Review: Ancient Trust by Celia Lake

Ancient Trust (Mysterious Charm #0.5)
by Celia Lake

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Historical Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: no romance in this story

Blurb:
Ancient Trust is a standalone novella extra of 40,000 words.

Geoffrey Carillon has spent much of his life both before and after the Great War travelling the world.

In February of 1922, his older brother’s sudden and unexpected death calls him back to Albion to take up his ancestral obligations to the land magic. Naturally, Carillon relies heavily on his loyal and exceedingly competent valet, Benton.

Carillon discovers that much has changed in his time away, and he desperately needs allies to help him navigate the world as it is now. Benton, for his part, is focused on bringing the estate into better working order, in a number of ways he expected and quite a few he did not.

Ancient Trust alternates between Carillon’s point of view and Benton’s, and takes place in the first half of 1922 (overlapping with Outcrossing and the events of The Fossil Door.)

My Review

I got this one for free by signing up for the author’s newsletter and after reading Outcrossing I decided to read this prequel story first instead of moving on to book 2. Ancient Trust takes place before and during book 1, but I think it works best to read it after book 1 in this series as the events in Outcrossing don’t fully get explained and make more sense if you read that one. I could tell this book was written later as the writing style feels more smoothly than in Outcrossing.

I really enjoyed Ancient Trust. I liked reading more about Lord Carillon and getting a better idea of why he returned to Ytene and what he’s doing there. It gives some background about him that isn’t in Outcrossing. I also liked getting Benton’s point of view, he’s autistic even tough they don’t use that term back then, and I liked reading about him. I thought it worked well to have both their point of views and see what is going on with either of them and how they see the other character. I look forward to seeing their romances in later books, Carillon will get his romance in book 2 and Benton in book 6.

I liked getting to know these characters as well as getting introduced to all these interesting side characters that I want to know more about. This book has a bit of mystery surrounding Carillon’s brother Temple and Temple’s wife who both died, but it might’ve been murder. It does not get resolved here, but the book does end on a good point were it feels like they’ve done all they could for now and future books will pick up the plot line. At least that’s what I assume from the way it ended. And I can’t wait to continue this series.

Ancient Trust really got me fully hooked on this world Celia Lake has created. This book shows the inter-connectedness of her series and characters really well. And I was quickly going to the author’s wiki to look up side characters and see where they get their own story or in which other books they make appearances. And it just feels so fun how all these characters have more appearances in earlier and later books timeline wise and I cna’t wait to read more to experience this even more.

This whole world is so fascinating and I liked how this book delved more into the magics as well as other parts of the world building like the guard and council and the land magic. It was all very interesting.

One of the things I really like about these books so far is that they deal with dakr topics, but the books don’t feel very dark. Carillon and Benton both served in the Great War and have the physical and mental scars from that, their lives will never be the same again and the story touches upon this, but it doesn’t dwell on it very long so the book never feels too dark. But it does feel very real and realistic the way these characters have been shaped by these heavy events.

To summarize: It only took me 2 books to be completely hooked on this author’s world and have bought a whole bunch of her books already. I can’t wait to read more about Albion and these characters. This book serves as a prequel to this series, but I think it’s best read after book 1. I liked reading about Carillon and Benton and getting both their point of views and getting more information about their return to Ytene and what is going on with them. There is a bit of a mystery, but that doesn’t get resolved yet, the story still ends in a satisfying place. The inter-connectedness of this world is really showing in this story and I was looking up all the side character that got mentioned to see where they get their own stories and in which books they make appearances. I like how realistic the characters feel and enjoy reading about them. The world building gets expanded upon and it’s really interesting to read about this world. I like how this book touches upon dark topics like the mantle and physical scars of the Great War, but the book itself doesn’t feel very dark. I really like this and how it reals grounded and real without getting too dark or depressing. All in all I had a great time reading this one and can’t wait to continue the series.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Author Website
– Author Newsletter
If you sign up for the author’s newsletter you get Ancient Trust for free.

You can also read my review on Goodreads.