M. Suzanne Terry

In the wee hours of this morning, I finished Portals of Water and Wine, the first in what promises to be a terrific trilogy by R. L. Haas.

My first reaction to finishing was to implore Rachel to “Write, Faster.” Because I’m gonna need the next one as soon as possible.

There are many reasons why I think you should buy, read, and fall in love with this book, but I’ll stick to my top three.

3. The Twists

Without giving away any of the plot, suffice it to say that when one is writing a story where ____ happens or someone does ____, it is tempting to get to resolution as soon as possible. We like good things to happen to good people and bad things to happen to bad people, and we want it to be straightforward and easy. But that’s not real, and that’s not good storytelling.

That’s not a problem in this book.

There are twists and turns, and they happen as jarringly in this story as they do in life. I kept glancing down at the percentage bar on the bottom of my Kindle. 85%. 90%. 95%. I kept thinking, “Whew.  That’s it. The book’s almost finished. It’s done. We can all relax.” Nope. The twists kept coming just as strongly at the end as they did in the beginning. The end is an excellent setup for the next installment.

2. The Imagery

This beautiful fantasy world that Rachel has created is so easy to picture. Her descriptions are gorgeous. I was right there with the main character, going breathless at the sights before us.

Better yet, she somehow avoided what many authors seem to think is a necessary dullness in describing the characters’ appearances like they’re walking down a runway, so everyone has to stop what they’re doing and watch politely before the story can go on. She describes them by weaving the descriptions into the story in a way that it not only gave us a description of what they looked like but of who they are and, in some cases, even helped move the plot along.

Which leads me to my number one reason…

1. The Characters

Getting to know the characters in this book – and growing to love them – was a gradual process. That is exactly as it should be. Too often, first chapters read like the characters’ social media profiles, telling us what the author wants us to think of them. As a reader, though, I don’t want to be told by a third party what to think or how to relate to a character. I want to observe the character and draw my own conclusions.

Rachel trusts her characters to reveal themselves. And they do.  And I love them.

This will mean very little to anyone who doesn’t know me from fandom days or who has never been an active part of a fandom themselves, but I have to say it – these characters are so alive that I want to write fanfiction about them.

For a point of reference, when I say that, it puts them up there with such iconic characters as Superman and Lex Luthor. Pippin and Merry. I’ve only read the first of this trilogy, and I already have an OTP (and no – I’m not going to tell you who it is…it’s too soon…maybe after the second book…maybe).

Buy this book. Buy the paperback. Buy the ebook. But buy it.

And Rachel – thank you.  And write faster!