Unwanted at home, Molly goes to work for the king of Westria as a humble scullery maid. She arrives at the castle with no education, no manners, and a very disturbing secret: She sees visions, and those visions always come true.

One day, while she's working in the king's great hall, young Prince Alaric passes by. Molly finds him unbearably handsome—but also unbearably rude. But what does it really matter? She'll probably never see him again.

In time Molly is promoted to polishing silver and is given a priceless royal treasure to work on: the king's great ceremonial hand basin. But there's something odd about it. The silver warms to her touch, a voice commands her to watch and listen, and then the visions appear. They tell the story of a dreaded curse that has stalked the royal family for years. There have already been deaths; soon there will be more.

As tragedy after tragedy strikes the royal family, Molly can't help but wonder: Will the beautiful Alaric be next? Together with her friends Tobias and Winifred, Molly must protect the prince and destroy the curse. Could a less likely champion be found to save the kingdom of Westria?

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A month or two ago, I snuck into the library to see what they had on their giveaway shelves. I had heard that they were doing a purge of their children's book section and I was curious. I didn't expect to find much, but man, I hit the jackpot! Old Nancy Drew books, a bunch of other books, and this gem. I took so many that I had to make two trips to my car. I'd feel bad if I hadn't put hundreds of books on those shelves over the years for people to enjoy. Anyway...

The Good:
Great characterization. Each character had their own personality, their own viewpoints. The story itself was also very entertaining with little twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Since this book was written for middle grade readers, I was happy to see that nothing was so complex that a child wouldn't be able to dig into this book and enjoy hours of happy reading.

The Bad:
The beginning of the book felt a little slow, but that's very short lived.

The Summary:
While written for middle grade fantasy fans, I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it so much that I went on Amazon to find the other books in the series. I'll be picking them up soon and will hopefully be reviewing them as well.  The library's loss was certainly my gain.



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When Aidan and Maggie find a fairy cross while rock-hunting with their grandfather, it's just an oddity. But when they discover there is an elf imprisoned in the stone and set him free, they and their grandparents, Nana and Beebop, are attacked by Dark Elves and forced to flee to the magical world of Celahir.

In Celahir, Findecano - the elf the children freed from the fairy cross - leads them on a quest to recover gemstones stolen from the Elven Bow by the Dark Elves. Without the restoration of the gemstones to the Elven Bow, the balance between good and evil in Celahir - and the human world - could tip toward evil.

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I very much love a good fantasy book and feels as if it's been ages since I've read one. When I came across this book, I snatched it up. The bonus? It's book one in a series of four. You guessed it. I also love a really good fantasy series.

The Good:

The Bad:

Descriptions - The book got a bit repetitious at times and yet, at others, descriptions that should have come far earlier in the book were left until nearly the end.

Characters - While I really did enjoy most of the characters, I found Aidan a bit disconcerting at times. Don't get me wrong, I know that 14 year old boys can be headstrong and will at times do just what they want and not necessarily what they were told, but Aidan did this on a frequent basis and as someone who is represented as loving and respecting his grandparents, his actions didn't often back that up.

The Summary:

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Aoléon, Gilbert, Bizwat, Helios, and Zoot make it to their final destination - Cydonia where Aoléon’s parents are being held captive. They infiltrate a secret underground base and are confronted by a small army of sentrybots.
Bizwat lends Aoléon and Gilbert some of his advanced combat skills via a psionic brain dump. However, this may not be enough to save them from overwhelming hostile forces that will do anything to stop them.

They finally meet Pax - the Martian who originally set them out on the mission to discover the truth about the Luminon and his plans to invade Earth. However Pax is not who he seems to be, and through a turn of events, they uncover the true power behind all that has been happening on Mars.

Will they be able to rescue Aoléon’s parents and save Earth from invasion?

Join Aoleon and Gilbert in the conclusion to this exciting middle-grade science fiction and fantasy adventure!

===========================
What?!? It's over?!? This is the final segment?!? Seriously, I have enjoyed this series as much as anyone of any age could. The characters are fun, the pacing is fantastic and the graphics? C'mon, you know they're wonderful and I'm betting that there are fans of this series who would love to get their fingers on some prints for their walls. I have to say that the ending was a bit of a surprise, but an ending it was. There are no cliffhangers, but I sure hope that doesn't mean that Brent is done writing. Personally, I'm looking forward to any/all books that he comes out with in the future.



I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments, and opinions are my own.
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Science Fiction Series - Aoleon The Martian Girl Part 3 The Hollow Moon (Part 3 of 5)

Aoléon and Gilbert investigate the Luminon to try and uncover the plot to invade Earth to steal it’s milk cows. In the process, they discover a disturbing revelation about the Martian leader. After overhearing the Luminon discuss his plans to use sabotage to disrupt Mars’s galact supply, the duo races to try and to warn Aoléon’s father Deimos, who is a manager at the galactworks plant before the saboteur can act.

Meanwhile, Aoleon has to take her pilots exam, which would enable her to eventually join the Martian intergalactic explorational fleet. However, during the test-run, something goes horribly wrong. The two are put in a life threatening situation that only Bizwat, a Procyon commando, and Aoléon’s friend can save them from.

Gilbert finally gets his chance to learn to skyboard. However, things go horribly wrong and they are chased by the Royal Paladin guard.

Will they survive?

Join Aoleon and Gilbert in this exciting middle-grade scifi adventure story to Mars and beyond!

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I may be running out of words to describe just how fun and wonderful this series is. In part 3, Brent doesn't let the reader down but keeps the adventures coming. The pacing is still nice and quick so as not to lose the younger readers but the imagination is still top notch! The illustrations will still capture that same imagination and before you know it, you'll be eagerly looking for part four. Luckily for me, I already have it and it's time to get reading it!



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Twelve-year-old Alyssa McCarthy can no longer stand the toughness of her uncle and wants a better life. But one day she discovers not only the existence of magic, but also a villain hunting her down. The villain uses magic and magical technology to kidnap Alyssa to the Fiji Islands. As much as she wants to go home, she has to face some dangerous challenges first. Not only that, the villain himself must also be defeated. Can Alyssa succeed, even with the help of her mentors?





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Every once in a while, a young adult book crosses my desk and I get excited. I have two teen boys who I would love to get reading more so I consider it an opportunity to find them something they might love. This book, however, isn't it. The book starts out well, but just doesn't hold up. I found the characters to be flat and some of the situations/responses to be odd. For example, Alyssa meets these two people who are suddenly her mentors and she's just like, "oh, okay..." I don't know a single child who would have that sort of response. The parents have the same sort of reaction after finding their children were missing because they were kidnapped. It just doesn't work. There is also a scene where Alyssa and her friends are sitting around trying to figure out how to kill another character. I found this rather disturbing. Also, more than once, I read a section and thought, "Harry Potter."  That's not good. It's fine to take ideas and make them your own but when a reader blatantly can place the reference, it means the author hasn't really made the idea their own.

On a positive note, I do think that the story has a lot of potential. This is the first in a series so it is possible that the characters will round out and the story, while fantasy, will become more plausible.




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