I have mixed feelings about this book. I thought McNulty and Rose did a great job with the character development. I was able to watch Amborese develop from a scared child to a woman with inner strength. I loved the “gang” of characters from Scypher (the bad boy with a good heart) , Zolo a powerful wizard who has known Amborese her entire life and became a father figure to her over the course of the year they traveled together, Kylanisha a fairy who joined the group and protected them as best she could, Philip, and of course Sposa and Bali the talking cats. Sposa was the former queen of Tesnayr who was turned into a cat for letting her country be torn asunder by Clymorus (an evil and powerful man).
The character development was good, the adventures were interesting, and the banter especially with Sposa was hilarious. SPOILER ALERT* My eyes teared up when Sposa jumped in front of the blade to save Klyanisha. Their conversation before Sposa died was heart wrenching. END SPOILER ALERT
However, I did have some issues with the book itself.
First, something happened when the authors uploaded this version because any word that had a double “L” in it dropped the last “L”. For example, instead of saying “Let’s call Amborese” it was printed as “Let’s cal Amborese.” I’ve never paid attention to how many words have double “LLs” in them, but after reading this I’m pretty sure I can name them all!! This wasn’t a typo on the authors’ part, because I didn’t really notice grammatical mistakes anywhere else throughout the book. I must confess, if I wasn’t a speed reader I would have put this book down and walked away, it truly was that frustrating. Words were even separated onto different lines because the computer or software didn’t recognize it was the same word due to the missing “L”. Truly, it would have been a shame to put the book down, because it was well written by McNulty and Rose .
One of the other issues that was slightly frustrating to me was that instead of paragraphs, every description or dialogue was put into two lines, then a space was added for the next 2 lines. That’s just a personal preference though; it might not bother anyone else.
The other thing that did detract slightly from the story was that I thought it was evident the the concept arose from The Lord Of the Rings. I freely admit, I could be completely wrong. However, the minions of Clymorus were called Lorks, and in several pages they were referenced as Orcs. The initial name of Lorks set up red flags in my mind, but when the pages came up with the correct spelling of Orcs that sealed the deal in my mind. When you combine that with the fact that Ambroese has to unite the 5 separate kingdoms back under 1 ruler, plus she has an entourage similar to The Lord of the Rings, it just seemed very coincidental. With that being said, we as writers all draw inspiration from what we read, see, & experience so there will always be overlap. There are only so many themes that you can write about or make movies about. I did enjoy that the protagonist was a female, who had no idea what her heritage was, yet she rose to the challenge.
Overall, once the authors can fix the “L” problem I would recommend this book. It has some comedy, personal challenges and growth, friendship and love, and good vs. evil.
I do wish I McNalty and Rose would have given more background after Amborese became queen; did she marry and have children to carry on the line, what happened to Seypher and Zolo?
Maybe this will be answered in various other books, I’m not sure. I just wish I could have had answers wrapped up in the end, if they’re not going to be addressed in future books. Had the spelling beeb accurate I would have definitely given it a higher rating, but this was just too much hasle for to give it 3 stars or above.
The character development was good, the adventures were interesting, and the banter especially with Sposa was hilarious. SPOILER ALERT* My eyes teared up when Sposa jumped in front of the blade to save Klyanisha. Their conversation before Sposa died was heart wrenching. END SPOILER ALERT
However, I did have some issues with the book itself.
First, something happened when the authors uploaded this version because any word that had a double “L” in it dropped the last “L”. For example, instead of saying “Let’s call Amborese” it was printed as “Let’s cal Amborese.” I’ve never paid attention to how many words have double “LLs” in them, but after reading this I’m pretty sure I can name them all!! This wasn’t a typo on the authors’ part, because I didn’t really notice grammatical mistakes anywhere else throughout the book. I must confess, if I wasn’t a speed reader I would have put this book down and walked away, it truly was that frustrating. Words were even separated onto different lines because the computer or software didn’t recognize it was the same word due to the missing “L”. Truly, it would have been a shame to put the book down, because it was well written by McNulty and Rose .
One of the other issues that was slightly frustrating to me was that instead of paragraphs, every description or dialogue was put into two lines, then a space was added for the next 2 lines. That’s just a personal preference though; it might not bother anyone else.
The other thing that did detract slightly from the story was that I thought it was evident the the concept arose from The Lord Of the Rings. I freely admit, I could be completely wrong. However, the minions of Clymorus were called Lorks, and in several pages they were referenced as Orcs. The initial name of Lorks set up red flags in my mind, but when the pages came up with the correct spelling of Orcs that sealed the deal in my mind. When you combine that with the fact that Ambroese has to unite the 5 separate kingdoms back under 1 ruler, plus she has an entourage similar to The Lord of the Rings, it just seemed very coincidental. With that being said, we as writers all draw inspiration from what we read, see, & experience so there will always be overlap. There are only so many themes that you can write about or make movies about. I did enjoy that the protagonist was a female, who had no idea what her heritage was, yet she rose to the challenge.
Overall, once the authors can fix the “L” problem I would recommend this book. It has some comedy, personal challenges and growth, friendship and love, and good vs. evil.
I do wish I McNalty and Rose would have given more background after Amborese became queen; did she marry and have children to carry on the line, what happened to Seypher and Zolo?
Maybe this will be answered in various other books, I’m not sure. I just wish I could have had answers wrapped up in the end, if they’re not going to be addressed in future books. Had the spelling beeb accurate I would have definitely given it a higher rating, but this was just too much hasle for to give it 3 stars or above.
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