This novel is the last installment in a trilogy. A trilogy that actually got no name. The first time I heard of the author was in 2014 when I got asked if I would be interested in reading and reviewing some books the publisher had planned to release the following year. I don´t know anymore if it was the cover that made me pick it or the synopsis on the publisher´s website. Either way, I only know for sure that I had no idea that it was meant to be a trilogy. I don´t know for sure, to be honest, if I would have picked it if I´d known it. But I was curious back then, so why not? Julie Heiland was at that time a completely new author to me. And today, after I´ve read the third and last book of this nameless trilogy I know that the style, the writer has, is not for me.


Sternenwald*
by Julie Heiland
Wald Trilogy #3
Publisher Fischer FJB on May 25, 2016
Genre Children 14+
Pages 383
Format Hardcover
Source Publisher
✶✶

“You need a plan. You need someone who helps you. Only that way you have a chance!” Their escape has failed. Emilian is missing. Everything is full of blood. Robin wants to go back, wants to free him from the force of the Tauren. But as she runs through the forest, suddenly someone jumps on her. A stranger. And he does not want to kill her, he wants to protect her. Robin realizes that she can only break the power of the Tauren and help Emilian and the Leonen with the help of the other star nations. But she is running out of time. Her powers wane visibly …
“Give up, Robin. You will not escape me.” Still Robin can hear Birkaras´ whisper and Emilian´s screams. But even if Robin wants nothing else than to liberate Emilian immediately from the violence of her father, she knows, that she can´t make it on her own and that she needs help. Who will be at her side?
Story
Robin is the daughter of Birkaras, the cruel and reckless leader of the Taurin. A regulars as bloodthirsty and ready to murder whenever they like whatever they like as you can´t even imagine. Her mother was born as a Leonin, a peaceful and very down to nature regulars who only want to live in peace. Now, almost eighteen years later Robin has to fight for her life because her father wants her death – the only way for him to stay alive. But his life comes with a murderous price. And when Robin finally figures out how they are bound together, what she has to do to end it, her way of fighting him off is completely different from what he was told over all those years and in what he believed.

Style
Some parts of this story are told from the first-person perspective by Robin, others from the figural point of view from various other characters. A way of telling a story that can be nice to read, but in this case, it is a bit confusing. 

Julie Heiland´s writing style is dull, her tone dry and her sentences mostly very short. Familiar with the term staccato?; because that is exactly how it reads. There is no question that the author as a very unique fantasy. Robin´s world seems very ancient, like in the middle age and at the same time as if she was living in the world we know today. There are some different tribes; every one of them has its own magic, its own way to live. The tribe of the Leonen, the ones Robin was born into, is very down to earth and very, very poor – and kind of a slave to the tribe of the Taurin.

I mentioned a bit earlier, that the author´s style was not for me, despite the fact that she obviously has a very unique fantasy. I believe that the author had all the perfect things in her head to write a great story – she only didn´t use it. At some point, I thought for Christ´s sake how boring can it get? Why am I reading this? There were some logical mistakes, some scenes that didn´t make sense at all and I literally had to force myself to stay focused. 

Characters
You will find all kinds of figures in this novel. Some of them are good, some of them are boring, some of them are reckless and cruel and some of them are cowards. All of them are described by their actions or the lack of it.

Robin is a young woman that started out as a strong and very independent character. She was strong-willed, knew her way around the forest, how to hunt and had times in which she disputed anything and everything. She included. But she never was insecure or scared. In this last book, she has become a weak and very insecure young person. A person that runs off without thinking or even having a plan the second she has a nightmare about her family. She doesn´t want to tell the love of her life, Emilian, the truth, that she is dying only because she wants him to spend the last time she has as easygoing as possible. An intention that can be everything but good. 


Conclusion
With Sternenwald I read a novel that wasn´t for me. This book would have been enough with only half of its pages. I can´t really recommend it, as sad as it is. And it gets even sadder, when I say, that the best of it is the cover. 



Happy reading






*At the time of the review, the book was only available in the German language.

Julie Heiland
Julie Heiland ©heike ulrich fotowork



Julie Heiland, born 1991, lives nearby Munich. She studied journalism. Parallel she made an acting and rhetoric apprenticeship and played in some TV films. 

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