{Second in Esme trilogy; children's, fantasy, parallel world; LT Early Reviewers} (2019)

This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book from last year that I'm re-reading.

Esme is from Picton Island on our world but over the summer she has had adventures in the parallel world of Aeolia where she found her mum, who had been missing for seven years. But now her mum lies in a coma and in danger of fading away so Esme, together with her friends, is trying to wake her. When they learn of an obscure elixir they go on adventures (often adragonback) to try and obtain the exotic ingredients. In the meantime, Esme enrols in Pierpont School on Esperance, along with her friends Daniel and Lilian who are existing students, so she doesn't miss out on her education.

Pierpont is no Hogwarts since it has ordinary subjects like Maths and History but now that people's Gifts are starting to show, as a result of Esme's previous adventures, they do affect the classes, like Meera's Gift for portalling which ties in to her Art talent or Esme's own unreliable Gift for seeing the past which she uses to help her with her History homework and to search for the more unknown ingredients as well as to complete the decrepit recipe for the elixir.

When the subtle energies were at their height, Lillian’s unmade bed began to make itself. First, the sheets ironed themselves out and tucked themselves under the mattress. Then the purple bedspread smoothed itself over the top. Finally, the pillow gave a little shake, plumped itself up and settled into place.
Lillian kept singing, kept the spell going, just to prove that she could - and the wardrobe responded with a deep shudder. Its double doors flew open. The clothes on the floor rose up, then straggled like lost lambs into the wardrobe’s embrace.

When the song was over, Lillian stood there, very still, her face radiant. Somehow she seemed fuller, more complete, like a piece of the puzzle of who she was had slotted into place.

‘It’s really happened, hasn’t it?’ she murmured. ‘Oh, Mum!’

Miranda wiped away a tear. ‘I never thought I’d see the day you tidied your room without being asked!’

Did you ever read books in your childhood where you really wanted to go and live in that world? This world does that for me, and it's been a while since that happened; I mean, if you could escape to a parallel world where you could breathe under water, the weather is always nice, people have magical gifts and you get to ride dragons wouldn‘t you want to live there? I really like the gentle ambiance that Foster creates with Aeolia and its capital island of Esperance; it has a warm, relaxed Mediterranean feel to me (though Esme's term is at the beginning of the school year and ends in winter, it doesn't get very cold) which stays with me even more than the adventures although those are fun and nicely told.

There is a very helpful map of the canal city of Esperance but it would have been nice to have a map of the whole of Aeolia as well, since Esme's adventures take her to many different parts of that world.

The third book of the trilogy is due out later this year (2021) which will hopefully satisfy my curiosity about some questions (though the story is not left on a cliffhanger). I hope Foster doesn't stop there but sets more stories in this charming world.

July 2021
4-4.5 stars ( )

Fun continuation of the series filled with dragons, scary creatures, and Esme's adventures in a magical world. ( )

Picking up where Esme's Wish leaves off, Esme's Gift continues on the epic journey to find all the ingredients needed to hopefully save her mothers life. Elizabeth Foster does a masterful job of filling the reader in on everything that occurred in the first book, so this could be read as a standalone, but Esme's Gift is so good, I highly recommend you read it as well.

Reading Esme's Gift literally transports you to a different world, giving you a view of breathtaking and unimaginable scenery, introduces you to rich, colorful characters that blend perfectly with all the characters from the first book. It all gives you that escape that makes stories so incredible.

Finding out all the answers to the questions I had from the previous book was so satisfying, and all the action and adventure was perfection. There were a few things I wish I could've witnessed but these instances were eluded to, and my imagination did the rest of the work, but I would've still loved to read how much further the author would've taken it.

Though this is geared more towards youth readers, I found this book immensely enjoyable and highly recommend for all readers.

*I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from Prism Book Tours . All views and opinions are completely honest, and my own. ( )

I enjoyed Esme's Wish (Book 1), but Esme's Gift (Book 2) wasn't as good. The first half of the story dragged its feet a bit, but the second half picked up the pace and was more interesting. The pages turned swiftly then. As a result, I want to give this book three and a half stars. As I cannot do that, I have given it three stars instead. Sorry.

I liked the fact that the mysteries were not left hanging until book 3. It was great to know how, when, where and why everything up to now had happened. And it was even better that these facts went together well. In fact, the book was written like a cozy mystery, but without a murder. I found that interesting and well-plotted. I appreciated and enjoyed the arrival of certain other characters as well.

I didn't like the school scenes. There may have been a reason for them, and I guess as the main characters are school age, it made sense to have Esme return to school, but it didn't work for me. I'm not saying the scenes were poorly written, they just lacked interest, for me. However, younger readers will probably relate to those scenes much better than I did and enjoy them immensely.

Regardless of all this, I still loved the fresh, new world that the author has created. I look forward to reading more adventures set in Aeolia and finding out more about Seth's motivations. ( )

A wonderfully descriptive and magical adventure which follows through well from the first book. It conjured up many amazing creatures and images for me. I have recommended it to my teenage daughter and her friends. ( )