Spirians: The Beginning
by Rowena Portch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Good vs Evil, Light vs Dark, Arch Angels vs Lucifer; this concept has always captured our attention. Open your mind to a world of Spirians, or the Protected Ones, Light and Shadows, or the Fallen Ones. In the Spirian clan is a young warrior Shanuk, who is powerful but still a little too boyish, and easily angered to be a leader. The elders of the clan fear that sooner than they want, they will need Shanuk to be ready to take over the clan. Calla, is part Spirian and part Fae, she is a healer in the clan and she is the love of Shanuk, yet she too will have to endure and learn to be a leader among the people and not just and headstrong young girl. Spirians: The Beginning tells the story of Shanuk's growth, what happens to the elders that leads to his becoming the leader of the clan. It also tells Calla's story, what happens to her and her growth to become his partner in the clan. Author Rowena Portch gives us a well written tale of secrets, betrayals, revenge and making the wrong and right choices in this story that keeps your attention from beginning to end.
Spirians: The Beginning is a well written tale, giving enough history to make everything that occurs in the story make sense, yet not so much as to bore the reader. Every character has a background, some tragedy that lead to them being in this clan, and those tragedies ultimately lead to them making the decisions that the later did, either wrong or right. Author Rowena Portch weaves historical, fantasy, coming of age, spiritual all into a tale that keeps your attention and has you reading from beginning to end. I recommend this book for adults only, there is some references to sex - the mating, bonding and then some other, so I wouldn't let younger kids read it, but that's a parental choice.
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The Darkest Legacy: Hints of Betrayal (Book One Omnibus)
by Jennifer Lynn Catz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed For +Readers' Favorite
Cara is your normal teenage girl, popular, on the dance team at school and an average student. Or at least that is what she has always thought. After a car accident left her in the hospital, she is finally back at school and ready for life to get back to the regular, normal routine but it seems that nothing is going to be normal. Her mom, Maria, seems to be acting weird, paranoid in some ways and then there are these bizarre headaches that knock her flat. One morning Cara wakes up to find nobody home, but that doesn't concern her, she thinks that her sister is at school and Mom at a meeting, until the noisy neighbor comes over and things take a bizarre turn. Turns out her family is kidnapped and she has to find them! The Darkest Legacy: Hints of Betrayal (Book One Omnibus) starts with us getting to know Cara, and at times she is a spoiled brat that has no concept of anyone or anything but herself. As the story progresses we see Cara grow as she learns secret after secret about the world and her own family. Author Jennifer Lynn Catz creates a story of good vs evil, white magic vs dark magic, but weaves it into a coming-of-age, young girl realizing her own worth and losing her brattiness.
The Darkest Legacy: Hints of Betrayal is set to be the first book in a series, and it really is a set up book. Most of the book is background, Cara fighting the neighbor who turns out to be so much more, and creating a context. For someone to have so much responsibility of the future on their shoulders, Cara is not what you would pick as a heroine. In fact, she is probably the opposite and so there is a lot that she must learn and go through, and this first book sets up the transformation that may or may not come in the future. Author Jennifer Lynn Catz gives you a sometimes comical story of a young girl coming to terms with truths she has never thought possible before. It is so well written and engaging that you are through with the book before you realize it. This is a great read for all ages, there is some language but it is typical teenage stuff.
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The Last Legend : Awakened (Volume 1)
by Joshua B Wichterich
My rating: 4.0 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Long before the beginning of the world, there was the Light and all was good, but there was also the darkness who wanted the adoration that the Light received, and he schemed to try to get that adoration. The Light knew all and was able to see the true desires of the darkness and cast him and his followers into the unknown, and thus began The Last Legend: Awakened (Volume 1). The darkness bid his time until he was able to inhabit the body of a princess and rule the kingdom in evil, but his rule was short lived, when her body died. Now he waits again. Princess Marissa is about to be engaged to Prince Philip when she is kidnapped. It is up to her best friend and her fiance' to find her before it is too late. +Joshua Wichterich takes the classic story of lucifer's fall from grace and turns it into a legend fit for the knights of camelot.
The Last Legend is a story so old that parts of it have been lost, it has been retold so many times it has become jumbled, and it is up to Prince Philip and Tarrien to find the truth in it all. It takes a great deal of trust and faith. +Joshua Wichterich takes what could easily be a wonderful fantasy story of good and evil, of knights and castles, dragons and witches that any young adult would love to read and infuses it with a large dose of faith and religion. It provides a lesson in trusting in the unseen, having faith, and giving it over to an unseen God to pull you through when things look the bleakest. Wonderful fantasy with a message for all who read this story.
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The Queendom of Evlantis
by Juliet Y. Mark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
We've all heard the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace, but what if the story was changed. What would the world be like is Adam didn't give in and only Eve was tempted? If only Eve was banished from the garden? Juliet Y. Mark tackles those thoughts and ideas in the book The Queendom of Evlantis (The Unfallen Series Book 1). We find that Eve has been cast out of the garden on her own, and over the ages the story has gotten twisted just a little to where women look down on men. In fact women rule everything, men are mere slaves thought of by some women as nothing more than animals! It's not a perfect place, and there are troubles. Another young girl, a daughter of Adam, Ava is tempted a lead out of the garden. She is given the task to help the other people of the world realize the mistakes they are making, yet she is so innocent she has no idea what she is doing. Entwined in it all is love and hope, is evil and corruption and in the end, what will be the course of the world.
The Queendom of Evlantis at first reads like a great feminist novel. Women rule the world, they keep the men under their boots, but as you go along you realize that this is not the way the world was meant to be and that it is not working out well for these people. There are major problems. Although the author, Juliet Y. Mark never comes out and specifically says that this is the retelling of Adam and Eve, you get enough hints along the way to realize it and to understand the purpose and reason behind the retelling. I found the story compelling and well written. It pulled me along all throughout wanting me to know more and to find the answers, to only realize that there is still more to learn even after the book ends. It is a wonderful read for men and women alike, as well and adults and teens.
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Haven Lost
The Dragon's Brood Cycle, Book One
by Josh de Lioncourt
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Emily is a high school hockey star in Minneapolis, with an extremely dysfunctional family life. For the most she is a typical teenager, except for her strange ability to know when and where another player on the ice is going to move. One day it all changes when she starts seeing the reflection of a boy in mirrors and windows, and when she gets home finds her mother dead of a drug overdose. She runs away and when she awakes she is in another land, another time, another world? Haven Lost is the tale of Emily's discover of what is important to her and her life in this strange place. She makes friends, decides without any prior knowledge of people who is good and who is evil and sets out on a quest she doesn't understand. Along the way she picks up a best friend in Celine, a ward in Michael and someone who just might become more than a friend in the future, Corbbmacc. Together they travel the land, looking for the answers that they need to understand what is going on. Josh de Lioncourt has done a wonderful job of mixing history, fantasy, and magic together into a tale that is compelling and exciting.
Haven Lost is set to be the first book in a series titled The Dragon's Brood Cycle. This first book sets the story up very well, you have a grand adventure, and it is not a short adventure either. It takes time to tell, yet the story never seems to get bogged down or drag, it is always moving along and begging you to turn the next page and keep going. The answers always seem to be on the next page. Josh de Lioncourt is a wonderful storyteller in that he is able to keep your attention and have you guessing the entire book. I never saw the reveal from the last three pages coming until I got to them, and that is not usually the case with mos books. This book and series has the potential to sky-rocket into the forefront of youth and teen reading, becoming the next Harry Potter series.
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The World of Karov (Children of Demilee, #1)
by Elyse Salpeter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Adam and Alec are identical twins, in looks only. In their minds they are complete opposites. Alec is deeply disturbed, and takes after their father. Adam longs for a normal life, and he risks it all to runaway and try to find that life. Just as he thinks he has found the answers and is about to marry, his twin Alec kidnaps the bride and disappears. Adam searches with no luck, only to come upon someone who offers him a chance to start over in a new life on a new world. The World of Karov needs Adam, and he finds a place of respect. Adam may have left his past behind, but it will forever color his feelings and what he does? Can he make a new life or will his past continue to haunt him forever? +Elyse Salpeter weaves a wonderful tell of two worlds, two lives and two twins completely different yet always interconnected.
The World of Karov is a wonderful place for Adam to be. He is respected and not pitied because of his brother and father. He has a talent that is useful and he finally begins to feel that he has a place, even if it is on a different world than that of his birth. Somehow though, family can not be forgotten or left behind, and one day Adam will have to face his again. +Elyse Salpeter has written a tale that is so bold and different, you just have to keep reading. While the main character starts the book at age eight, this book is directed towards Young Adults and Adults alike. There is meaning in everything for both generations to glean.
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The Heir to the Amulet
by S.P. Meijer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
The Heir to the Amulet mixes the ideas of Knights and old world, medieval places and areas or countries with futuristic, high-tech places and areas or countries and blends them into a story of mystery and intrigue, kidnapping and sabotage. Raith was success in her attempt to take over the country of Cymnosa, but the Queen and her children managed to escape. Years later, Queen Sarah has vanished in a plan crash, and the heir, Lora is living under a false identity in another country, while Richie is under the control of an evil Uncle. When Raith makes a bid to get the remaining two nations fighting, Lora undertakes the adventure of a lifetime to save her brother, her best friend and new friend, along with the rest of the world, in +S. P. Meijer's fantasy epic adventure.
Lost heir's are a dime a dozen, but Lora is different, she is 16 but packs a powerfulful determination into that body to right the wrongs of the world. You like her from the beginning. Her best friend Stephen is the son of the King of Magoria, although the King doesn't quite like her.+S.P. Meijer focuses on the kids, they are the heros of the book, they are the ones who get out there and make things happen. It's not the King or The Queen or any adult, although at times they help a bit, but it is mainly a group of 16 to 10 year old kids. That is what makes The Heir to The Amulet so good for kids to read. It gives them a sense of empowerment and encouragement, that they aren't too small and their voice matters.
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Divided against Yourselves
by Bill Hiatt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Divided Against Yourselves is the second book in the Spell Weavers series, but unlike a number of series this book can be read on it's own without having read the first book and without feeling lost. Tal is a teenager dealing with reincarnation, in fact he is the reincarnation of the original Taliesin, a bard in King Arthur's court. Tal has successfully to this point merged his past lives together with his present life quite well. His best friend Stan is also a reincarnation, but his is not going so well. He past life as King David wants to take control too often. Even after defeating the witch Ceridwen last Halloween, Tal and the guys think they can relax and go back to normal life, only for Tal to be surprised by the appearance of Morgan Le Fay, who help Ceridwen at Halloween. Tal and his warriors work to figure out what Morgan wants and how to protect everyone at the same time. Bill Haitt does a wonderful job of weaving a magic tale into a modern day high school and making it work.
This is the first book I can remember reading that took on the reincarnation topic as a theme to the magic. It was novel of Bill Haitt to think of that plotline for a story, and it made this story compelling and interesting. It also opened a number of question that have me asking what is the next book after Divided Against Yourselves. I found the teenagers in the book to be real and remind me of my own teenagers at home, some of the bantering between the boys is stuff I hear coming from the boys in my sons room all the time. I felt the story was well developed and the action scenes would entertain and keep a good range of boys interested in reading. There is a puppy love vs. true love kind of thing, you know the kind that happens when you're sixteen through that along with the magic would keep girls reading. There are so many different side stories and themes in the book that are weaved together so well into a complete story that it will appeal to a great variety of readers.
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