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    The First Girl Child
    The First Girl Child
    The First Girl Child
    Audiobook14 hours

    The First Girl Child

    Written by Amy Harmon

    Narrated by Rob Shapiro

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From the New York Times bestselling author comes a breathtaking fantasy of a cursed kingdom, warring clans, and unexpected salvation.

    Bayr of Saylok, bastard son of a powerful and jealous chieftain, is haunted by the curse once leveled by his dying mother. Bartered, abandoned, and rarely loved, she plagued the land with her words: From this day forward, there will be no daughters in Saylok.

    Raised among the Keepers at Temple Hill, Bayr is gifted with inhuman strength. But he’s also blessed with an all-too-human heart that beats with one purpose: to protect Alba, the first girl child born in nearly two decades and the salvation for a country at risk.

    Now the fate of Saylok lies with Alba and Bayr, whose bond grows deeper with every whisper of coming chaos. Charged with battling the enemies of their people, both within and without, Bayr is fueled further by the love of a girl who has defied the scourge of Saylok.

    What Bayr and Alba don’t know is that they each threaten the king, a greedy man who built his throne on lies, murder, and betrayal. There is only one way to defend their land from the corruption that has overtaken it. By breaking the curse, they could defeat the king…but they could also destroy themselves.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 20, 2019
    ISBN9781721386987
    The First Girl Child
    Author

    Amy Harmon

    Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times bestselling author. Her books have been published in eighteen languages—truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Utah. Harmon has written fifteen novels, including the USA Today bestsellers The Smallest Part, Making Faces, and Running Barefoot, as well as the #1 Amazon bestselling historical novel From Sand and Ash, which won a Whitney Award for book of the year in 2016. Her novel A Different Blue is a New York Times bestseller. Her USA Today bestselling fantasy The Bird and the Sword was a Goodreads Best Book of 2016 finalist. For updates on upcoming book releases, author posts, and more, go to www.authoramyharmon.com.

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    Reviews for The First Girl Child

    4.5/5

    230 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very intricate story, it was a wonderful satisfying journey. I loved Bear and Alba
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this. This is a book that slowly grows in action and complexity. Stick with it. Had me crying at the end, but a great ending.
    • 5/5
      This book was amazing! I picked it on a whim and am so glad I did!
    • 5/5
      Super writing, I’m still a bit disturbed as to why this genre insists on the sexualization of young women… great story nonetheless, highly recommend
    • 5/5
      Loved it -great characters and landscapes. This story has interesting historical context.
    • 5/5
      This book was so good. I fell in love with so many of the characters. Sad it’s over.
    • 4/5
      One star was taken out for the frustration it caused repeatedly due to Dagmar and Ghost's secrets and soooo afraid to speak even when it reeeeally need to be out with. I felt like slapping their heads together a time or two. Last fight and happy ending after that could have been planned better. Otherwise story is good.
    • 3/5
      I actually read it instead of listening to the audiobook. The story was interesting enough to make me want to finish reading it.

      TLDR of the novel - hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

      If you are a sucker for romance fantasies, as I may be, this may not be for you. There is love all around the novel, but not much focus on the romantic kind.

      The novel sufficiently articulates the interactions of the major characters spanning over a decade, but that may be off-putting for others who may find these writings uneventful. It is beautiful and precious, but aspects of character development of some left me wanting more.

      Still a good light read, but my first Amy Harmon novel(The Bird and the Sword, and perhaps because it was beautifully read as well) set the bar high.
    • 5/5
      Excellent story so well written and told , would be a brilliant film i believe
    • 4/5
      Cute, wish there was more. Could have developed characters a bit more but overall I really liked it.
    • 5/5
      The a acting is fabulous and the characters very compelling.
    • 5/5
      Good book. Enjoying this author writes in such a way that supernatural things seem normal and believable in the context of the story.
    • 5/5
      Another excellent read by Amy Harmon! Had a difficult time putting it down and looked forward to picking it back up. I enjoyed the characters and the unique twists throughout.
    • 3/5
      This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't grasping my attention as I would have liked. The pacing wasn't an issue as it was for some. I have read slower-paced books and sometimes it is a nice change. I feel like it was lacking in areas.  

      I feel as if the reasoning behind the curse which is the antagonist, wasn't believable for the harshness she meant it to give. The explanation was a tell and I believe it would have been more sympathetic for the readers to have seen a bit of what Desdemona went through. She introduced us to Dagmar and Desdemona in the prologue and then chapter 1 is 10 years after only to get a small glimpse of Dagmar before the curse was cast. 

      The blood runes were under-used. Again this awesome introduction to them in the prologue and it was as if they were an afterthought during the book itself. If you pulled them out, it wouldn't be much of a dent. What happened to the cave? Did Dagmar tell the High Keeper? What was the point of it except to show us how powerful blood runes are, but yet readers didn't see this power in the rest of the book.   

      Banruud, who is the villain, was hardly in the story. He is the main reason for this curse and we don't see him enough to justify the curse reasoning. I mean, when we see him, he is vicious and brutal, but I have seen that in books, movies, and tv shows were just a stab with a sword or a throwing ax would be justifiable. 

      Giving Alba away to the North King should have happened earlier. To me, it was a late introduction, and Alba wasn't too much of a convening character when she got older. 

      I think exploring The Daughter's of Saylok further instead of skimmed would have been nice to see.      

      Don't get me wrong, I liked Dagmar, Bayr, Alba, and Ghost. But I didn't love them. In fact, I liked Ghost better than Alba. I know not everything can or should be explained and I like it that way. This book had awesome potential. The story idea was great, and it was a good story. I love fantasy; I love historically based books. It wasn't my cup of tea. But it could be yours
    • 5/5
      WOW. I don't know what I was expecting, but whatever it was I got so much more. When I read the synopsis I was interested but a little hesitant. This is one of those books that could be great or horrible, and it was excellent. The Characters have a wonderful depth to them, and you get so wrapped up in their stories that hours pass before you come up for air in the real world. The pace is a little slow, but it doesn't feel that way, which is very hard to pull off. A great book!
    • 4/5
      There's a curse, there is superhuman power, there is love, there are secrets, there are clans and warriors. What makes this story so enjoyable is that the characters are well developed and the overall story is complex enough to engage. It is only when every last secret is exposed that healing can begin.
    • 4/5
      The First Girl Child by Amy Harmon is a book about vengeance, patience, and what you will sacrifice for those you love. The story takes place in during the Viking Era. The story brings up christianity as something they have been shown but no specific dates are mentioned. The story is about a woman who curses the land as she dies giving birth to her son. She had been spurned by the chieftain of one of the clans and she swore that her revenge would be that no more daughters would be born for men to torment, beat and use from that day on. She said her son would be the one to save Saylock (the country) from this curse. Her brother, a keeper of the temple nearby discovers her and she begs him to take her son and raise him as his own. Not knowing what the Head Keeper would say he agrees. From then on, as she proclaimed, no more daughters were born to the clan. Bayr, her son, is brought up in the temple growing stronger and faster than normal boys. His uncle tells him nothing of his birth but fate has other things in mind. As political intrigue and Bayr's love for the small princess he has been entrusted to protect grows he soon discovers much about his past and what path he must choose to ensure his future as well as those he loves. I loved this story. I'm sure it's a stand alone book but I'm ok with that. If you enjoy stories about vikings or norse mythology you would probably enjoy this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this amazing story.