Review: Enjoyable fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 6, 2014
Sarajane Anderson is a normal twenty-one-year-old young woman, that is, until her mother mysteriously disappears. There are no clues, no ranson notes, no body, nothing to go on. Both her younger sister Jessica and father John muddle through their days. Nothing is the same without Marta. When Sarajane is also kidnapped and brought through a wall of fire to the land of Saskia the parallel to Earth, she must face some truths that she'd rather not know - who she really is, who her parents are and what exactly does magic have to do with her?This was an intriguing tale although there was too much of an information dump in the prologue. I know that I passed over a lot of it and only after I finished the story and went back to the beginning did I realize how much I had missed by not reading it more closely. The author does a very good job of fleshing out the characters, but they are either good or evil. There seems to be no gray areas among them and that seemed a little too rigid. I love to see characters conflicted especially when faced with harsh choices. The transitions between Saskia and Earth flow well and most of the story is told in Sarajane's POV. While I understand that this is a trilogy, I would have liked to have learned more about Sarajane and her affinities in Saskia. One minute she's letting others protect her, the next she's doing magic herself. The ending of the book seemed a little rushed and I would have preferred to have a little more conclusion for Sarajane in this first book. I would have also liked to have seen more of Tristan, her hunky guardian. Overall, this is a very enjoyable book and I would recommend it to both the YA and adult fantasy fan.I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.