After dethroning Lord Mordig, Kenric is given a new assignment by the king to venture to Grim Wood and the land of the Fey people where he must go in search of the blade that will forever protect his people from harm, in the second addition to this fantastical series.
R.L. LaFevers (Robin Lorraine when she’s in really big trouble) grew up surrounded by shelves of old dusty books and a passel of brothers. She has also spent a large portion of her life being told she was making up things that weren’t there, which only proves she was destined to write fiction. She is the author of over fourteen books for young readers, including THEODOSIA AND THE SERPENTS OF CHAOS, (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) which received starred reviews and was a Junior Library Guild selection, a Booksense Summer Pick, and nominated for the Malice Domestic’s Agatha Award, and the NATHANIEL FLUDD, BEASTOLOGIST series. R.L. also writes the His Fair Assassin books using her full name, Robin LaFevers, but cannot get Goodreads to link the two, so you have to check out a separate profile for that. So sorry for the inconvenience!
Part two pretty much continues from the end of book 1 and it's time to return to the Fey realm. Just like book 1 this is a fast based fantasy for a younger audience. I'm enjoying the lack of complexity within these books. We've picked up another princess and if this was a more adult book, not only would there be a love triangle, but someone would be over dramatic and princess-y. As it happens, they all just get on with it! Except Kenric, he keeps going back to find people...
This part of the story explores the lives of the Fey and their culture. To get all the answers, of course, we need to continue onto book 3 to meet the goblins. I wonder if we'll pick up a prince along the way or if they'll have a princess too...
There's not much to be said about this book really without giving away half the plot, though I kept forgetting they were Fey because they live very much the way elves do in my mind. This whole world seems quite small, almost like there's only a few villages of humans and a few of Fey about the place, however this could be simply because the book is aimed at a younger audience. It almost felt like we were going backwards to go forward, but we are getting closer to The True Blade of Power! See what I did there? haha...
Again, this review partly reflects my brother's reaction. The trilogy seems to be a great introduction of fantasy to the younger readers. My brother was genuinely frustrated with the stubborn characters in the book. "Why won't they help?" It was great to see him get into reading.
Good, clean adventure books for young adults. (And old ones too!) The characters are lovable and it is easy to follow along with Kenric (human), Linwe (Fey) and Hnagi (goblin) into their next scheme to try to defeat the evil Mordig.