So my basic advice to ya’ll is to just buy whatever fantasy Bethany House decides to publish. I mean, they don’t publish a lot, but the ones they do are great. Karen Hancock, Patrick Carr, R. J. Larson*, Jill Williamson…oh look, a list of my favorite Christian fantasy authors!
Anyhoo, back to the point of this post, which is that Bethany House’s newest fantasy offering is The Ravenwood Saga by Morgan L. Busse.
This is book 1. Isn’t that a great cover? It was amazing. Here’s the synopsis.
Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate.
As she discovers her family’s dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy–a legacy that supports her people–or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift.
Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.
One path holds glory and power, and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood. The other path holds shame and execution. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?
I just finished book 2 yesterday which just so happened to be its release date! Great timing huh?)
Flight of the Raven is a great follow-up to book 1. It isn’t quite as strong, but then it’s the 2nd in the trilogy right? Selene’s power is growing, but she’s feeling awfully confused by it. Her dreams are changing and strange things are happening. Selene is chasing knowledge of the Light and running from the specter of the Dark Lady. She’s also trying to figure out her new husband and this whole marriage thing. The exposition around the religious aspects are pretty good, but feel a little forced at times. I’m going to have a really hard time waiting to find out what happens!
*R. J. Larson is really Kacy Barnett-Gramckow, she writes super-cool biblical fiction.
ADDLibrarian 
Hallo, Hallo — travelling through my WP Reader seeking fellow readers of the Ravenwood Saga!
This was a new concept for me to explore tonight – seeing if I could find reviewers and book bloggers who were as hugged inside this series as I have become myself this #WyrdAndWonder (the Fantasy event I co-host every May and October). This was the first entry of mine into the world of INSPY Fantasy and I must confess, I was mightly impressed and smitten by the instincts Busse had to tell this story! Dimensionally it was dramatic and the ways in which I still feel knitted inside this world she’s given us to explore is a credit to how wicked wonderful my overall impression became as I moved through “Mark of the Raven” and “Flight of the Raven”!!
I appreciate your advice about which fellow INSPY Fantasy writers we should seek out if we find Busse is a good fit for us – this was something I was going to talk about when I wrap-up my W&W event posts this coming Monday… I actually discovered the series six months ago when I ran a feature for Fantasy novelists during my #blogmas posts. I never suspected I’d have the chance to read this saga so soon afterwards and I am delighted I had that chance to give me a reading I shall not soon forget.
Hmmm… I can’t say I agree – I found “Flight of the Raven” in equal standing of density of plot, strength of character development and in regards to the socio-political suspense overlays between the two stories – I could not hunger for more disclosures as I felt Busse balanced them well. However, I can understand if you felt this one fell short of what you had hoped to find within the narrative itself – each of us can’t always like all the stories we are reading and that applies to serial fiction as well. I’ve had those reactions too so I do sympathise.
Meanwhile if you want to know my thoughts, kindly swing by – I really dove in deep to discuss what impressed me the most about the two novels.
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