Author TJ Hapney

Description:

THE BEECHWOOD FLUTE is a coming-of-age story about a young man finding his courage. At seventeen, Kiran wants to become a warrior to avenge his lost father and brother, but his talents lie in playing the flute. Then, when his nerve fails him, he allows his young sister to be stolen by Savages. Guilt and regret lead Kiran on a quest through the forest that leads him through servitude and suffering to discoveries about his broken family, and finally to a decision that pits his conscience against everything he has believed since childhood.

Review 5 of 5 Stars

Okay, this is a win for authors who post on Twitter. I downloaded the sample after a tweet grabbed my attention. I’m so glad I did. I bought the book when I reached the end of the sample.

Pendred Noyce is an amazing storyteller. Amazing! Officially this is a young adult (under Children’s books on Amazon), but I was sucked in by the absolute grace with which Ms. Noyce told the story. For children I would expect them to be at least preteen before they would grasp the entire story. Also there are some dark/painful parts to this story that may not be for the much younger set. All of that aside, what a great story this was and excellent world building. The characters were real people that I followed along with on their adventures and setbacks. I was completely entranced, which is nice since it has got me out of my blogging slump.

The book description hardly does justice to the amount of adventure, tragedy, soul-searching, twists and complex situations Kiran, our 17-year-old hero, manages to get himself and his friends into. He truly experiences some awful things as a slave. His circumstances would be enough to thrust anyone into a bout of depression and some would just give up, but Kiran has a particularly stubborn streak. He is a very likable and clever character despite his shortcomings, which he spends the course of the book overcoming. He also seems to have pretty good taste in friends as they rarely let him down when he needs them most.

All in all this was a great journey and an engaging story. I enjoyed it very much. It took me far away from concerns about world politics and was good enough to have me looking forward to when I could read some more. I hope some of you will also have the opportunity to enjoy it. Happy reading.