towards captain Darzid from the very beginning. And I am very intrigued about the fug..."

I love, love hearing reactions to these early bit..."

I don't think I have read any book of yours that didn't make me react from the very beginning. Either at characters or their actions, their gestures or backstories. And this one is is such a great mystery that I am itching to set together. Already trying to gather pieces along the way.

I read up to chapter 7, and had a hard time putting it down, especially since I'm getting more of Seri's backstory. I'm loving it, but also dreading what we all know is going to happen.

Carol wrote: "Alas, no cacti or yucca in this part of the Four Realms. But a good notion. She was definitely ready to explode.

Haha! I'll just imagine pushing him on that cactus then. :D

Carol - I absolutely LOVE the fact that you are writing about people who are out of their element. For me that is one of the best parts of your tales. One of the best part of any tale really since the best things have a tendency to happen in the worst circumstances if you ask me. We grow when we are pushed and sometimes we do things we would have never even considered doing because we are out of our element and don't know what else there is to do.