I have been a HUGE fan of Rachel Hartman since I read Seraphina and fell in love with that world. I have been lucky enough to receive an advance reader copy of Tess of the Road and want to share my thoughts on it as well.
Hartman does a great job of taking us back before she takes us forward. We saw Tess briefly as one of the younger twin sisters of Seraphina. Hartman takes us through Tess' thought process during an incident in her youth where she wrangled in her sister and cousin. It didn't end well for Tess. She was spanked. A lot. All the time.
In the here and now, Tess is shown as a not-so-patient twin sister trying to help get her sister married off so her family can once again have money. We see glimpses from now and throughout the book as to why Tess isn't the one being married since she is the oldest sister, but we don't know the whole story until the very end of the book. While I see how it helped Tess grow as a person, only revealing it in chunks, it was frustrating trying to figure out exactly why she acted like she did.
So I don't give too much away, I'll stop with plot analysis there. We do see some characters from Seraphina pop up, but I'll be honest. It has been so long since I read that duology that I had forgotten who they were and why they popped up when they did. I had to Google them. Which helped. :-)
Seraphina, of course, makes an appearance. Initially, she is characterized as a very flat character, but I realized that that's because we were seeing her through Tess' eyes. Really, the longer you stick with the book, the better it gets.
Overall, if you had not read Seraphina, you would probably not like this book very much. I ordered it for my library, but now I have to go back and buy Seraphina and Shadow Scale so students can read them in order. BUT. If you read Seraphina and enjoyed it, you will also love Tess of the Road. She is one of the most bitter 16 year olds I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. And I feel like I am a better person because I knew her.
Hartman does a great job of taking us back before she takes us forward. We saw Tess briefly as one of the younger twin sisters of Seraphina. Hartman takes us through Tess' thought process during an incident in her youth where she wrangled in her sister and cousin. It didn't end well for Tess. She was spanked. A lot. All the time.
In the here and now, Tess is shown as a not-so-patient twin sister trying to help get her sister married off so her family can once again have money. We see glimpses from now and throughout the book as to why Tess isn't the one being married since she is the oldest sister, but we don't know the whole story until the very end of the book. While I see how it helped Tess grow as a person, only revealing it in chunks, it was frustrating trying to figure out exactly why she acted like she did.
So I don't give too much away, I'll stop with plot analysis there. We do see some characters from Seraphina pop up, but I'll be honest. It has been so long since I read that duology that I had forgotten who they were and why they popped up when they did. I had to Google them. Which helped. :-)
Seraphina, of course, makes an appearance. Initially, she is characterized as a very flat character, but I realized that that's because we were seeing her through Tess' eyes. Really, the longer you stick with the book, the better it gets.
Overall, if you had not read Seraphina, you would probably not like this book very much. I ordered it for my library, but now I have to go back and buy Seraphina and Shadow Scale so students can read them in order. BUT. If you read Seraphina and enjoyed it, you will also love Tess of the Road. She is one of the most bitter 16 year olds I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. And I feel like I am a better person because I knew her.