Therefore she has an incorrect education in the real history of her parents and countries history. She was taken when she was five years old and has few memories of her parents and has been raised and educated with the royal children of the family. The story is about a girl, the Lady Elanna Valtai, who has been held hostage for 12 or so years to ensure her fathers loyalty to the crown. What a gorgeous book! I'm in love! Everything about this book was engaging and unique and kept me spellbound all the way through the story. I liked this book so much, though, that I bought a final copy to support the author and I look forward to the rest of the planned trilogy.

True, the romance between El and another character happens after a relatively short amount of time, but if you've read any other YA fantasy or any romance, the length of time before anything happens in this book is practically a lifetime in comparison to many other books out there! Personally, I liked this a lot more than several other of the extremely popular YA fantasy series out now.įull disclosure: I received a free advanced reader's edition of this title from the publisher in a Book Riot giveaway.

I've seen criticism about insta-love, whiny characters, and repetitiveness, but IMO none of that was here. She took action, even if things didn't work out exactly as planned, at least she did SOMETHING. Elanna had understandable doubts throughout, but she was never overly wishy-washy. I thought it was a well-written debut fantasy, with an interesting world/mythology. Because my library has the 2nd book, I am going to give the author the benefit of the doubt and hope book 2 does not disappoint. How Bates expanded and grew her characters and the world, well it just could have been better. This was Bates debut novel-the premise of the story was wonderful. As the years past Elanna begins to experience episodes, which can only be attributed to magic and she cannot understand how she could come to have this power. Although her parents try to guard and protect her from afar, Elanna becomes a victim of Stockholm Syndrome and loses her true identity. When Elanna's father is uncovered as a a rebel the King takes Elanna hostage and raises her in his court. The kingdom is divided between those who hold the magic of the earth, and those who hunt the witches. I so wanted this to be at least a 4 star read-but *heavy sigh* it falls a little short.Īt five years old Lady Elanna is caught up in the political turmoil between her father and his enemy the King of Eren.

The waking land series