Book Review: Until I Sleep (The Alora Chronicles - Book 1)
Until I Sleep (The Alora Chronicles – Book 1) by Lara Wynter
4 stars
Category: Middle-Grade
Summary: After the death of her mother, Australian teen Ashlee moves in with her father in Tasmania who she just learned about. He gives her a necklace, and when she falls asleep on her first night there, she dreams of a land called Alora populated by elves who can wield magic. But her dream feels more than just a dream, it feels real, like she had been transported there. And she meets a handsome young elf named Wyn. But when she falls asleep in Alora, she wakes up back in the human world. She has to fit in to her new school, eager to get back to sleep to Alora and to Wyn. But humans and elves are forbidden from being together, and Wyn doubly so since he is the son of the reigning queen, and the popular choice for taking over after her. But right now the queen is a captive of an evil king, and Wyn wants to rescue her. Though Wyn’s friends tell him that he needs to hide until he can come of age to take the throne, so they encourage him to go to the human realm with Ashlee and blend in at her school.
Comments: This felt aimed at a young tween/middle-grade audience. I think I prefer my fantasy a bit more gritty and aimed at a late teen audience, at least. This felt more aimed at a tween audience and felt rather simplistic, and didn’t delve into deeper emotions or topics. Because of that, it was clean and wholesome. Wyn was a nice idealistic romantic hero, stubborn, determined, selfless, self-sacrificing. I did like how naïve he was, and how he was awkward and out of place, especially when he was in the human realm. I was annoyed that he didn’t seem compelled to fight for anything that he personally wanted, unless it benefitted the elven people. Ashlee was really a basic teenage girl, without any personality traits that stood out, other than being a bit spoiled and selfish. She didn’t even really blink at all the conveniences that her father’s place had. And she was rather self-centered. She didn’t really get to know her father at all. For instance, the largest thing that rankled with me was that her father was supposed to be a famous author. Not once did she mention what type of books he wrote. I haven’t a clue of what genre they were in. She only picked up one of his books once, because she was looking for something to fall to sleep to. I did love the bond between Ashlee and Wyn. It was the stereotypical forbidden romance, so they couldn’t act on it and had to just be friends. But it was a really sweet friendship, even though Ashlee kept convincing herself that because Wyn was being her friend, meant his interest in her had vanished, so we got a lot of tween drama of jealousy, and moaning about the guy not being interested, like it was the end of the world for her and her world revolving around him. I got a bit bored at times with the journey, and it does feel a bit repetitive at times, especially with the human world that just felt like school classes and home and not really anything else to it (it did have the typical school dance though), while the elven world was a lot of time spent around campfires. The human world was practically just a summary each time it was mentioned, just enough to flesh it out, but didn’t really spend any time in it. The detail was all in the fantasy elven world, as they journeyed around. It was a fun, light-weight diversion, but probably won’t pick up book 2.
4 stars
Category: Middle-Grade
Summary: After the death of her mother, Australian teen Ashlee moves in with her father in Tasmania who she just learned about. He gives her a necklace, and when she falls asleep on her first night there, she dreams of a land called Alora populated by elves who can wield magic. But her dream feels more than just a dream, it feels real, like she had been transported there. And she meets a handsome young elf named Wyn. But when she falls asleep in Alora, she wakes up back in the human world. She has to fit in to her new school, eager to get back to sleep to Alora and to Wyn. But humans and elves are forbidden from being together, and Wyn doubly so since he is the son of the reigning queen, and the popular choice for taking over after her. But right now the queen is a captive of an evil king, and Wyn wants to rescue her. Though Wyn’s friends tell him that he needs to hide until he can come of age to take the throne, so they encourage him to go to the human realm with Ashlee and blend in at her school.
Comments: This felt aimed at a young tween/middle-grade audience. I think I prefer my fantasy a bit more gritty and aimed at a late teen audience, at least. This felt more aimed at a tween audience and felt rather simplistic, and didn’t delve into deeper emotions or topics. Because of that, it was clean and wholesome. Wyn was a nice idealistic romantic hero, stubborn, determined, selfless, self-sacrificing. I did like how naïve he was, and how he was awkward and out of place, especially when he was in the human realm. I was annoyed that he didn’t seem compelled to fight for anything that he personally wanted, unless it benefitted the elven people. Ashlee was really a basic teenage girl, without any personality traits that stood out, other than being a bit spoiled and selfish. She didn’t even really blink at all the conveniences that her father’s place had. And she was rather self-centered. She didn’t really get to know her father at all. For instance, the largest thing that rankled with me was that her father was supposed to be a famous author. Not once did she mention what type of books he wrote. I haven’t a clue of what genre they were in. She only picked up one of his books once, because she was looking for something to fall to sleep to. I did love the bond between Ashlee and Wyn. It was the stereotypical forbidden romance, so they couldn’t act on it and had to just be friends. But it was a really sweet friendship, even though Ashlee kept convincing herself that because Wyn was being her friend, meant his interest in her had vanished, so we got a lot of tween drama of jealousy, and moaning about the guy not being interested, like it was the end of the world for her and her world revolving around him. I got a bit bored at times with the journey, and it does feel a bit repetitive at times, especially with the human world that just felt like school classes and home and not really anything else to it (it did have the typical school dance though), while the elven world was a lot of time spent around campfires. The human world was practically just a summary each time it was mentioned, just enough to flesh it out, but didn’t really spend any time in it. The detail was all in the fantasy elven world, as they journeyed around. It was a fun, light-weight diversion, but probably won’t pick up book 2.
No comments have been added yet.
