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The authors of this book are a 14 y/o home schooled Lauren in partnership with her father Peter- this for some reason was enough to compel me into reading this debut publication and the cover looks pretty…

This book is intended for a younger audience- not sure if children would be able to follow some of the strategic war talk or should read about so much death, tragedy and conniving characters, but young teenagers should definitely be cool with this read.

Enter…. The blurb:

Once there were many kingdoms of myth and legend, but six stood apart from the rest. They may have lost their origins, but they still possessed their elemental abilities of creation as well as destruction. Their rule was about to be threatened by an unseen group, who have waited patiently to make their move.

A group of powerful royal blooded teenagers are about to experience the time of their lives, but also have their lives turned upside-down. They will have to go beyond what they thought possible, stretching their skills, friendship, courage, love, and powers to the breaking point.

Through tragic events the heirs and heiresses of different kingdoms end up together initially to find help for one of the kingdoms in trouble.. well, under fire actually. Their quest ends up having a bigger purpose for the good of all the kingdoms. I don’t want to say more and spoiler the story, you understand I’m sure. I don’t want to say more and spoiler the story, you understand I’m sure.

Needless to say at this point, however, that of course there are power hungry Lords involved in the background wanting to steer the kingdom(s) down a path beneficial to the Lords themselves. Mostly though in this book you’ll read about the adventure and journey on how each of the royal teenager is being met, what they’re like and how they fit into the group with their unique power.

Descriptions of the kingdoms and the powers originating from them can be quite easily imagined when going by their names:

  • Fulmendom- Electricity
  • Lacusdom- Water
  • Aetherdom- Air
  • Ignisdom- Fire
  • Glaciesdom- Ice
  • Terraedom- Earth

What I liked: The idea! The whole idea is definitely cool, I like how the elements are used to create the looks/characteristics and powers for each kingdom and their respective royals. A lot of thought had been put into creating all the kingdoms and all the characters are different which shows author’s imagination is working full speed. Also- very good effort on Lauren’s part- writing a book at 14 is a great thing to do! I am sure her ideas and writing will only improve over time.

What I didn’t like so much: Now in fairness, there were a lot less typos than I have come across in some books written by adults, but there were still a few. In one case a word was missing from the sentence. I also felt there was a lot of repetition… the word “castle” appeared in one paragraph 5 times when describing it- I am certain there would have been a way to make it read better and unfortunately the repetitiveness occurred throughout the book in many shapes and forms. Detail isn’t always bad but all the scenes were a bit too detailed. Every aspect of what someone did, said, looked at or looked like was described in military discipline. But remember- this is Lauren’s first book and she’s young so I don’t mind it so much… I do believe some further guidance could have been provided to her to make the overall reading flow a bit better which in turn would have helped build the foundation of her credibility as an upcoming author more.

Rating: 3 stars (I Liked It)

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