Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Book Review: The Puppet Spell by Emma L. Adams




The Puppet Spell

Author: Emma L. Adams

Add to your Goodreads Shelf!

Purchase at Barnes and Noble and Amazon

 

Synopsis: Unlike her rebellious sister Lucinda, fifteen-year-old Lexa prefers to spend her free time playing video games, fighting the forces of evil with her partner-in-crime Marlon. But when Lucinda steals an invisibility potion from their uncle’s storeroom, she unleashes chaos into their lives. Lexa and Marlon find themselves catapulted into a world far more dangerous than any video game, full of misleading illusions, sinister Conjurors and deadly Fey, and threatened by a man with a grudge known as the Puppeteer. Accompanied only by Lexa’s uncle’s unreliable (and rather dangerous) Chimera, Lexa and Marlon must navigate this world to find Lucinda- before they too fall under the spell of the puppet master…

 
Brought to you by TeamNerd reviewer Bridget Strahin

 Review: Lexa, a loner who prefers to live in the world of her video games along side her trusted side kick Marlon, is a fantastic character to get into the head of. She's smart, sassy, brave, and had me cracking up with some of the things she came up with. Her sister Lucinda made me want to beat her. She's selfish and egotistical, single minded, the classic all around mean girl and the complete polar opposite of Lexa.  The contrast between the two sisters really made this story believable and for anyone who knows the challenges of a sibling who doesn’t get anything about you, this story is also relatable.

Lexa thinks she lives a pretty normal teenage life, well except for being tossed from home to home, but behind the scenes is a world full of magic, wonder, and a whole lot of evil. Lucinda steals a potion from her uncle's collection and is thrown into the Other World.  Lexa , fearing for her sister's safety in a world that neither of them know anything about, takes Marlon with her into the unknown on a life risking mission to bring her sister home.

Lexa and Marlon are tossed into a messy world of deception and intrigue and by deception I mean hold onto your seats guys, because nothing is as it seems. There are so many aspects of this book that I enjoyed, the creep factor, for one (if the cover isn't a dead giveaway already), the amount of imagination that Adams put into creating this world, for two. My hat goes off to her, it takes someone with a special kind of mind and a certain fearlessness to accomplish something on this level. But I felt it was the background characters that Adams had a hard time with and mostly it's because there are so many of them.  Most of them had fallen flat and I would have liked them to be a little more well rounded. Luckily, it didn't turn me away from the book. Going on this crazy adventure and seeing this new world through Lexa's eyes kept me hooked all the way through and made it easy to over look the little flaws here and there.

Though this book is geared towards the younger audience, I only had a few troubles getting through it. To be honest, this isn't a genre that I spend too much time with but, I wanted to give it a fair shot and after reading it I can see why it has done so well. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading young adult and to anyone who doesn't mind a little twisty turnies  here and there.
 
About the Author: Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy and paranormal novels for young adults.

She was born in Birmingham, UK, which she fled at the first opportunity to study English Literature at Lancaster University. In her three years at Lancaster, she hiked up mountains, skydived in Australia, and endured a traumatic episode involving a swarm of bees in the Costa Rican jungle. She also wrote various novels and short stories. These included her first publication, a rather bleak dystopian piece, and a disturbing story about a homicidal duck (which she hopes will never see the light of day).

Now a reluctant graduate, Emma can usually be found in front of her writing desk. Her debut novel The Puppet Spell, published in 2013 by Rowanvale Books, is a fantasy tale for young adults and the young at heart, inspired by her lifelong love of the fantastical, mythology, and video games. Emma also writes urban fantasy/supernatural novels for older teens and adults. Her next book, Darkness Watching, is the first in the upper-YA/New Adult Darkworld series, and will be published in 2013 by Curiosity Quills Press.
Where you can find Emma: Facebook/ Goodreads/ Blog


No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

TeamNerd Features!