{my thoughts} – Shade is one interesting character. I mean that in many ways. She is so obnoxious and helpless when this book begins. Her attitude in a whole irritated me. She had this woe is me, I don’t know what to do, I am lost, I am confused – the world is against me perspective.

When the book begins she is walking home from school. She hears voices in her head that tell her she needs to go some place. She listens and she meets this guy named Jack. She sees many strange things that leave her rather frightened. She then decides that she will follow Jack back to his home in order to try and retrieve some answers in regards to her hearing voices and what she had seen him doing.

When she gets there she is told that she is a faerie and that she is the only person that can prevent a war from taking place. She then goes on this journey to obtain some special water in order to stop the war from happening. She learns so much about herself and her family on this journey. She feels like she has been incredibly betrayed because they person she knew as her father wasn’t her father. She learned she is from a whole new world that she didn’t know existed and that she has dominant powers within her just waiting to be trained.

Throughout the journey she discovers herself. She becomes much more likable and she accepts her roll in the new world. She sort of has a coming of age journey I would call it. She changes her entire perspective on life, on who she is and how she views those around her. It’s all different to her and scary but she learns to embrace it as opposed to being afraid of it. There are little clues throughout the book that help you to better understand her and who she is, but not enough to give you the full picture. This is a definite must read for anyone that enjoys faeries and other paranormal beings. I look forward to reading the next book in the series. ( )

I have mixed feelings. I want to like it. I like the idea of this story, but everything is so goddamn convenient. A magic back pack, a magic canteen, a magic bathroom, a magic rock, magic spells and potions for everything. Shade doesn't have to work for a single thing. It's all just handed to her. There's no hardship, no treacherous journey. It's really just a walk through the park with some friends.

The love interest is obvious. The dialogue is unrealistic. There are too many characters too follow too soon. No one has any good development. And Shade is a dumbass. Seriously.

DON'T FOLLOW STRANGERS INTO THE WOODS!

Gah. I just want it to be a nice adventure story with magic and monsters and a cute boy. It's not that hard. ( )

The description of an enlarged mass of earth is enlightening, Shade kissed that wooden prince, for him to return means that she is a queen by birthright. She seems very gullible to me though, everyone has his or her characteristics. ( )

Once again I am in the minority because I could not get into this book. I felt like the main character was whiny and annoying and therefore ruined the entire story. I liked what it could have been but only because I can guess how great it would have been if I would not have wanted to fight with the main character for the entire book. She was awfully annoying and therefore ruined it for me. ... I think there was a good story in there somewhere but I could never get past my annoyance with the main character to find it. ( )

READ IN ENGLISH

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I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review...



It's said to be 'a dark faerie tale'. All my book-encounters with faeries have been quite grim though. Does this book has something extra that can make this 'extra' dark?



Shade witnesses a fight between two faeries after the voices in her head lead her to an abandoned warehouse on her way from school. She joins one the faeries as he shows her his powers and tells her they might have a solution or at least an explanation for her problem back at his place. Straight after hearing she isn't crazy, but in fact half-faery, they ask her to take part in a very dangerous journey to retrieve some very special water they'll need to win the war against some very evil faeries.



Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. I was immediately sucked into the story, and it was hard to stop reading. I don't really know a lot about faeries, so I just sat back and enjoyed it. The writing was quite nice too, and easy to read. The story moves very fast, especially when you keep in mind it all happens in just over 200 pages. This means that there aren't really that many details, and sometimes I'd liked to see a bit more character development and interactions between different characters. Shade talks to most of the group members only once of twice and too short for us to get a real sense of their relationships. Shade is supposed to get magical training during their trip (I always enjoy such scenes) but this is somehow forgotten a bit during the story. I'd liked to see more of that.



Shade, being the main character, being a 17 year old girl, has many of the symptoms of a classic YA heroine. Not extremely pretty or popular, she's learned to take of herself (as her mother is a single mom with four children). She's not quite the outdoorsy type, as the book tells us multiple times. But why was it necessary that her father learned her basic survival skills, as she wasn't the 'outdoorsy' type and they only went camping within reach of a bathroom and car?



My biggest problem though was the enormous power the magic has in this book. It literally solves every problem in the book! A few things, I wouldn't have mind, even though I sometimes think it's an easy plot device. But the things that were solved went almost ridiculous, as there are spells/charms to 'keep you dry when walking through a river', 'auto-refill your water bottles', and when they make camp (near that same river) they brought toilets and showers. That doesn't really sound like a real quest! (Okay, I admit I would like to have the Hermione-style bag).



It's a nice and quick read if you don't bother too much about magic solving the characters' problems. I'm certainly curious enough to read the other books in this series, if I can find the time to do so. ( )