Rosie’s #Bookreview of #Ya #Fantasy Daughter Of Magic by Karen Eisenbrey

Daughter of Magic by Karen Eisenbrey

3 stars

Daughter of Magic is a young adult fantasy. It has a medieval setting and a theme revolving around magic and wizards.

The story opens with fourteen year old Luskell. She and her parents are travelling to a rural village, so that Luskell can stay with her Grandmother for the summer. Meanwhile, her parents must go to the city where they will act as ambassadors during tribal meetings with the new Governor.

Luskell’s parents both have magical abilities; her mother is a great healer and her father is a powerful wizard. Luskell’s own abilities are currently dormant; however, she builds a friendship with two boys and together the trio grow into their magic. They then set off on a quest to stop a power-hungry bad wizard.

Stories about wizards and magic are popular. This story follows well used genre tropes, but I found myself comparing the young wizards and witch to Harry Potter and his friends, a very hard act to follow. The story involved an epic number of characters, with very unusual names, which made it hard to connect to many of them. I would have enjoyed less characters and more time spent building depth to main ones to make them rounded and likable. There were also instances of weak words; I noticed an over-use of the word ‘smile’, plus there were watered down sentences which lost tension and atmosphere to the writing.

Overall, a story for those who enjoy the magic and spells theme of fantasy, but I missed a storyline and characters to truly escape with.

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Luskell has been dreaming about dead people.

Her parents may be two most powerful wizards in the country, but Luskell doesn’t have any magic of her own, so she’s stuck spending a summer with her grandmother in the small town of Deep River where her father is the hometown hero. Then the dead start to visit her dreams with mysterious messages. In a secret pact with her friends Jagryn and Laki, Luskell begins to teach herself magic and discovers an apparently bottomless well of untapped power. But before she has control over this ability, her dead grandfather appears with a dire warning. With no way to send word to her parents, Luskell and her friends mount a daring rescue. Can they get to the capital in time to save the country … and her parents’ lives?

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