I really enjoyed this book. made me feel far more engrossed than the last few fantasies I've read. The way the siblings are introduced and developed was great. super book

Five siblings, the Quins, have finally awoken their powers. They were separated shortly after birth and sent to live in secret far from the city of Sarcaren, for their safety, because if not they would soon become pawns in a plot they barely understand. They are never told who they really are or prepared for the emergence of their powers. Unfortunately, the emergence of their powers, sets a return to Sarcaren in motion.

Though the quins find themselves on a journey to reuniting, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. The people who want to control the quins would have great power at their disposal if they can just get them to heel, but the siblings have other ideas and they'll have to work together to stop themselves from becoming tools.

There is some allusion to a prophecy and the synopsis mentions a curse that will one day kill them all, but these aren't expanded on in the story yet other than to give us a sense of doom if their powers are allowed to run rampant. Hopefully the sequel dives into that because I have a lot of unanswered questions right now.

I enjoyed getting to know the five siblings, though some get a lot more spotlight than others and I would especially like to get to know Koshi a bit more. I loved reading about their powers and how they began to harness them. The best parts of the book were when one or more of them used their powers together. Very exciting imagery. Definitely interested in reading more of that in the rest of the series. Mark Parker excels at writing short-term character growth and setting it up for longer term growth as we see the siblings face new dangers and unexpected consequences from their rash decisions.

The people (villains?) who try to get the quins on their side really need to work on their sales pitch, because they all sounded the same with the threats/coercion/kidnapping. I think there could be a new tactic coming though, so I'm interested in seeing where that goes and what dangers it poses to the quins.

This is a promising start to a new series and I am looking forward to the next installment. If you are interested in a unique, young adult fantasy with a focus on siblings and elemental magic, this would be right up your alley. Thank you to NetGalley and Mark Parker for the opportunity to read this story. #netgalley

The premise of this book was interesting, and the opening 1/3 of the book was quite compelling. The viewpoints are of 2 of the 5 children and the stories of how they begin to express their powers was really well done. And then it took a seriously dark turn. Lots of gore and death, which, okay, that's part of the plot. But then it ventured into outright child abuse for at least 2 of the characters and was very difficult to read.

Some other things were problematic - one of the 5 children is just kind of an add on - you get to read a few pieces from her diary but you don't have the same connection with her as you do with the other kids.

2.5 stars, just because the child abuse was over the top for me. Received this as an ARC from NetGalley.