 | Author: Diana Wynne Jones; Completed by Ursula Jones Genre: Fantasy / Fiction Length: you do this Summary: Aileen was supposed to grow up magical – just like the other women in her family. Unfortunately, she’s just found out that the magic seems to have skipped a generation… but that’s not her biggest problem right now. In her world, there are four Islands of Chaldea. The largest and most magical island has been cut off from the other three for decades – and is slowly draining the magic from them. |
But now a prophecy has come to light. Someone from Aileen’s island will gather a man from each of the three islands, bring down the magical barrier, and unite them with the fourth island again. And according to the king, that someone is Aileen’s Aunt – who insists on dragging Aileen along. AND the boy Aileen is sure she’ll marry (one day); the local boy with more brawn then brain. Someone seems to want to stop them too… someone with an interest in keeping the Islands apart. But still, with magic on their side, nothing can go wrong. Right?
My Review: Beautiful. Absolutely stunning.
**PROS:**
- The characters were absolutely magnificent. They were three-dimensional, they had human emotions, and they said the thoughts that I was thinking. Ivar, the son of the King of Skarr, was a snobby, arrogant child. But his transformation was beyond satisfying. Aileen, the daughter of Garth of Gallis, was quick to self-depreciation and criticism, but she turned out to be a very smart, capable individual with the ability to lead. Ogo, a Logran, seemed to be very stupid at the beginning of the story, but I found out that he was only misunderstood and that was actually incredibly observant and caringly blunt. Aunt Beck, the aunt to Aileen, was very... strange in my opinion. She was extremely blunt and was very rude every time she spoke, so I didn't like her as much as I wanted too. Every other character in this story just added color and spirit to the beautiful plot!
- The plot was full of twists and magic, both of which I love. 1) The antagonist was so smart. I was in complete shock when the full plan of the villain surfaced to life. 2) The story got started immediately. Even though the first sentence sounds irrelevant, it was an instant reading hook.
- The map. The hardcover that I got had a map in the book before the actual story began, and this was so helpful. With as many cities and islands they traveled through, I lost a sense of direction. But it was nice to see a physical image of where there were traveling.
- Page 342. The story ends page 350. I have 8 more pages and this story is nowhere near being resolved. In fact, the intense fight scene hadn't begun yet! As the author slowly puts this story to a close, the characters are in such a dire predicament, my heart is pounding. As I continued reading, I found myself losing track of the page number and realized that the story ended perfectly, as well as with a perfect pace.
- The love in this was brimming with fluff. It was absolutely beautiful. At the beginning, there was one pairing, but I didn't like it at all, but it soon changed towards the end of the middle. It was right there when two couples were formed and then two more. So, in all, there were four couples and my heart was bursting with satisfaction and happiness. It was so nice to see so many lovers in such a story!
**CONS:**
- There were many parts of the book that had grammatical errors. Usually, I'm one to skip over those, but these errors were in such important areas.
- In the very beginning, they introduced two characters that weren't even talked about until the middle of chapter two and the other the middle of chapter three! I shouldn't have to wait that long to understand a single sentence in the first chapter.
- For some parts of the book, I definitely felt as though the book hadn't gone past the first draft phase. That was partially disappointing to me as I realized that part of the plot, even though it was already amazing, could have been fleshed out more.
- Closer to the end of the book, you could subtly tell that the writing style changed. It wasn't a bad change, not at all. But the fact that I had familiarized myself with Ms. Diana's writing style and it just changed to Ms. Ursula's was very surprising, still though, it wasn't bad.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to others!
I rate this book a 4 out of 5.
My Review: Beautiful. Absolutely stunning.
**PROS:**
- The characters were absolutely magnificent. They were three-dimensional, they had human emotions, and they said the thoughts that I was thinking. Ivar, the son of the King of Skarr, was a snobby, arrogant child. But his transformation was beyond satisfying. Aileen, the daughter of Garth of Gallis, was quick to self-depreciation and criticism, but she turned out to be a very smart, capable individual with the ability to lead. Ogo, a Logran, seemed to be very stupid at the beginning of the story, but I found out that he was only misunderstood and that was actually incredibly observant and caringly blunt. Aunt Beck, the aunt to Aileen, was very... strange in my opinion. She was extremely blunt and was very rude every time she spoke, so I didn't like her as much as I wanted too. Every other character in this story just added color and spirit to the beautiful plot!
- The plot was full of twists and magic, both of which I love. 1) The antagonist was so smart. I was in complete shock when the full plan of the villain surfaced to life. 2) The story got started immediately. Even though the first sentence sounds irrelevant, it was an instant reading hook.
- The map. The hardcover that I got had a map in the book before the actual story began, and this was so helpful. With as many cities and islands they traveled through, I lost a sense of direction. But it was nice to see a physical image of where there were traveling.
- Page 342. The story ends page 350. I have 8 more pages and this story is nowhere near being resolved. In fact, the intense fight scene hadn't begun yet! As the author slowly puts this story to a close, the characters are in such a dire predicament, my heart is pounding. As I continued reading, I found myself losing track of the page number and realized that the story ended perfectly, as well as with a perfect pace.
- The love in this was brimming with fluff. It was absolutely beautiful. At the beginning, there was one pairing, but I didn't like it at all, but it soon changed towards the end of the middle. It was right there when two couples were formed and then two more. So, in all, there were four couples and my heart was bursting with satisfaction and happiness. It was so nice to see so many lovers in such a story!
**CONS:**
- There were many parts of the book that had grammatical errors. Usually, I'm one to skip over those, but these errors were in such important areas.
- In the very beginning, they introduced two characters that weren't even talked about until the middle of chapter two and the other the middle of chapter three! I shouldn't have to wait that long to understand a single sentence in the first chapter.
- For some parts of the book, I definitely felt as though the book hadn't gone past the first draft phase. That was partially disappointing to me as I realized that part of the plot, even though it was already amazing, could have been fleshed out more.
- Closer to the end of the book, you could subtly tell that the writing style changed. It wasn't a bad change, not at all. But the fact that I had familiarized myself with Ms. Diana's writing style and it just changed to Ms. Ursula's was very surprising, still though, it wasn't bad.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to others!
I rate this book a 4 out of 5.
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