Another book that I think I was not the target audience for, however in my opinion this book really should have been labeled as children's fiction instead of Young Adult. I don't mind young adult, and there have been quite a few children's novels that I have absolutely loved like Mandy by Julie Andrews or even The Heartwood Hotel by Kallie George. The Seren Stone missed the mark for me.
Summary:
Loren, and her siblings Will and Cat find themselves suddenly launched into the future where dragons exist and the world as they knew it no longer exists. The moon is broken, and the familiar landscape they once knew is covered in water. The book doesn't describe how old the children are, but based off their behavior and other context clues it seems that Loren is the oldest, and behaves as if she is an early teenager, with Will being in the middle and Cat being young, possibly seven or eight. They begin a quest to learn about the necklace that mysteriously brought them to into the future, and to possibly find their way home.
Thoughts:
The imagery Lisa Shambrook provides when describes the dragons, or the scenery is brilliant. She is obviously a gifted writer. I wanted to like this book. I love the genre, I love reading about dragons and magic, and any book that takes me anywhere is worth a shot. The target audience for this book really should be 10-14 year olds. It's clean, it tells a fun story, and I think if I had read this at this age I would have really loved it. . If you have a child that's into D&D or video games that have dragons in it, they would absolutely love this book. It also felt very much like the The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but with a bit less sparkle.
I'm going to gripe here for a second, and I hear another blog post coming shortly about genres. I understand genres are subjective, but there's a widely agreed upon criteria when it comes to Young Adult and this book does not fit that description. Young Adult stories are typically about YOUNG ADULTS and typically involve a coming of age theme and have major character development. This book had NONE of this.
Who would enjoy this book?
- Anyone who enjoys reading adventure stories about children.
- Any child (or person young at heart) who enjoys D&D or fantasy based video games.
- Anyone who enjoyed children's stories like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,
The Seren Stone is available for purchase beginning April 5!
Disclaimer: I received an advanced e-copy of this book free for review. This however does not affect my opinions, as I do not leave a review for each book I receive. There are links to Amazon, clicking these links won't cost you anything but any purchase helps support this blog. Thanks!