Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Book Review Tuesday


 Genre: Middle Grade Urban Fantasy

Banshee at the Gate by Wendy Knight 

 Description: Thirteen-year-old, half-breed banshee, Seven, likes her life. She leads souls safely to Death and she has the planet’s most awesome dad and little brother. But a cryptic message from Atlantis asking for her help changes all that. And then there’s Death, who has decided it’s time to take her brother’s soul. Now she’s racing across the world, trying to stay one step ahead of Death.

Unfortunately, getting to Atlantis from Ireland isn’t easy, there are evil minions determined to keep her away every time she turns around. But fighting for their lives teaches Seven one very important lesson—she isn’t human, and she isn’t a banshee. She has to be both if she wants to save her brother and make it back home alive.

Guardians of the Gate by Laura D. Bastian


Description: Thirteen-year-old merman, Exander, wants to leave Atlantis to mingle with the humans and explore the world above. Talia, his best friend, wishes she was a guardian of a gate leading to the surface. She'd keep those nasty humans out of her beloved city of Atlantis. When Talia accidentally short circuits a gate, Exander is trapped on the wrong side, getting a crash course in navigating the human world. As Talia fights to help Exander come home, she learns someone is closing the other gates, and it’s destroying the magic of Atlantis. If they can’t convince the magical creatures of the world to save the gates, the destruction of Atlantis will only be the beginning.


Secrets of the Mine by Juli Caldwell

 Description: Adam Alfaro daydreams about magic, myths, and becoming famous for discovering the lost city of Atlantis. The only problem? He has to spend spring break in Africa while his mom works. To make it worse, everyone expects him to be friends with the annoying Clancy Pitt while he’s there. It’s dislike at first sight...until he realizes she might know a few secrets about Atlantis.

Then he meets Nef, a spirited sea kelpie who needs help rescuing kidnapped naiads, left to die in an ancient mine. Suddenly the strange creatures Adam dreamed of become all too real. And they’re after him. Can Adam, Clancy, and Nef fight their way through the maze of tunnels in the mine and reach the naiads before it's too late?


Magicians of the Deep by Jaclyn Weist

Description:
Thirteen-year-old Colin knew nothing of the magic world until he is bitten by a mischievous pixie. He meets thirteen-year-old Alleya on a secret website devoted to magical creatures.  Alleya has been hidden away from the rest of Atlantis because of who she is. She accidentally lets slip a dark secret—the gates to Atlantis are being shut down and it's destroying magic. For her treason, Alleya is exiled to Indiatlantis. 

Together, Colin and Alleya must find a way to bring back the old magic and fight to save Atlantis.






Madness Behind the Throne by JR Simmons


Description: Callidora is an Atlantian noblewoman and member of an elite guard whose purpose is to keep Atlantis pure...until her life is turned upside down by the birth of a son.

Phoibos, bullied and taunted by other kids, is sure of one thing: something is wrong with Atlantis. Impure, Atlantian-Human hybrids are ruining his city, and he'll stop at nothing to rectify that. Callidora is the only one who knows the truth of who her only son really is, and how dangerous he can be. Can anyone stop Phoibos before his need for purification brings Atlantis to the very brink of destruction?



Battle for Acropolis by Mikey Brooks

Description: Thirteen-year-old Talon is in trouble...again. He didn't mean to burn down the school library. It just happened. Things like that always happen to Talon. His life is a mixture of the weird and bizarre. No one else he knows can shoot fire from their hands or cause an earthquake...but he can.

Every night the same dream haunts Talon: the destruction of an underwater city. He doesn't have a clue what it means but he feels like fate is trying to warn him. It's not until he runs away with his foster sister Hattie that he discovers his trouble-making powers and strange nightmare are connected. Together they are the key to saving magic...to saving Atlantis.


Review:
Honestly I have only read one of these books, however being on the inside of the interworking of this series I have a good idea of what each book entails. They are written to be a series but technically could be read separately. The one book that I have read is number 6, Battle for Acropolis. It was a fabulous book and could be read, like each of the books, on its own, however it helps tremendously to read each book to get the whole story. The characters appear throughout the different books in the series. Saying this, I read the last book in the series and when introduced to a huge amount of characters in the end of the story became a little confusing remembering who everyone was. I feel the confusion would have been avoided if I knew these characters better from reading the books they “star” in as well. I look forward to reading the other books in this series and would recommend anybody to read the series in its entirety

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Buy the books:

Banshee at the Gate:
Paperback | Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks

Guardians of the Gates:

Secrets of the Mine:
Paperback | Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks

Magicians of the Deep:

Madness Behind the Throne:
Paperback | Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks

Battle for Acropolis:

Enter to Win fun prizes from the authors
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the great shout out for our series. It was such a fun thing to write. Seriously felt like magic as we created that awesome world.

    ReplyDelete