Prelude to the Shards

Prelude to the Shards contains three distinct stories within the same fantastical world. One, a story of a man trying to clear his name over the death of the woman he loved, ending in a bittersweet cliffhanger. The second is about a group of people who organize a treacherous race every year to find the best of the best to send to protect the Coven who rule over them. Amazing world building as you get to explore more of the dangerous flora and fauna and get to know 2 mainstays of the Hailatian people and a returning familiar face who holds all the dirty secrets of their people. The third is about a gang of thieves living in a lawless town, one of which is a young essence mage, who along with the leader of the gang take on a daunting theft and all the aftermath.

As the stories progress, you can see how they are uniquely connected by the magic that runs through their world, witch aspect magic and the banned blood and essence magic. Its greatest strength is the intricacy of the magic, the intrigue of the still unknown Covenhome and witches, the witch hunters or shen, and the way it’s all tied together in genuinely likable characters.

It’s saying something when my biggest problem with a story is minor editing/proofreading mistakes. There were occasional instances of missing punctuation and prepositions, an extra word here or there and the rare incorrect verb tense. There was one scene in the first story that was gratuitously graphic as well that I didn’t think needed to be what it was but I suppose it did lend weight to a particular character that wouldn’t have been there without it. Overall a fantastic read and I can’t say this sincerely enough - I can’t wait for more.

This book contained three distinct stories that all take place in the same world of magic. What stood out to me about this book was the amazing plot development and the vivid descriptions on the world the live in. The author spent a lot of time building this world with amazing character development. the magic that impacts the three main characters is so interesting and different from other plots about magic that you really fall in love with the idea. Worth the read!!

There are three stories in this book and all of them are good. A touch of magic and lots of danger...

BooksGoSocial and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

He's waiting for his girlfriend to join him for dinner. She doesn't show, so he goes to find her. She's dead and her killer tries to frame him. He runs, intending to find the witch who can see the truth and pardon him. The killer pursues him. But the killer makes a mistake and asks a Blood Mage for help.

The next story is about a race where the winners become the next Witchguards. The problem is that the losers die. And not from natural causes...

Whisp lives in Ghost. It's her town. She tries to hide her magic but she's willing to use it to save those she loves. Now the Shen are after her...

Fascinating stories with enough magic to keep your attention. What more could you want?

Prelude to the Shards contains three stores that are all set in the same world and introduce us to the different aspects/groups/races of Ismia. Three different locations, three different groups, three different problems - all in a world governed by the Coven, a group of witches that control the use of magic in Ismia. Magic is banned, except for that of the Coven. Through these three stories, Timmins shows us an intriguing world of forbidden magic and compelling characters. The three stories together give us the back story of Quint, Lyrra, Sojin, and Whisp - all of whom will then hopefully feature in Timmins new Shards of the Coven series.

Looking for a new fantasy world? These stories will draw you in and make you look forward to Star Fall and the future of our new heroes.

Once again Mr. Timmons has delivered a fantastic read! And set in a rich new world with witches instead of Lycans. The world building in this prequel was visionary delight! I really enjoyed these three introductions to upcoming MCs and how Mike successfully managed to weave all three tales into one tapestry even though they were completely different backstories.
I really prefer books that do not have lots of POV changes and fewer MCs because it is normally quite tedious to keep with everything and everyone. This book does have tons of MCs (like hi Lycan War Saga) but so far I did not have trouble navigating through the tides of MCs and places.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes modern writing with daring plots that do not conform to the normal standards in fiction. Also anyone who has not read anything by Mike because he is doing some great thing over there in his writing lab. I have yet to read anything but perfection in each of his offerings.

While I feel like I've read a lot of fantasy fiction over the last couple of years, I haven't come across many involving witches! Weird, right? Thank you so much to BooksGoSocial Publishing Group for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The world building is always something I long for in fantasy fiction; I just love seeing what the author has in store for the reader and building a world in my head makes me feel like I'm actually getting to know the author, in a sense: the inner workings of their imagination! This one didn't disappoint. I thought the world building was set up in a wonderful, steady pace, and really helped me to engross myself in the world. It really gave way to the structure of the magic system as it got systematically complex and dramatic.

A fast-paced, enjoyable book! It includes several stories, all pretty easy to go through and pave the groundwork for the next installment. Hopefully some cliffhangers will be addressed! All the stories are connected in subtle ways, and the magic system is new, complex and well built.

What I liked about this book is that good and evil doesn't depend on what type of creature you are, but what type of personality the characters are and their choices.

From all the stories, Intellect was my favourite. The villain is creepy and it's action packed. It definitely takes off very quickly, and I just loved Quint's and Wren's interactions.

I'm curious to see where this goes next!

This is 3 Fantasy stories, introducing 5 characters for the future series.

Each story was enjoyable with good character / world, building.

You were certainly left wanting to no more about the characters and how there lives would combine.

Which I suppose was the whole idea of the book.