Fun Fiction Friday - November 9, 2018

Fun Fiction Friday
November 9, 2018

Welcome back to Fun Fiction Friday.

There is where I share the books the older girls and I are reading, and a short review of a Young Adult or Juvenile book I have finished, if applicable. I will also ask the girls to tell me something they would like to share about at least one of the books they are currently reading, also if applicable.

I have several series waiting to be read, but they have been put on hold so I can reread the Keeper of the Lost Cities series again. The last time I posted I shared that my husband bought me the boxed set of the first five books!!! So, I have finally gotten a chance to move along in the series again. This week I finished both Everblaze and Neverseen (that book we've been waiting for months to get out of the library).

Anyway, I have written reviews for the first two books (Keeper of the Lost Cities review and Keeper of the Lost Cities: Exile review), and now I finally get to share my long-promised review of Everblaze, plus the review of Neverseen. First,just a reminder of what the girls are reading. It actually hasn't changed.

Obviously, Tabitha and I have been focusing on The Keeper of the Lost Cities. She is up to the second book, Exile, and I just started Lodestar.

Amelia is still reading Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter. She hasn't been able to read as much as she has wanted to as she has been getting headaches while she reads. Don't worry though, we have an eye doctor appointment scheduled.

As for family read-alouds, we are still trying to make our way through the Percy Jackson book: The Titan's Curse. We are also reading The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare during our school reading time, along with our main reader, Augustus Caesar's World.

Moving on to those reviews:

Review of The Keeper of the Lost Cities: Everblaze.

In this third book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie continues to try to find her place in the elven world. She feels at home now with her guardians, Edaline and Grady, though she still struggles to know whether she can or should call them mom and dad. She has her friends as well, friends who she had struggles with in the first two books, but who are now starting to become strong supports for her. Which is very important in this book, because she is now facing harsh criticism and hurtful whispers from fellow classmates and other citizens of the elven world. Now that the problems she was having with her abilities which she started to notice while in Exile have been fixed, she has been asked to perform a very controversial healing, a healing that ends up having tragic consequences. These are consequences she isn't really responsible for, yet she feels she is, especially when everyone except her friends seems to be against her. 

In this book we begin to learn more about the Black Swan, the rebels who created Sophie, who were once considered evil, but we have since discovered they are fighting against the real villains, the Neverseen. Slowly secrets are being brought to light, while at the same time we realize the situation is a lot more complex and dangerous than it has seemed before.

One other thing I wanted to mention is that this is the first book in the series that ends in a cliffhanger. 

The author does a wonderful job of growing the characters and their relationships. She slowly lets the reader learn just enough to entice us to want to continue reading. Plus she does a great job making the reader become emotionally attached to the characters, especially Sophie.

Review of The Keeper of the Lost Cities: Neverseen

(If you are only just reading Everblaze, you probably don't want to read this review, as I do mention some things that happen in Everblaze.)

In this fourth book of the series, Sophie and her friends have run off to join the Black Swan. In one way or another they figured they were in trouble anyway, and seeing as Sophie had to leave because of events in Everblaze, her friends joined her. 

Joining the Black Swan wasn't all they were hoping it would be. They did welcome them and want them to be there, but they also required the children to be training and getting ready for different missions. Of course, the kids would prefer to be seeing more action and less sitting around. They want to be more impulsive, where the leaders, known as the Collective, expect them to be careful and well prepared. 

Some secrets are revealed, though some remain a mystery, while new mysteries are added. They have to figure out how to stop a plague that is threatening the gnomes. They end up going to another school and learning new skills while working on unraveling these mysteries. Secrets that have been hidden for thousands of years are revealed. And we learn of betrayals and surprise allies. 

Neverseen is action packed and continues to develop the characters and the world of the "Lost Cities." This book again ends with a cliffhanger. One that is even more devastating for Sophie than learning she had to leave her family and go into hiding with the Black Swan. 

I had a hard time putting down both of these books. The author sure does a great job of getting me to turn those pages!