The Seventh Crow by Sherry D. Ramsey

The Seventh Crow by Sherry D. Ramsey

Goodreads Synopsis
When you can’t remember most of your life, you’d better be prepared for anything. The day a talking crow meets her on the way home from school, fourteen-year-old Rosinda is plunged into a forgotten world filled with startling revelations: magic ability flows in her veins, she’s most comfortable with a sword in her hand, and the responsibility for finding a missing prince rests solely with her.

While dark forces hover in the background and four forgotten war gods from Earth’s past plot to reclaim long-lost power, Rosinda struggles with waves of slowly-returning memories as she searches for clues about her past and the true identity of her family; a search that takes her back and forth between two worlds. In a race against time to recover her memory, find the prince, and rescue her loved ones, Rosinda has only her friend Jerrell and an unusual trio of animals as companions. And as the gods prepare to bring her world to war, Rosinda is unaware that the shadow of betrayal lurks within one whom she trusts the most…

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this one. I don't know if I can say exactly why or put my finger on it for sure, but I really enjoyed it.

Rosinda was an interesting character. I liked how she started off kind of naive because of her amnesia, but really grew into herself as she started gaining her memories. I liked that she stayed skeptical of her powers and abilities until she had the memories of them. I feel like a lot of the characters were trying to tell her that she was something already but she did not have the memory of it. Because of this she doubted herself, until she started to remember her training and then it was as if a light switch had turned on. The last battle scene was by far my favourite part of the book and I really enjoyed Rosinda understanding that she had to accept her title in order to finish the job.

One of the problems I had with the story was that the characters felt simultaneously older and younger than their actual age. I had to check the description multiple times in the beginning to make sure that Rosinda wasn't actually 11 or 12, but actually 14. She didn't always come across as that age. Then at other times she felt so much older than 14, closer to 20. It was an awkward struggle for me to remember that this girl was only 14 and yet was willing to go above and beyond for those she cared about.

For how integral Prince Sovann was to the story, he made a very quick appearance and then was gone. I was hoping for a bit more from him, especially since Rosinda had such a connection to him. It seemed pretty easy for that to be broken, though.

I liked the idea of magic being separated into categories and a person only being able to learn one type. I thought that was something different from a lot of fantasy novels. It was kind of cliche how Rosinda ended up using magic, but that's okay. It made the story that much better.

I also really liked the supporting cast. I thought Jerrell was cool but I was a little weary at first because he just decided to come along to this magical world and rolled with it pretty well. I felt as if there should have been some freaking out on his part. Traveller was kind of bland and boring to me, but he was still important to the story. I just wish he had given more of his knowledge at some points in the story rather than waiting. 

One of the things I really liked about the story was how Rosinda got her memories back. I enjoyed that as they were trickling in, she would get them in small dosages but would only know things as others were explaining them to her and then she could take over. It made it a nice transition for her knowledge as well as informing the reader without overbearing the reader with information.

Overall: 3.5/5 stars. I enjoyed this one a lot and will probably reread it! Pick up a copy on July 15, 2015!