Review: The Stray Spirit by R. K. Ashwick

Blurb:

A bard and a forest spirit uncover a deadly magical threat…and the key to survival lies within their own forgotten songs.

Struggling bard Emry Karic has only one path home: impress the Auric Guild, join its ranks of elite musicians, and return to his family with his honor in hand.

Difficult to do on a good day. Impossible to do with a possessed lute.

Hours before Emry’s big break, an unnatural earthquake strikes, forcing a forest spirit named Aspen to take refuge in his lute. Aspen is loud, talkative...and not leaving anytime soon.

Panicked, Emry swears the spirit to silence on stage, in exchange for a favor: he will help investigate the mysterious quake that nearly killed them.

But Emry is a bard, not a scholar, and his research leads straight to the person who resents him the most: Cal Breslin, his studious ex-girlfriend. Despite their history, Cal can’t pass up the opportunity to study a mythical being. Yet as the trio delves into the forgotten folklore of spirits and gods, they uncover a magical threat—and lingering feelings—looming beneath the surface…

Review:

The Stray Spirit concerns a down-on-his-luck musician, his ex-girlfriend, and a spirit who team up to save the world. I liked the story! The lute was a fun little plot and character device. The river routes were interesting, and the description of remnants aided the atmosphere. The concept of the Guild and its importance to Emry was palpable. The prose lent itself to imagining the fanes and forests, and the world had a cozy vibe. Coming off a high-stress, dark, or cognitively taxing book? The Stray Spirit is a go-to palate cleanser.

However, there were a few bumps along the road.

Aspen is a forest spirit whose antics seem at odds with their age. Aspen also cannot (or rather, will not) listen to anyone. At the end, when their behavior mattered, they were suddenly able to keep things together. The story takes place over the course of just two to three weeks; their character arc didn't feel developed enough to warrant this change.

Then, our two lovebirds.Their second-chance romance didn’t seem to be a healthy or positive outcome, but I don't get the impression that this was the intention. The female love interest looks down on main character Emry for having done nothing with his life and not loving her enough to move cities so she can do the very same thing of which she's accused him. She's nursing a pretty serious case of eternal student syndrome and this is treated as fine. Emry seems to think so, at least, likely because of the gilt and bejeweled pedestal upon which he's placed her. This double-standard therefore didn't elicit much sympathy from me when she complained about his failure. Why does she get to lambast him for struggling, but with the shoe on the other foot happily takes a free pass for not making something of herself? Emry seems to sacrifice his self-esteem and dignity time and again for someone who, if the plot never happened, would have continued disparaging him. He came across as the emotional punching bag who resigned himself to that fate to get a girl who would not and did not do the same for him. Likewise, Emry consistently enables pushing aside his own wants, needs, and goals to help Cal and Aspen achieve theirs. I left the story wishing he had more self-respect, but hope this is addressed in book two.

The plot is extremely straightforward. In and of itself, that's not a bad thing; please don't misunderstand. However, because it's straightforward, I'd have liked to see the beats occur because Emry wants, needs or does something rather than Aspen pulling a Leeroy Jenkins. Finally, the story ended on quite the cliffhanger; if you want to know what happens, I recommend picking up The Spirit Well.

But again—I did like the story and would still recommend it! Overall, The Stray Spirit is a relaxed read that’s not going to twist you up too hard emotionally. I’m interested to see where things go in The Spirit Well and how the characters will continue to develop.