Good old-fashioned high fantasy: 4 stars

This story is a romp in the mire of fantasy with griffins, phoenixes, minotaurs, dragons, satyrs, centaurs, elves, and all the rest. Though it was sold to me as a Christian novel, it is not. It’s written by a Christian as far as I can tell, but the content doesn’t give a hint other than the good guys are clean and moral. That’s something in these days, but it doesn’t make it a Christian story. It’s the reason I only gave it 4 stars.

It’s a coming of age tale about a rebellious young princess and done very well. There are times I just wanted to smack this teenager in the chops and tell her to grow up—but that’s the nature of the beast when you are dealing with teenage heroines, I guess. Personally, I’d rather see her as in her early to mid twenties, but YA is cool now. This is high fantasy adventure writ large and entertaining.

It was mildly disturbing that the epilogue did not resolve the love story [which I wanted and expected], but instead dealt with the survival of the chief villain, so far. However, I am definitely looking for Book 2 in the series.