My stop on the blog tour is a review of The Puppet Spell by E.L. Adams.
From goodreads: Unlike her rebellious sister Lucinda, fifteen-year-old Lexa prefers to
spend her free time playing video games, fighting the forces of evil
with her partner-in-crime Marlon. But when Lucinda steals an
invisibility potion from their uncle’s storeroom, she unleashes chaos
into their lives. Lexa and Marlon find themselves catapulted into a
world far more dangerous than any video game, full of misleading
illusions, sinister Conjurors and deadly Fey, and threatened by a man
with a grudge known as the Puppeteer. Accompanied only by Lexa’s uncle’s
unreliable (and rather dangerous) Chimera, Lexa and Marlon must
navigate this world to find Lucinda- before they too fall under the
spell of the puppet master...
My Review:
I enjoyed this debut novel by Emily L. Adams. In
this book, she has created a world, parallel to ours, in which magic is
alive. People, called overseers, can jump between worlds through
gateways to make sure things between the two worlds are running
smoothly. Lexa and Marlon stumble through a gateway and into this new
world. They receive some information of the world and of the use of
magic before they embark on a quest to rescue Lexa's sister, Lucinda,
who has inadvertently become a 'puppet' of a powerful fey.
I immediately felt for the main
character, Lexa. She has always felt overshadowed by her twin sister
Lucinda. That has made her made her doubt her abilities, and made her
confidence falter. I admired Marlon, who in his logical approach to
problems, always stuck up for and believed in Lexa. It was fun to see
how he discovered how to see through an illusion--because it looped like
the setting in a video game! Throughout the book, Lexa had to rely on
Marlon and her uncle's Chimera to get her out of trouble. But by the
end, I liked how she starts to believe in herself and her magical
abilities enough to save both the magical world and her own.
I found myself swept away in Adams'
writing, it is very honest and at times, poetic. I loved this
description, "I could have sworn the forest as a whole was moving, very
slowly, drawing itself around thre town like a cloak." Adams has a vivid
imagination, and it shows in the world she created for this novel. I
loved the houses carved of stone to look like animals. How cool would
that be to walk down a street where all the houses were different
animals? I also loved the description of the kingdom in the clouds. All
the characters and settings were very creative and distinct. It was fun
to see that people could use magic, and they could also create things
made of magic. I loved the idea of cars with magic running through them
to navigate around things more effectively. This was a fun new world
that I enjoyed seeing through Lexa's eyes. I would love to see more of
this world and of these characters. Maybe in a sequel?
To read more, you can find the first chapter here
Published:1.2013
Rating: 4
Age: 10+
Content: very little violence and language
Excerpt From The Puppet Spell
‘What’re you looking at?’ Lucinda had joined me.
‘Nothing,’ I replied automatically.
‘What’s in there?’
Before I could say a word, she strode past me. I heard her fumbling around, trying to find the door handle.
‘Wait a minute,’ I
said. ‘Are you sure it isn’t someone’s room? You don’t want to go
barging in! Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s locked -’
Lucinda ignored me. I heard the clunk of wood as she tried to pull the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.
‘Luce -’
Lucinda raised a fist and knocked. ‘Is anyone in there?’
Plainly,
there wasn’t. But the dark space seemed to grab her voice and throw it
back at her, like a game of catch. I realised how cold it was; the night
had stolen every vestige of warmth from the house, and here in
particular there seemed to be a constant draft, as if from an open
window.
‘Open
the door!’ She hammered on it with both fists. I heard a thud as the
door swung inwards without warning, and Lucinda very nearly fell flat on
her face.
‘Smooth,’ I said, with a snigger; usually I was the clumsy one. ‘What is it? A cupboard?’
‘It’s a laboratory.’ Her eyes were wide.
‘Yeah, right.’
‘No, seriously. Look.’
I
peered into the room. Faint light seeped through a high window,
illuminating the endless rows of bottles and boxes on shelves set in
rows facing the door. I realised at once that the coldness I’d felt had
been coming from here: the room was like a giant refrigerator.
Lucinda walked up to the nearest shelf and picked up a bottle.
‘Luce! Don’t touch anything. I don’t think we’re supposed to be in here.’
The
words came out automatically, but even as I spoke them I joined her by
the shelf. After all, I was just as curious as she was.
The
bottles contained concoctions of all colours, some of them colours I
wasn’t sure even existed. Some exuded a glittering light; some streams
of smoke; and some an odd sense of menace. One in particular, a
blood-red solution, made the hairs on my arms stand up just to look at
it. There was something unearthly about the way it glowed, as if it
possessed a life of its own.
A peculiar smell hung in the air, like burning flowers. It caught in my nose like dandelion feathers.
‘What’s this? Frankenstein’s lab?’
‘Probably
a prank set up by those students,’ I said, squinting at the label on a
bottle of greenish powder. ‘Is there a light switch?’
Lucinda
darted over to the door and flicked a switch. Fluorescent lights
gleamed overhead, making the room look even more laboratory-like. I
became aware of a low humming sound, a minute vibration that shook the
floorboards.
I looked back at the bottle. The label read, ‘Instantaneous Invisibility: three doses.’
‘An invisibility potion.’ I stared at it, as if the letters might rearrange themselves at will. ‘Are you kidding me?’
Tour Giveaway
$25 Amazon Gift Card
Ends 3/10/13
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Labels: Review, YA
