This story is a fun romp through the world outside of Waet Tree Village - adventure, excitement, oh fluff! moments, obscure prophecies, magic goodies and odd-ball characters. The novel is an enjoyable, well-written, fast-paced, adventure-quest involving a collection of teenagers that have got into deeper events than they realized. While this book does not end on a cliff-hanger, it is definitely the first book of a series - the story doesn't end here. I am looking forward to the next installment.

I couldn’t really get into it, but that might be because I’m not a really big fan of fantasy. I just found the beginning with the wizard and the closet really confusing and it lost me there. Very pretty cover, though.

I don’t know what to make of this book to be honest.

It’s about three kids/teenagers given the task of retrieving an amulet from an elf, and then taking it to a city to be secured.

It was very fast paced at the beginning. I just wanted their story to start already. I loved the magical elements of things. And when they joined with another group to carry on their journey, that was thrilling!

But then when they were separated, it kind of fell all over the place for me. The ending was very quick, and I felt it could have gone on for longer. I didn’t quite catch if they had actually delivered the amulet or not.

The book was only 300 pages long and I feel it could have been longer and more explained at the end. More thought out.

I had another problem with the fact that each chapter was from a different child’s perspective, but you didn’t know which child until a few sentences, maybe even a paragraph, into the chapter. If there was a name as the chapter heading, or something, to indicate whose perspective it is at that point, it would have been a lot less confusing.

I want to read the next book when it comes out - only to tie up the lose ends though.

Chassy, Nita, and Andrev are thrown smacked dab into an adventurous journey, one that would mature them faster than they thought, in ways they never dreamed possible, in their simple lifestyle. It’s Filled with powerful magic with them some of the most powerful untrained users ever. This epic and magical tale is froth with dangerous and deadly perils with a saboteur hidden in plain sight and treacherous encounters along the way. This book makes for a relaxing, captivating, intriguing and exciting must read, that is richly entertaining.

My thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a review copy of this book.

This is the first of a series, the Deathsworn series (not sure how many books in total), and is essentially a fantasy adventure. The book opens with sixteen-year-old Chassy and his friend Nita, who live in Waet Tree village, the former an adventurous type who wants to see the world, and Nita who wants to stay home and eventually take over the Two Pumpkin Inn which her parents run. Their decision to eavesdrop on a conversation between two mysterious guests at the Two Pumpkin however turns their plans upside down, and they, along with Nita’s bookish brother Andrev must set out on an adventure to track down an elf, and recover a stolen amulet with magical powers. On their journey, they must travel through the Blackwood, and face several other dangers. They team up with a band of travelling merchants led by the handsome William, who have secrets of their own. The three adventurers must come to terms with their quest that none of them are particularly willing to undertake, the world outside their little village, so different from their own, and things about themselves that they didn’t ever know or expect.

The book has the usual/typical set-up of a teens’/children’s/YA fantasy adventure—three teen protagonists (one of course being a bookish one—in this case Andrev) thrown into adventure all of a sudden with a prophecy surrounding them (and a not very positive one for one of the three), here very sudden because as soon as we open the first few pages the adventure begins. The author definitely gets points for imagination, thinking up creatures, places, and worlds that we have just begun to be introduced to, and which promise to grow more detailed and richer as the series progresses. The plot itself is fairly enjoyable, again nothing out of the ordinary but one that one enjoys following. For me specifically, the initial parts were readable but they didn’t prevent me from taking breaks in between (that’s partly why it took me longer than usual to read the book), but once some secrets about our protagonists start to come forth, it gripped me a little more. The protagonists themselves—Chassy, Nita, and Andrev are fairly well drawn out, have the characters of typical teens (somewhat petulant, a touch arrogant), and also perspectives and fears that are to do with their upbringing in a sheltered environment with little contact with the outside world. But still somehow, I didn’t really take to them at the start, and found them somewhat annoying (even lacking in common sense). Nita improved a little for me on moving on, but I don’t know about the others though I wasn’t finding them as annoying later on as I did at the start. I wouldn’t mind reading on to see how the series progresses in the second book, but this one was pleasant, and enjoyable even but nothing extraordinary/standout for me. Three and a half stars.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought the author did a good job developing the characters and allowing the reader to feel as they were one within the book. I am curious to see how the author is going to carry on the adventure in the next book.

This story is a fun romp through the world outside of Waet Tree Village - adventure, excitement, oh fluff! moments, obscure prophecies, magic goodies and odd-ball characters. The novel is an enjoyable, well-written, fast-paced, adventure-quest involving a collection of teenagers that have got into deeper events than they realised. While this book does not end on a cliff-hanger, it is definately the first book of a series - the story doesn't end here. I am looking forward to the next installment.