Of Pens & Swords.

☆☆☆☆☆

Of Pens & swords.

rena rocford.

Publisher : Curiosity Quills Press.

Publication Date: March 21,2016

Genre: YA  Contemporary Romance
Format|Pages: Digital|174

 Source: Received digital copy from Netgalley.

Seventeen-year-old Cyra Berque wants two things in life: a date with Rochan and a chance to fence at the Olympics. But people with one hand don’t normally fence, and girls with big thighs don’t get the boy. Knowing that she wants to make the Olympics, Cyra’s coach sets her up with another coach, one who could take her all the way to the top, but the new coach costs more.



Feeling her dreams slipping out of reach, Cyra agrees to tutor a ballerina with a rich father and a D minus in English. It’s triple the pay and triple the pain. The ballerina isn’t interested in passing classes―she wants Rochan, and she’s promised she’ll turn her D minus into a full-fledged F if Cyra doesn’t help her win the heart of Rochan.

*I received digital copy from publisher through Netgalley, in exchange of honest review*

 ☂

My emotions are everywhere right now, at that unexpected turn of events towards the end. I did not see that coming, how could I? But I was hoping that at end it would all turn out, but of course that wasn’t the case. Just when I started to love character too. When I came across OF PENS & SWORDS it looked pretty interesting but I had no idea how much I would love it, and the characters, especially the characters. Out of everyone Cyra and later on Christine were my favorites, there were so much fun to read about, especially Cyra. I loved fact that this was about a girl with one hand that wants to go fencing in Olympics, it’s different from what I usually read when it comes to Olympics and I loved Cyra from start, how she wouldn’t stop no matter what the challenge was, she still wasn’t about to give up her dream. That takes a lot, especially considering her challenges and even when it felt like her dream was about to fall apart, she kept on going. She was tough and only having one arm didn’t stop her. Not everyone can do what she did, especially after what she went through at young age. I love how supportive her mom is, it reminds me a lot of my mom when it comes to my writing. All through the novel I was rooting for Cyra to let her dream come true and I wanted to see if it would.



Christine was type of character that you disliked at first, but as the book progressed your view of her changed. The bond that Christine and Cyra ended up having was unexpected; even I didn’t see that coming. Considering what Christine made her do, knowing well how she felt about Rochan, having her write all those letters. I do believe that writing all those letters, and Cyra helping Christine while she was practicing her ballet, that’s what bonded them at them end. I saw them becoming friends even before they did. I knew that Christine cared about Cyra, when she came to Christine’s house after she was sure that her dreams of going into Olympics was crushed and she was there to comfort her. I got admit I did cry when she told her story about what happened to her arm, I have been wondering about that from the start. I was actually smiling when Christine told Cyra to tell Rohan the truth, that she couldn’t go through anymore because she could tell how much she loved him. If that’s not true friendship, I don’t know what is. Of course what happened after was a complete disaster. Poor Christine. Poor Cyra. I found myself crying along with Cyra.



I saw how much Cyra cared about Rohan from the start. Those letters, even thought she wrote them for Christine, she wrote those from her heart. I wondered how long it would take Rohan to figure out that it wasn’t Christine that wrote them. Once he confessed to her about it, I wondered if he knew since the bathroom scene and if he did, why wasn’t he the one to tell her? I wondered if he didn’t tell because of Christine or because he wanted for her to come to him. I wondered about the title OF PENS AND SWORDS from the start, well the swords made sense but Pens, but as I read the book, it made sense, the letters that Cyra wrote to Rohan. Of course I love the cover, it’s beautiful and pretty much tells Cyra’s journey. OF PENS & SWORDS is beautifully written story about love, friendship and reaching for your dreams. I couldn’t get enough of it, and even after reaching the end, I kept thinking about it.

A masterpiece.