This series is fantastic. I recommend it to everyone!!

The book opens sometime after the end of the second book and readers are once again given background information on who is who and what everyone has been up to until now.  Since there is this gap in time, the repetition is not cumbersome and works well for those who have read the series.  Of course, the repetition is necessary and welcome for those just joining the series.  Similar to the previous installments, this book contains many names of places and characters, both old and new.  This can be confusing and hard to follow.  In a world where names are meaningful and offer their own significant hints at the plot, it becomes even more important for detail-oriented readers (like myself) to keep it all straight.  The review at the beginning helps to keep everything straight for everyone.

Full of elves, dragons, and other creatures, the author plunges readers into a magical, powerful alien world where anything seems possible.  With twins and a kingdom to save, new powers and new characters coming and going, anything goes.  We really are guessing and kept on our toes throughout.  Much to my delight, the prophesies were back in full swing, though we readers do not see all of the prophesies. Some were shown to characters but not to us readers, leaving me wondering about a couple of them.  Clearly these must be foreshadowing of the future and are intriguing.  The world, the adventure, the characters, and the wonder of how it will all come together culminated in an impossible story to put down.

I did have to suspend belief a couple of times:  An elf developed a vaccine in a cave because as we all know caves make ideal, sterile laboratories and the King travelled without armed guards while his kingdom was being attacked even though the prophesy said not everyone will return.  If you are one of those readers that always wants things to make sense, you might by annoyed a little by these two details.  This is a fine line to walk for any writer.  It is a fantasy story.  I figure if I can believe that an orphan girl can converse with horses, then swallowing these two details should be no big deal.

I did get ticked with one of my favorite characters.  I can’t say who or why without spoiling the story.  I can only say that the behavior was out of line.  There was just not sufficient explanation for me in the book.  Perhaps in the next book we will find out more.  (Yes, there will be another!)

The level of writing remained simple and easy, yet, interesting enough to propel the reader along.  Reading this as an adult, the age appropriateness here [for young adults] seemed spot on - from the interests of the characters to the dialogue.  It was interesting to see characters couple up somewhat with talk of marriage going on in the background, while the story stays not only PG-13 and entertaining but also very true to the age of the characters.  This must have been difficult to achieve in that age where “going steady” could last just until second period.

Again, I must speak to this as being part of a series by an indie author.  There is a definite beginning, middle, and end to this book.  The ending concludes this book neatly with quite a twist.  I originally read this when I thought this ended the series.  Now, I can see that this ending creates a definite platform from which the rest of the series might launch.  This is exactly how I want to read books in trilogies or those part of a series.  I am anxious to see how this story will move forward.

This is most likely written for a younger audience (teens), but as an adult, I still could not put this down and enjoyed every minute of it.  Then, again I secretly still like Carolyn Keene. Considering the violence, language used, the extent of the love story on the side, it is a clean read and definitely quite suitable for those old enough to read.