Cayla Kluver

Ante la insistencia de su padre, la princesa Alera se ve obligada a casarse con el maléfico Steldor. Su boda la convierte en reina y, lo que es peor, a Steldor en rey. Alera sigue despreciando al hombre que le impusieron; de hecho, odia su situación, ya que sigue enamorada del misterioso Narian. Las cosas no podrían ser más complicadas: Narian es, oficialmente, un abierto enemigo suyo; el joven apoya al reino de Cokyria en la lucha que éste ha iniciado contra el reino de Alera. Una cruel guerra se ha desatado entre los dos pueblos y Alera tiene que sacar fuerzas para responder ante su gente, a pesar de que a menudo se siente impotente ante la difícil situación y su confuso corazón. Por suerte, Alera es una heroína inteligente, batalladora, dispuesta a luchar por sus convicciones. Con el tiempo les demostrará a todos que su fuerza interior puede, casi, con todo.… (mehr)

I know, I know... I really should read a series in order and not just jump into the second book, but I did anyway. This book is engaging and interesting, so I found it pretty easy to pick the central pieces of the story and the characters involved. I have no doubt I would have like the story better if I had read the first book previously, but I still managed figure out much of the book and the fantasy world its set in. Overall, this made for an enjoyable read, and I'm inclined to at least read this author again, if not read the rest of the books in this series.… (mehr)

One of our TAB members recommended this to me, and I really loved that it's printed in blue ink with nifty illuminated letters to start each chapter. I was a little hesitant when I learned it was written by a 14 year old, mostly because the other books I've read (or tried to read) by teens ([b:Eragon|113436|Eragon (Inheritance, #1)|Christopher Paolini|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255586310s/113436.jpg|3178011] and [b:Truancy|2513286|Truancy|Isamu Fukui|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TsuZOqfXL._SL75_.jpg|2520668]) weren't really my cup of tea.

I made it to page 16 and gave up. It SOUNDS like a 14 year old wrote it. Which is fine, and if that doesn't bother you perhaps you'll like the story, but it drove me crazy. I distinctly recall writing stories that sounded EXACTLY like this in little memo notebooks in junior high. True, they weren't 400 pages, but the language that sounds like a thesaurus vomited on the page and the lovingly detailed description of everything from eye color to tapestry patterns were completely familiar. There might be a beautiful story in these pages, I just don't have the patience to read it.

I think I should probably just avoid all books written by teens. Three strikes, you're out, yeah?

… (mehr)