I have actually never read a Terry Brooks book before, which is crazy considering that he's one of the leading fantasy writers of all time. I did enjoy it! It's not usually what I read, as it is a little hard core fantasy for my tastes, but I enjoyed myself and was happy I took the plunge into something new.

Wow Terry Brooks is quite a storyteller. I loved the couple Shannara I’ve read and when I saw this I had to read it. There was so amazing world-building that I just wanted to get lost in the book. There was trauma that I felt was slightly glossed over but that might be dealt with on the next books but I did enjoy the romance he included. There was so much jam-packed into this book that makes it an incredible read. But also makes you wonder how much could be left if this is meant to be a series.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

I haven't read a book by Terry Brooks for a long time and was interested to see what he was up to in Child of Light.

Child of Light has the fantasy elements you might expect, but there is a twist. There is a division among humans between those who know of the fae world and those who don't. Our main character, Auris, didn't know about the fae world and must learn everything new. My favorite part of the story was her exploring the new world. I liked the seers because each was unique. I also liked how some people in the fae village were unhappy having Auris in their midst.

The prose sections are pretty descriptive of the world around Auris. Especially once she's within the fae stronghold. I wished there was a little more dialogue. Some of the lines sounded too colloquial in my opinion. Such as Auris describing herself as a "hot mess".

Much of the story centers around the love interest and Auris. There were moments when it didn't feel natural to me. For example, she's worried for her life...but she pauses to think about how much she's attracted to the love interest. It threw me out of the story.

This book is written for a YA audience. Even though the goblins are violent, we hear more about it than have the savagery on the page. Also, a character being raped (multiple times) is mentioned, but the reader doesn't go through it with the character.

I definitely think there is an audience for this book and hope you enjoy it.

“Humans once they were born into the world were of a different mind-set. They were determined to make their lives better not by adapting to nature, but by subjugating her. The entire history of their evolution has been centered on taking from nature what they needed to improve their lives without regard for how it might damage nature herself. And eventually they evolved into a people that have become so industrialized and so dependent on machines that to forgo that mind-set and adapt to ours is beyond them. This lifestyle is furthered by an unshakable belief that Humans are superior to all other beings, giving them the right to exercise domination over the entire world.”

Terry Brooks is my ultimate comfort read author. Ever since my dad got me to read The Word and the Void trilogy in high school. So I was super excited when I was approved to read the first book in his new series.

I loved this book! The magic system in this book is as unique and took a familiar cast of mythical characters and shone them in a whole new light. The world building was beautifully executed and had me dreaming of living in the forest city of Viridian Deep. MC Auris is taxing at times but I found her to be enduring and rooting for her to fit together the pieces of her complicated past. Definitely recommend to anyone who is a fan of Mr Brooks and his epic fantasy tales. And to anyone who is looking to lose themselves in a new beautifully crafted world.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Having never read Terry Brooks before, I was super excited to get this ARC, but the amount of exposition killed me.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey Books for the ARC.

19 year old Auris makes a daring escape from a Goblin-run prison with a group of her fellow prisoners. She then finds herself in the hands of the fae Watcher Harrow, who takes her to the fae kingdom and helps her reclaim/remember her life before prison.

Spoilers below!
I have never read Terry Brooks but I am familiar with the Shanarra series (show and my father is a huge fan of the books), so this was a interesting introduction to his writing. I enjoyed the world building and the conflict built into the story with the Goblin/Human/Fae turmoil. I'm not sure that I am a fan of Brooks' formal writing style though. Auris sounds too formal for a teenager/young adult. Also, she barely processes the loss of her prisoner friends, which I find unrealistic.

I like the love interest, Harrow, but I wonder if the romance should have been left for the next book in the series so that Auris (and the reader) could focus on healing from trauma and coming to terms with her past. There was enough drama in this book without adding the romance in so quickly.

As with most first books in series, there is a lot of things to build and explain, which can drag the pacing. So there are some slower parts, but I will say Brooks' integrates the "info-dumping" portions better than other authors I've read. It aren't massive chunks of the books that are slow.

Overall, 3/5 stars, and I will read the next book in the series.

This was my first ever book by Terry Brooks. I wanted to read this book because I loved the Shannara chronicles TV series and I knew I'd love other stuff he wrote. This book had me hooked from the first page. It started in the middle of a jail break. The only thing I didn't like was the use of the word "save." I had never heard it before this book, and I had to look up it's meaning. Would have preferred except or but or just anything else because he used save a lot to the point it was annoying. You just don't see it in books much anymore so it didn't fit. I loved the way it was written otherwise. He really can tell a story! I loved the main character. Can't wait to read more by this author.

This book marks a new venture for the author after his many books on Shannara. This one involves interactions between elves, goblins and humans with a strong, young female lead. The book was a little inconsistent, but overall a very good read. I look forward to more in this new series.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook and my nonfiction book review blog.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey Books for the ARC.

I tried so hard with this book, but it was a DNF for me. This was my first Terry Brooks book and I was so disappointed.

It started out so promising, but after the first couple chapters, it just went down hill. Once I put it down (about 40% in) I never picked it back up.

Auris escapes a child prison (slave camp) right away and it is high energy from the first paragraph. My attention was grabbed. But all the sudden the pace starts to change and then this teenage girl needs to lust for a boy. Alert, we don't always need someone in our lives. Sometimes we just need to work through the crap going on and that we just went through (friends dying, etc). Also, I felt like things were repeated over and over. At one point I actually said out loud that a section was deja vu..

I tried to finish and just couldn't. Maybe someday I will try a different book and series, as I know he has a strong following.

Auris lives in a prison, guarded by Goblins, who keep children for work and for food. She doesn't know where she was before the prison but she knows she wants to escape, so she joins a group of kids and plots an escape. Unfortunately she is the only one to survive the escape and she wanders alone until she finds a strange person, who turns out to be Harrow, a wood sprite.
Auris, with Harrow's help, recovers from her escape. She then sets on a mission to uncover the truth about her past.
Child of Light is full of adventure and action. Being a YA book, it also has some romance between the two main characters. Terry Brooks has created an interesting new world that is a wonderous place.
The only complaints I have are that Auris is a bit self-centered, putting her needs and wants above everyone else, and she is also very indecisive, which could come from her being only nineteen. At times the story was a little long and slow but in the end it was a good YA fantasy with interesting characters.
Thanks to Netgalley and Del Ray publishing for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

Auris is a young woman that has lived in a prison since the age of fifteen.. She also has no memory of her life prior to being in the prison. After an attempt to escape, Harrow, a Fae from a magical land, helps Auris escape from her captors.. She finds herself being welcomed in to the Fae community with a few exceptions. Harrow believes that Auris is more than just a normal human and sets out to help Auris discover the truth about her past and who she really is.

Thank you to Netgalley and Terry Brooks for letting have a sneak peek at this new magical series. I have to admit upfront that I had not read any previous Terry Brooks books and was very excited to delve into his fantasy worlds. This book was beautifully written, but seemed to drag on in places. that is the reason for the 4 stars vs. 5 stars. I'm sure the pacing had to do with the set up and information feed for a multi-book series. The characters were a bit annoying at times, well developed, but annoying. I'm a bit older than the target reader so that could be the reason I felt annoyed by the characters. The settings were very visual, the prison drab and depressing, the Fae community green and beautiful. I felt I was pulled into the world of the Fae and loved it.. This book is a wonderful read and would highly recommend it.

Honestly, this was pretty terrible. I got about 35% of the way through, and gave up. First person writing is hard, and Terry Brooks does not do a realistic job of it for Auris. Perhaps there's some explanation later in the book of why she'll every once and awhile pop out with a phrase like 'hot mess', or mention that Harrow doesn't understand the word 'wow', but otherwise sounds like the most navel gazing, no contractions using fantasy character of all time. Everyone's speaking style in this book is SO formal, but then, again, she'll add semi-modern teenager terms into her speech and it sounds ridiculous. The plot is pretty garbage, as well. Basic plot, discovering her past and history, that's totally fine. But Harrow is constantly coming up with 'here's the next thing we should do' and it's always directly after Auris thinking 'what are we going to do about this particular issue?'. I kind of hate both of them. The actual technicalities of the writing are fine, at least, so it's not a complete waste.

Do you like reading fantasy novels? I have definitely loved some of the ones I’ve read, but I don’t generally gravitate toward them when choosing a book to read.
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Thank you to @delreybooks for including me in this month’s inaugural Del Rey Book Club Meeting for Child Of Light, which is the first book in a brand new series by Terry Brooks.
This was such a fun event to be a part of. Through small break out sessions we got to discuss everything from target audience, to the cover design, to how we felt about the story and it’s characters. This book isn’t out until October, but I’m going to go ahead and say if you loved the movie Willow, like stories with Faeries, and don’t mind a more YA spin on fantasy definitely look for this one in October. I am excited to see where this story goes next!
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Synopsis from the publisher: At nineteen, Auris Afton Grieg has led an . . . unusual life. Since the age of fifteen, she has been trapped in a sinister prison. Why? She does not know. She has no memories of her past beyond the vaguest of impressions. All she knows is that she is about to age out of the children’s prison, and rumors say that the adult version is far, far worse. So she and some friends stage a desperate escape into the surrounding wastelands. And it is here that Auris’s journey of discovery begins, for she is rescued by an unusual stranger who claims to be Fae—a member of a magical race that Auris had thought to be no more than legend. Odder still, he seems to think that she is one as well, although the two look nothing alike. But strangest of all, when he brings her to his wondrous homeland, she begins to suspect that he is right. Yet how could a woman who looks entirely human be a magical being herself? Told with a fresh, energetic voice, this fantasy puzzle box is perfect for fans of Terry Brooks and new readers alike, as one young woman slowly unlocks truths about herself and her world—and, in doing so, begins to heal both.

A new world for writer Terry Brooks to open up for us readers of Fantasy. His world building is strong and I cou.d picture it as I read. The main character is only 19, yet she has been in a prison for children guarded by goblins as their workers or food source for many years, it's just her way of life as she has no memory of her past. When she escapes with her friends, the story begins introducing the fae world and human world with all the differences to her. I enjoyed the book and the secondary characters are well written. The story bogs down a bit when the romance starts, but it doesn't take too much away from the overall building. Looking forward to the next installment of this world. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a preview copy for an honest opinion.

I have read every novel written by Terry Brooks and I was thrilled to get early access to Child of Light. I love the new world he created and, as always, his characters are engaging and well-developed. The story started off very strongly with a lot of action and development. I did not feel he maintained this throughout the book. While I enjoyed the entire novel, I felt the energy dropped off and the parts of the story were quite predictable. Having said that, I eagerly await the next book in the series.

I had a very hard time getting into this title. While I have not read anything by Terry Brooks before this, I was still hopeful about this title, as Brooks is a well respected author in fantasy circles. That being said, I found this story to be clunky and unengaging. While this is frustrating already, my biggest issue was with the portrayal of the main character. I just felt that Brooks was a bit out of touch with the normal characteristics of the age of that protagonist, which made it challenging for me as a reader to connect. This book may be a hit with Brooks' fans, but for me, it was a miss.

The premise of this book was really interesting, with humans including our protagonist caged and kept in a facility like cattle by strange creatures known only as goblins. However, following Auris' fraught escape and her encounter with Harrow, the story lost me utterly. I found their romance to be boring and far too central compared to the other interesting things going on in the world around them. For a book apparently marketed as adult, this had strong YA vibes but without the originality that makes me enjoy other aspects of the genre. Auris both acts and sounds much younger than her 19 years and lacks the complexity I look for in a narrator. Overall, the plot and concept held water but the characters and writing style made this a dissapointment.

A very intriguing fantasy book that kept me interested! I love books about the Fae, and this one was so different than the usual Fae romance-type books. Auris is so brave and smart and her amnesia keeps you guessing as to the mystery of her origin. I loved the relationships in this book as often they are too focused on the romance, but this had some great friendships and showed the trials of family life. The abuses suffered by Auris and others referenced in the book can be hard, so be aware of any abuse triggers this could cause the reader. The story is about Auris and her struggle to overcome everything that has happened to her and everything she continued to face. It is also about her process of healing and learning about love. She handles being thrown into the magical world she did not know existed very well, and her resilience is inspirational. I would recommend this to anyone who likes to read fantasy and especially books about Fae! I did receive an advanced reader's copy of this book for my honest review.

I was hoping this might be as good as any of the entries in the Shannara series, but it falls a bit short of that. Not to say that this is a bad book, because it's not -- the characters are believable and well-written, and the world building is well done. It's good fantasy, but it's not quite up to par with what I've come to expect from Terry Brooks. Still, I enjoyed it, and if there ends up being another book in the series, I'll read it.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey Books for the ARC!

I have to admit that this was the first book I think I’ve ever DNF’d. And I hate that. I’ve adored so many of his stories in the past, and just couldn’t get into this one.

I really wanted to finish, but picking it up was starting to feel like a chore and not fun. Which is almost exclusively why I read.

I give it two stars instead of one though, since I did like the very beginning, and the story genuinely was interesting. The writing style itself was most of my problem.

It didn’t feel like I being immersed in a new fantasy world or a cool new story, it felt like I was being told every little thing that was going on, even in the dialogue.

I was really looking forward to this one. Sorry Terry Brooks!