Insight

A Touch of Power, Book 4

By: Jay Boyce

Narrated by: Samara Naeymi

A city on the verge of collapse. Thousands dead or dying. One girl standing at the crossroads of fate.

Leaving behind bright ballroom lights for a blood-soaked battlefield, Jade is on her way to becoming the hero she never wanted to be. Through the portal, a city on fire beckons, besieged by a flood of monsters. In a race against time to protect what’s left, her only choice is to fight fae above her magic class and shine a light into the darkness.

As the smoke clears, Jade learns that the Dark One’s monsters weren’t the only thing she should be wary of. Something none of them were expecting slipped through the cracks. If dealing with nobles concerned more about pride than sense wasn’t bad enough, she’ll have to figure out how to handle the existences that could wipe a crumbling city from the map if she’s not careful: baby dragons.

Sometimes, the most dangerous problems fly in on tiny wings.

©2022 Jay Boyce (P)2022 Mountaindale Press

Not perfect, but over criticized imo. Want more.

There's a surprising amount of criticism for this book specifically, not all of it constructive. A decent chunk of reviews bring up good points that are a bit negative, but overall I very much enjoyed this installment and really look forward to more!

Drama sells, so I'll get the negative out of the way first. Jade is changing, and that's not going to sit well with everyone. And it clearly doesn't for a lot of listeners. The story diverged quite a bit in this 4th book, and many people (myself included to an extent) were a annoyed, disgruntled, or unsatisfied that the options laid out in the previous books were basically dropped to go on a sidequest. My counterpoint to this would be that that's been the entire cerise so far; Jade is super ADD at times, and the story jumps around anyway. She (almost) always finds a way to circle back around, but the direction of this story is pretty unpredictable. Readers should be used to it by now, it's a major part of the main character's charm.

Jade also shows that her character is changing quickly. She's more firm and sure of herself and her decisions than she ever has been, and has much less patients than she did starting out. To the point where people are wondering what happened to the kind, forgiving nerd she was before, and why she's suddenly been replaced with a bipolar warlord.
I have a counterargument for that too, although I kinda agree with that take. She's been slowly turning into that person since book 1, it just hasn't shown so thoroughly till now. She's retained the optimism she ingrained into her psyche, but she's quickly lost the patience to deal with opposing ideals. She now has the power to confront people she doesn't agree with, and she's using it, for better AND worse. Using your power to enforce your ideals to the extent she's accelerating towards will have consequences, ones more personal but noless devastating than an overcharged crystal.

Those were the main grievances I kept seeing, both are just part of the story. As a bit of a devils' advocate; Jade is so overwhelmed right now. She's trying to help and make good changes, but people literally die because of her. That alone would be a massive psychological strain for a normal person, not counting any of the other insanities she's dealing with. As a comparison; she's like Deku from MHA, but without an idol and role model, or an adequate school to guide her. That situation is bound to cause problems she isn't prepared to deal with. She has lots of help and people to give her advice, yes, but they're all either in awe of her, conditioned to feel protective/compliant toward her, or against her. Brier was the closest thing to a 'neutral amiable' person she'd met so far, and that came with it's own slew of problems... TLDR there; Jade is holding up almost entirely due to her stats and perks, and still better than I probably would in her position. It'll come to a head soon.

I'm still personally loving the series. The world, the ingenuity, the characters, the plot points we may never get back to... It's kept me hooked since the beginning, and I can't wait for the next installment.

outstanding!

Another fine addition to the story. However, once again it leaves you longing for the tale to continue. Alas, I now wait for book 5 with both hope of its arrival and sadness for the wait. Samara Naeymi is fantastic! A wonderful depiction and painting of the characters.

Brilliant

Really enjoy the story and the narrator makes it even better! I am conflicted because I want more books in this series but I also desperately want the Lotus Lake series too!! Please Jay keep up the great work!!

What a rollercoaster

This book had emotions and feelings all over the place. I'm also so happy that Jade had her body wholly fixed. It was so weird to be joyful for something like that, but nonetheless, I am. I'm genuinely looking forward to the next book in the series, even though this was just published a couple of days ago.

Loved it!

This book starts with a bang. plenty of action before some slice of life is added in and more action sprinkled around. a great addition to this series.