Wildvine Series by Michelle Levigne
In multiple worlds, universes and dimensions of reality, there are tales of Hub Worlds, where many different realms can meet and intersect. Some travel between worlds through the power of the mind and Talents born into the blood, while others are chosen through vision and prophecy and step between worlds with the power of talismans. None can go to the others’ worlds, except when they meet in a Hub World.
Wildvine County, somewhere in the United States, is that pivotal point where the travelers from multiple worlds and universes meet…
Generation 1: Book 1: Ja’Hanna
Dayree was born to a powerful family in the Taksearhe Clan. She was expected to have strong Talents, yet her gifts never emerged. Mocked by some, ignored by others, she took the opportunities offered to her and explored other gifts, becoming a craftsman and then a teacher. In the process, she found her soulmate, Jayx.
Years later, when their village was threatened by rebels who wanted to control their world, Dayree’s gift awakened, enabling her talented cousin to evacuate the entire village to safety–stepping through the vortex between worlds, to a planet called Earth.
GENRE: Fantasy Word Count: 80, 384
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Rating
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Characters, muddy plot
Overall, I liked the story, the positive points were the character developments, while the rest of the story was a bit of a muddle. It seemed to take forever before I had a smattering of understanding of the geopolitical structure of the world. Even then, I am still confused as to the different relationships between the Council, the Elders, Dayree's parents, etc. That said, I felt that I got to know the characters quite well, they had strong voices and were likable and believable. I think that the book could really do with some significant editing, where the reader re-writes and streamlines the beginning so that the reader gets a base line understanding of the world and how it works. The beginning of the book made me think of Jumper by Stephen Gould, at least the movie version that I saw. There were fast paced bits that had a hard time congealing together. Eventually, I became immersed in the relationships between the characters, I enjoyed Dayree, and tried to ignore the confusing bits about which clan was who and what they were going on about. I would read another book by this author, but I hope she takes my comments and the other 4* rated critique on board. I too am an author, and while I loved my original manuscript when it was published, the critiques of my book were quite similar. My MS lacked pace, had way too much history in the beginning and took forever before anything happened. Happily, after my bruised ego was assuaged, I rewrote the entire MS, producing a tighter faster paced novel, and the editing freed enough space to add more material that. I am giving this book 4/5 stars based on the character development and the fact that I am giving the author the benefit of the doubt concerning the aforementioned flaws. I think with some further hard work, and ruthless editing, the book could be streamlined for clarity and pace. Then I would love to hear more about the origins of this world, and have more description of social structure and magic.
Mrfrodo
December 28, 2016
4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful urban fantasy
Ja’Hanna, the first book of the Wildvine series by Michelle Levigne is a lot of things. It is a well-written pseudo science-urban-fantasy coming-of-age / romance. I realize that’s quite a jumble but it tries to be all those things and couple besides. The story revolves around Dayree, the young pre-teen daughter of the noble Taksearhe Clan. Perceived as lacking the clan’s distinct psionic powers (or Talent) she is an outcast even as a child. The single-viewpoint third-person narrative follows Dayree’s growth and her increasing tribulations as she tries to establish her place and identity in the world Rehdonna. This installment ends when she is in her late twenties. I am an author myself, so I am particularly critical of the works I read. I am a stickler for viewpoint, immersiveness, pacing, and world-building. Author Levigne has a steady hand on wheel of this literary ship and the presentation is confident, competent and smooth with no glaring plot or psychology holes. Being an action writer myself, I found the work to be a bit exposition heavy and slow to get rolling. The first real hook into the over-arching plot isn’t until late in chapter four, and things don’t get really fired up until chapter 13. The action is somewhat passive and people looking for a sword-slashing enemy-trashing gore-fest will be disappointed. There is violence, but the focus is on family cleaving together against adversity and societal pressure. One of my main quibbles with the book IS the adversity. The war-like Tobrizz who are set up as the overall threat are nebulously driven and faceless (at least in this volume). The experienced reader in me relegated them to paper tiger status because the real threat (members of Dayree’s own clan) are so distinct in the way they are played down. One of the things of having written twenty plus books of my own is that outcomes of stories rarely surprise me. By the half-way point I had a fair idea of where Ja’Hanna was headed. It really pleases me when I’m surprised by a twist I didn’t foresee. The ending here is satisfactory with no huge unexpected twists. Most of the important story questions and character arcs and fulfillment are tied up. Enough unanswered questions and issues are left to pull us toward the next volume. I did find the tease (and failure to reveal) Jayra’s (Dayree’s daughter) powers to be slightly annoying. Ratings: (1 – 5) Execution: 4.5 – This is well crafted, clean and consistent. No head hopping or other jarring technique. My biggest quibble with the work is the handling of star-breaks / space-breaks, and the fact that some should have been chapter breaks. The transitions around the breaks could stand for significant beefing up. I found the use of italics for both 1st person internal thoughts and telepathic dialogue to be somewhat jarring. In my own work, I use <> to handle telepathy to distinguish internal speak from thought speech e.g. <Can you hear my thoughts?> Corim asked. Setting/World-building: 3.5-4.5 – The characters are well integrated into the world of Rehdonna and there is ample suggestion of depth. Author Levigne is somewhat stingy with the setting frame-work and details. I laud that there are no blocks of reader feeder or expositive backstory, but feel that more energy could have been spent to bring the reader into the milieu both in terms of lore and sensory enticements. I admit I am a sucker for the psionic talent smorgasbord, so my disappointment is doubled when those powers aren’t explored and extrapolated more. Teleportation and dimension travel have huge nuances and possibilities, and the narrative handles their treatment more as matter-of-fact rather than reverence. Characters: 4.0 – Dayree is a sympathetic protagonist and decent service is done to her thoughts, feelings, desires and needs. In the opening chapters, she seems a bit melodramatic, but I suspect that may be fairly true portrayal of a teen with actual reasons for angst and drama. Jo’am is likable as the wise clan leader, and Jayx is a suitable romantic interest and partner. Davlan and Ayleen are Dayree’s supportive parents. Tolik serves well as the clumsy and dogmatic clan-side antagonist. My chief observation is that save for Tolik’s foibles, the rest of cast is wart-free. I would have liked to see a rougher edge and little more contention to increase the tension and character revelations in the flatter sections of the novel. I would also have greatly appreciated more physical details. The protagonists could be less generic and more distinct, and the use of tags would have helped. Overall: 4.0 – To anybody who has never written a novel, just putting the wraps on a coherent enjoyable narrative is a huge accomplishment. This is another well done piece among Michelle Levigne’s myriad contributions. If you are already a fan, then you have something to look forward to. This is an intricate world with a lot to offer. --Will Greenway (20160607) Author of the Ring Realms Cycle http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007OWPNMC [...]
Will Greenway
June 8, 2016
Generation 2: Book 1: Istorica
Khyber is Istorica for the exiles, the one entrusted with remembering all their history, everything they’ve learned. Despite the support of her grandmother, Dayree, Khyber feels she’s let down her family by not being able to step between worlds and take the exiles home. She has many gifts, but her talent for telling stories becomes the most important, when it offers the exiles a chance to reach out and find other exiles from Rehdonna. However, enemies have followed the exiles to Earth, and the only way to protect her family and village is to live separated from them under a false name. For the sake of the exiles, Khyber will do whatever it takes…and in the process find her way home. 
Word Count: 80, 601
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Generation 2: Book 2: Felin-Ru
Daniel is a mystery, found injured, lost, and unconscious on a mountainside after a freak storm. His miracle recovery and then his brilliant mind make medical history. After witnessing the murders of her parents, Wren loses her memory. The trauma in their childhoods unlocks Talents that will take years for them to explore and understand.
Grown, Daniel escapes his university existence and sets out to explore and search for answers to the mysteries in his life. Taking refuge with a school friend’s family, he meets Wren, and the two discover an instant bond of mind and soul and heart. Guarded by the mysterious, interdimensional shadow creatures Daniel knows only as the felin-ru, they dare to try to make a life together.
Word Count: 88, 410
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Generation 2: Book 3: Old Solar’s Shoppe
Jori goes to Willowood College because of a promise her father made years ago when he was a student there. She only has to put in one year and then she can go to whatever college she prefers. When she walks into Old Solar’s Shoppe her first day in town, prophecies spoken in another world awaken and claim her.
Lew has already lost one apprentice, and he isn’t happy when the dreamstone marks Jori as his new apprentice, but he knows better than to disobey the will of Waetru. Lew and Jori become friends and he teaches her about the world called Unipuri. She believes Lew’s stories are just a wonderful, complicated game.
Then an ancient evil attempts to reach across multiple universes and force protective barriers wide open. Jori’s game becomes more real than anything she has ever known, changing her life forever…if she and Lew survive their first test as master and apprentice.
Word Count: 107, 864
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Rating
4.0 out of 5 stars that is to say a disc world rather than your common-or-garden sphere like Earth. It is also the site of a ...
Marjorie Lawrence [Jori to her friends and Cynthia] rather resents having to spend her first year at Willowood College but as her father had insisted she is prepared to go along with his wishes. What she does not realise is that within days of her arrival she would be offered a part-time job in Old Solar’s Shoppe, a rambling emporium that sells antiques, collectibles, old clothes and other bric-a-brac, and that she would become apprenticed to the proprietor, the eccentric Lewis Solar. Amongst many oddities in the Shoppe is a large closet on the other side of which is a door that opens into Unipuri, a world of magicians, shape-shifters and curious artefacts known as dreamstones. It has the interesting property of being flat, that is to say a disc world rather than your common-or-garden sphere like Earth. It is also the site of a centuries-old war, a conflict that forms the background to the tale. Flat worlds hurtling through space like cosmic Frisbees, sorcerers, shape-shifters and magical stones I can handle with aplomb. My mind has drifted through such places since I was in play-school, which is a very long time ago now. What gave me pause was that much of the action in the novel takes place within the context of the American educational system, which is to me a place far more bizarre than any fantasy world. Even more problematic for a sixty-eight year old male, the tale is told from the viewpoint of an eighteen-year-old woman. For a few moments there I wondered if I could get past page two. Despite initial misgivings, I read on and soon found myself quite comfortable in the weird world of Willowood College, and the completely comprehensible one of Unipuri. Teenage girls are teenage girls wherever they are, and I have known quite a few of them in my time so I was soon back in the swing of that. I was a third of the way through the book before I realised it, so infectious did the tale become. Levigne sets a good pace, and her storytelling is clear and unforced. Dialogue, one of the more difficult aspects of narrative, is fluent and natural. She has obviously put a lot of thought into the construction of Unipuri [this is the fourth book in the series], its history, geography and culture, and presents the reader with a believable alternative universe that is internally consistent. The ending is satisfactory, although with every expectation that there is more to come – which there is, of course. Volume Five – “Apprentice Solar” – should be available soon. I shall definitely be looking forward to it. Four stars, without a doubt. Stephen Symons.
Amazon Customer
July 11, 2016
Generation 2: Book 4: Apprentice Solar
A secret life is just as much a burden as a secret identity…
Jori’s still recovering from her injuries earned on her first adventure in Unipuri when her college life turns upside down. While losing her pain-in-the-neck roommate is good news, she also loses the good one. Two friends in her dormitory rescue her from the dilemma of taking new roommates, and share their dorm room with her. Nothing in the world can compel Jori to mess up her new dorm situation.
However, she’s now living in two worlds, and, as a result, some complications just can’t be avoided. Jori enjoys learning to be a Solar, charged with protecting the doorway between worlds. The time differential between the Midworld and Earth is a big help in getting her homework done. She can’t always hide her dual lives, when she puts her life on the line in the centuries-long war raging in Unipuri. Especially when she realizes her new roommates have secrets of their own. Even her dreams aren’t private anymore.
Enemies of the Solars target Jori and manage to follow her from Unipuri to Earth with their magic, threatening her life and the ones she loves most. She was warned and trained, but at the end of the day, she’s still just a college freshman.
Word Count: 86, 347
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Generation 2: Book 5: Taksearhe
Bree has lived with the burden of knowing she’s born to be a Taksearhe, the highest level of strength among all the Talents, with the ability to travel between worlds. Yet childhood trauma has blocked her gifts. She knows she travels to other worlds in her dreams yet can’t remember where she went or how when she wakes up. The exiles from Rehdonna are depending on her, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to learn what’s going on in her brain and dreams to awaken her gifts.
When she joins a dream and sleep study program at Lyndvale University, she’s relieved when Dr. Harland, the man her mother is dating, takes her under his wing to protect and guide her. With the help of her roommates and then contacts in other worlds, she learns to awaken and control her gift, but not before she attracts the attention of evil forces that want to use her to open the doorway to Earth.
Bree’s wishes come true, but the cost if she takes just one wrong step could deprive her of friends, her heritage, and the soulmate who’s reached out to her from another world.
Word Count: 97, 382
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Generation 2: Book 6: Last Contact
Alex Harris has always known she was adopted but never really thought about the story behind Colonel Harris and his wife adopting her…until her real mother, Herin, made contact and revealed that Alex’s background and talents were just as unusual as her two college roommates, Bree Kirstan and Jori Lawrence.
Alex was born in another universe, daughter and heir to the captain of a Leap ship. Her genetics have the special “tweak” that allow her to link her mind with a ship and slide through the fabric of space, going from one universe to another. Herin was injured in the attack that resulted in their ship being stranded in orbit behind the moon, and she can no longer take her ship and crew home.
An Air Force investigator who’s been harassing the Colonel for years has actually been after Alex all along. Time is running out, and the enemy is getting closer to the truth and closer to capturing the “alien invaders” they’ve sought for years. What will Alex need to sacrifice, to help her birth-mother and protect her father’s career?
Word Count: 87, 023
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Generation 3: Book 1: Heirs
Heirs Apparent: The people of Rehdonna are no safer on Earth than they were on their homeworld. The Future of Man is determined to get their hands on the children of Bree Kirstan-Reed and Daniel Harland and use them in their quest to rule the world of the future. When an attempted kidnapping goes horribly wrong, Bree and Aravin, and Daniel and Wren trust their children to Jori Lawrence, sending them through the doorway of Old Solar’s Shoppe. Unfortunately, even in the Midworld, guarded by magic, there are other enemies waiting to attack…and other children in danger.
Filar: Having graduated from college early, Johnny Harland isn’t quite ready to settle into his duties as heir of the Felin-ru Clan. When his grandmother suggests a journey as a time of transition into adulthood, to “prove” himself, Johnny eagerly accepts the idea and sets off on a cross-country journey. His quest for personal understanding leads to finding a homeless boy named Clayton D’Arnot, who is Johnny’s “filar” or spirit-brother. Clayton has seen more and proven himself stronger than Johnny can even imagine. As he earns his filar’s friendship and trust, the two forge a bond of partnership that will help them lead the exiles into the future, and resolve the war for the safety of Rehdonna.
ISBN: 978-1-925574-80-7 ASIN: B08BZXSJDH Word Count: 93, 990
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