Monday, July 20, 2015

The Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima

The Warrior Heir - book one

Trinity, Ohio

Jack Swift has taken medication every morning of his life since he was an infant after he had life saving heart surgery. The day of soccer tryouts, he forgets to take it even after his mother, Becka, reminded him when his friend Will Childers picks him up for school. Not able to go home and take it nor does his mother answer her phone to bring it to him, he does without. The new girl at school, Ellen Stephenson, asks him if he wants to study after school but he unfortunately declines because of tryouts. He knows she won't ask again so the next move will have to come from him. At tryouts, his ex-girlfriend, Leesha, drapes herself all over him. Ellen as well as Leesha's new boyfriend, Garrett Lobeck, are watching. Ellen leaves and Lobeck takes out his aggression on Jack on the field. Jack steels himself for another cheap shot when the unexplainable happens. He raises his arms and a strange tingle takes over. Lobeck is thrown back into the goal and is momentarily dazed. He calls foul but Jack swears that he didn't touch him. Will backs him up and Coach Slansky calls it for the day.

On the way home, Jack notices a strange man with a long coat behind him. Jack shows Will the man and Will calls out to Nick Snowboard. When he steps out, Jack recognizes him as Nick but something about him is off. Everyone he sees on his way tells him to hurry home and take his medicine. Jack sometimes hates living in a small town. It seems everyone knows everyone else's business. Once there, he sees his mother crying at the kitchen table. She was worried by his message and had the neighbors out looking for him. Jack mentions Nick but she says that she hadn't talked to him. His mother tells him that his aunt Linda is coming for a visit and hands him his medicine. Jack takes it and has a strange feeling of loss. Back at the school, two strange men dressed in long coats enter Coach Slansky's office. He doesn't know them. They ask about a boy but he tells them he had around thirty boys for tryouts. The coach becomes suspicious but soon fear sets in. The older of the two ask if there was a release of power, maybe a fight. No fights, just some competitive plays and says that if he knew more information, he could help them better. The two take the coach's list of players and ask him to circle his top five. They will start there. The man touches him from his shoulder to his head and whispers something that he might have remembered hearing in Catholic school. The coach wakes up sometime later, not recalling what has happened.

After dinner, Jack crosses the driveway and heads up to the garage apartment where Nick lives. Linda found Nick as Jack’s caretaker for Becka. They share dessert and Nick starts in on Jack about taking his medicine. Nick then asks about tryouts. Jack tells him about Garrett flying through the air and how he never touched him. Nick asks how Garrett is and whether or not he might make a big deal of the situation. Nick hands him a metal charm that he claims to protect against evil. Just something to humor an old man. He also wants to know who saw what happened. Jack then comments on how his medicine makes him feel. He felt great during the day but now he feels a bit suffocated. Nick wants to know if he has discussed how he feels with his mother. She doesn't listen and thinks that Dr. Longbranch "is some kind of wizard." Nick chokes and spits out his tea. Nick suggests that maybe he needs to talk with his Aunt Linda about cutting back on his medicine. Jack tells Nick that she will be arriving tomorrow.

The next morning, Jack finds his mother and aunt in the kitchen talking. They stop when he walks in. His mother lets him know her good news. They will be spending the summer in England and she will be teaching at Oxford. Linda has come to do some genealogical research at a neighboring courthouse. Jack can invite his friends, Will and Harmon Fitch, to go with them. He finally agrees and she is ready leave right then. His mother reminds the two of school and Linda says they will head down afterwards. At school, Garrett and two of his friends confront Jack and Will. Jack cannot help but notice the man standing with Mr. Penworthy, the principal. He keeps looking at Jack. Garrett threatens Jack and somehow Jack stands up to him. The principal sees the exchange and Garrett's action. The two men come over and Garrett is assigned detention. Mr. Penworthy introduces the man as Mr. Hastings, the new assistant principal. He will be in charge of discipline. Mr Hastings states that he will also be developing programs for the "more gifted students." Penworthy is thrown and Jack gets some strong vibes of danger. Hastings asks the boys if any of them are on the soccer team. He plans on helping to coach the team as well. The bell rings and the boys head off to homeroom. Will and Fitch both get permission to go with Jack and Linda.

At home, Linda gives him a package from Mercedes. Inside is a grey vest. Jack doesn't want to wear it but Linda insists. He can wear it under a sweatshirt. He does. Linda drives at a high rate of speed to the courthouse. It's Friday night but Linda insists that the courthouse will be open. Walking down an alleyway, she checks to see if anyone is watching before descending down a staircase. The door at the bottom is open. Linda has the boys look for the death record of Jack's great, great grandmother. They find it and see that Susannah Downey died at a young age of an accident. Linda is disappointed that her grave site isn't mentioned. They start looking to see if she was buried on their farm when Jack hears a noise. Linda turns off the lights and tells them to run. She will meet them at the cafe in thirty minutes. As they attempt to leave, they see a strange man. Something fires and hits Jack in the back, knocking him down. Fitch and Will pick him up and they hide in some shrubs by the building. Fitch wants to know where the guy got his light saber and Jack looks at him questioningly. They tell him a light hit him in the back and that he should be hurt. Fitch sees that there is a hole in his sweatshirt and it falls apart when Jack takes it off. Remarkably, Jack is uninjured and the vest underneath is intact.

The boys go to the Bluebird Cafe to wait and see if Linda will show up. She does but is clearly rattled. She apologizes for bringing Will and Fitch along. Linda is looking for a family "heirloom" and the man will follow her to find it. She wants to take the boys back to the hotel and keep them out of danger. She will need Jack's help to recover the item. They need to lose the guy, it won't be good if he sees them together. Fitch and Will offer to help. If Linda is alone, the man will follow her. Jack doesn't like it. She tells him that he will be in danger too if he is seen with her. Jack wants to know how important it is that she wins. "Winning is everything" Linda says. Jack wonders how much this dangerous quest has to do with him. The group hatches their plan.

Why does Jack have to take his medicine daily? What really happened between he and Garrett during tryouts? Who were the men who visited Coach Slansky and who are they looking for? Why was everyone in town telling Jack to go home and take his medicine? Who is Mr. Hastings and why is he at the high school? Why is Linda looking for Susanah Downey's grave? Who is the man who found them at the courthouse? How did Jack survive the attack? What secrets are being kept from Jack?

The Warrior Heir - book two

Sixteen-year-old Seph McCauley doesn't really know what he is. Orphaned, he doesn't have anyone to help him with his powers. His foster mother knew, but she mostly kept him in the dark. After her death three years ago, he found out he had a sizable trust fund and a legal guardian. Seph's guardian won't tell him anything about his birth family. When he meets Alicia at a club, Seph thinks he has finally found someone who can help him. Unfortunately, she slips him something. Seph is unable to control his powers and tragedy strikes. In order for the charges to be dropped, Seph must leave Toronto. His lawyer has found a boarding school on Maine for him to attend. He just wants to find Alicia and get some answers.

The Havens is located in the middle of nowhere in Maine. When he meets the headmaster, Gregory Leicester, he thinks he has finally found a kindred spirit. As time goes on, Seph realizes that he just might be in over his head when it comes to his lack of knowledge, especially when Dr. Leicester makes demands that Seph won’t meet.

Even though new characters are introduced, the story comes full circle and heads back to some familiar faces back in Trinity.

The Dragon Heir - book three

Without giving too much away, the story comes with a familiar character and the introduction of a new one.

Dead To Me - short story bridging the first three books to the last two in this series. It can be found at http://www.cindachima.com/Enchanter_Heir/Dead%20To%20Me.pdf

The Enchanter Heir - book four

They called it the Thorn Hill Massacre—the brutal attack on a once-thriving Weir community. Though Jonah Kinlock lived through it, he did not emerge unscathed: like the other survivors, Jonah possesses unique magical gifts that set him apart from members of the mainline guilds. At seventeen, Jonah has become the deadliest assassin in Nightshade, a global network that hunts the undead. He is being groomed to succeed Gabriel Mandrake, the sorcerer, philanthropist, and ruthless music promoter who established the Thorn Hill Foundation, the public face of Nightshade. More and more, Jonah’s at odds with Gabriel’s tactics and choice of targets. Desperate to help his dying brother Kenzie, Jonah opens doors that Gabriel prefers to keep closed.

Emma Claire Greenwood grew up worlds away, raised by a grandfather who taught her music rather than magic. An unschooled wild child, she runs the streets until the night she finds her grandfather dying, gripping a note warning Emma that she might be in danger. The clue he leaves behind leads Emma into Jonah’s life—and a shared legacy of secrets and lingering questions.

Was Thorn Hill really a peaceful commune? Or was it, as the Wizard Guild claims, a hotbed of underguild terrorists? The Wizards’ suspicions grow when members of the mainline guilds start turning up dead. They blame Madison Moss and the Interguild Council, threatening the fragile peace brokered at Trinity.

Racing against time, Jonah and Emma work to uncover the truth about Thorn Hill, amid growing suspicion that whoever planned the Thorn Hill Massacre might strike again. - taken from Goodreads.com

A couple of years have passed since the events in The Dragon Heir. New characters are introduced but old favorites appear and the story is continued.

The Sorcerer Heir - book five

The delicate peace between Wizards and the underguilds (Warriors, Seers, Enchanters, and Sorcerers) still holds by the thinnest of threads, but powerful forces inside and outside the guilds threaten to sever it completely.

Old friends and foes return as new threats arise in this stunning and revelatory conclusion to the beloved and bestselling Heir Chronicles series. - taken from Goodreads.com

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