Adventures with dragons are my favourite books to read and this one's a beauty. Quintessence is the fifth and final of Marsha's Enchanted Bookstore Legends. It's the first one I've read and it's full of magic, dragons, quests and battles.
The author immerses you in the fantastical world of Dragonspeir which is entered through enchanted books in a modern day Indianapolis bookstore. Lyra and Cullen are magical lovers who are on a quest to return four missing keystones to the Alliance and defend against the Dark Realm.
I certainly had some catching up to do, being given this fifth book to review. Cullen is a wizard and Lyra is a scribe, which seem fairly similar to me, but use different kinds of magic. Lyra has Quintessence, which is very rare. You'll have to forgive my ignorance, as I'm sure this is well described in the earlier books. Kessa is a 10 year old seer who has been imprisoned by the bad guys and is in need of rescue.
I must admit I got a bit lost in the hosts of magical creatures and was thankful for the descriptions at the start of the book. Here are a few of the many weird and wonderful creatures: malificates; black dragons; cimafa - small dragons; circutamina - tree spirits; witches; alchemists; fire drakes - like dragons; golden dragons; guardians; magma drakes; psuedodrgaons; a warlord; an auspex; scorpents - scorpion snakes; magical locust; sorcerors; skeleton-people; blue dragons; bronze dragons ;talking phoenix, tortoise, trees and unicorn. There are also wizard familiars such as an owl and a psuedodragon. Wow! I wish I had a hard-cover book, because my Kindle wouldn't let me skip back and forth to the descriptions.
The magic and characters have coloured auras, some colours are good and some bad. The lead characters have a very cool communication stone and can speak telepathically. Other magical elements used included the craft of fascination and bloodswear bond.
Intricate characters and magic aside, this is a great story and builds towards an exciting battle. Will the young seer be saved, or will the scribe need saving herself? You'll have to read it to discover the outcome of this epic series.
I rate this book 4 stars and definitely recommended it for fantasy and adventure lovers.
One last note, is that the book is promoted as a fantasy romance, but there's not a lot of romance here so I would classify it as fantasy adventure. The romance part is not for children.
The author immerses you in the fantastical world of Dragonspeir which is entered through enchanted books in a modern day Indianapolis bookstore. Lyra and Cullen are magical lovers who are on a quest to return four missing keystones to the Alliance and defend against the Dark Realm.
I certainly had some catching up to do, being given this fifth book to review. Cullen is a wizard and Lyra is a scribe, which seem fairly similar to me, but use different kinds of magic. Lyra has Quintessence, which is very rare. You'll have to forgive my ignorance, as I'm sure this is well described in the earlier books. Kessa is a 10 year old seer who has been imprisoned by the bad guys and is in need of rescue.
I must admit I got a bit lost in the hosts of magical creatures and was thankful for the descriptions at the start of the book. Here are a few of the many weird and wonderful creatures: malificates; black dragons; cimafa - small dragons; circutamina - tree spirits; witches; alchemists; fire drakes - like dragons; golden dragons; guardians; magma drakes; psuedodrgaons; a warlord; an auspex; scorpents - scorpion snakes; magical locust; sorcerors; skeleton-people; blue dragons; bronze dragons ;talking phoenix, tortoise, trees and unicorn. There are also wizard familiars such as an owl and a psuedodragon. Wow! I wish I had a hard-cover book, because my Kindle wouldn't let me skip back and forth to the descriptions.
The magic and characters have coloured auras, some colours are good and some bad. The lead characters have a very cool communication stone and can speak telepathically. Other magical elements used included the craft of fascination and bloodswear bond.
Intricate characters and magic aside, this is a great story and builds towards an exciting battle. Will the young seer be saved, or will the scribe need saving herself? You'll have to read it to discover the outcome of this epic series.
I rate this book 4 stars and definitely recommended it for fantasy and adventure lovers.
One last note, is that the book is promoted as a fantasy romance, but there's not a lot of romance here so I would classify it as fantasy adventure. The romance part is not for children.