I got this book from netgalley in return of a honest review.

This book is good for people who are into folklore and Celtics history of a sort. There was a lot of information given, and I thought it happened a little slow. I unfortunately couldn't connect with the characters much and the story just didn't draw me in.

It is a good YA book, but it just unfortunately wasn't for me.

A complex, urban fantasy set in 1990s Ireland and Northern Ireland during a highly volatile time in their history. The Wise One seamlessly blends Irish folklore, political drama, and themes of environmentalism that are still very relevant today. This is a story of 17 year old McKenna's journey of self discovery and search for her long lost mother, featuring friendship and a hint of romance. As The Wise One is only the first book in The Scottish Scrolls series, there is so much more to uncover.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think I'm going to rate this one. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I know that this book wasn't for me. I ended up DNFing @38%.

While I was reading, the first hint that this book wasn't going to be for me was that I didn't really find myself wanting to pick it up. In fact, I actually put it down and didn't touch it for about 4 days after starting it.
Let's talk about Mckenna, the main character. I found her to be unlikable and rude. She felt really hypocritical at some points, and also very back-and-forth in personality. She wasn't a character that I cared about or connected with. I also found that she was quick to lash out, and she judged things and people really quickly without waiting to learn more. I disliked her relationship with her dads because I thought she was rude and disrespectful. Yes her dad was hiding a part of her past for her, but it hadn't impacted her life until that point, and her dad didn't even know that it would. It was handled badly by both characters, but Mckenna's reaction felt extreme.
She stole money out of their safe, and left with this girl she barely knew to go to Ireland and try to find her mom.
Um what? This seemed extreme and crazy to me, and it was kind of a 0-100 moment where all of a sudden they were just leaving.
This was another issue I had with the book. It's a fantasy novel, but I barely got to any of the fantasy elements and I thought it was incredibly unrealistic. The part that really got me was the old couple helping them to get to Ireland. John, this old man they met a couple of hours ago, freaks out on the person checking names of passengers on the ship, and makes it seem as if the list is missing two names. NO ONE ever comes to check the validity of this claim, and so the two girls get to go to Ireland without passports and without paying.
The part that made me finally DNF this book was when it went to jump back into the past. It was going to show Mckenna's dad, Sean, when he met her mom and their relationship. I didn't care about this. I felt like it was taking away from the story which was supposed to be about McKenna.

Overall, I wanted to like this one. The description initially drew me in and had me eager to read it. Unfortunately I really didn't like the main character, and I couldn't believe the events of the story.

Compelling story with likeable characters. The setting was haunting and perfect for the story. Romance, intrigue, it's all there. It did drag a little in areas and tended to wander for a bit, but overall a good read.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Although this book was short, it managed to be very slow-paced and if I hadn't received this as an arc, I probably would have DNF'd it.
I'm not saying this is a bad book. The idea is fine, and the writing is fine.
The book follows McKenna, for whom things after her seventeenth birthday get a lot stranger than they usually are. She has strange, vivid nightmares, can influence birds to do her bidding and knows what other people are feeling. She finds out her birth mother, a mystic, left her with her father to protect her. Since her fathers don't have any answers, McKenna knows that she must find her mother to get the whole story.
McKenna is not a good protagonist. She's 17, but she would be more convincing as a thirteen or fourteen year old - she's childish, impulsive, disrespectful, entitled and she's all in all the most annoying protagonist I've ever read about. She makes no plans, travelling to Ireland on a whim, and never spends any time thinking about the consequences of her actions.

The pacing in this book was off - McKenna travels from Boston to Dublin (with money McKenna stole from her parents' savings) by boat. She brings along Nissa, a classmate she barely knows. Neither have passports, but they tail along with a couple of strangers, and once in Ireland, ask the first stranger they meet to drive them to Northern Ireland. All of this really pulled me out of the story, since they were portrayed as good choices that totally pay off.
On the following road-trip, it often feels like nothing relevant is happening. There's a lot of filler, and even though I liked the glimpses of Irish folklore, these often felt like random scenes smashed together, without any resolution to them. For example, I still don't fully understand what a Wise One is, even though there are constant references to it and it being the title of the book.
The descriptions of Ireland's countryside were beautiful though, and I do think the author managed to bring the setting to life.

Though I liked the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, I felt like it could have been handled better. McKenna has two dads, but Sean (her biological father) seems to still have some unresolved feelings for her biological mother. When this was first introduced it didn't really bother me, but further along in the story Sean didn't seem conflicted at all to disregard his relationship with his partner to go back to Abby and that made the relationship between McKenna's dads feel very one-sided.

Nissa was probably the one thing in the book I truly liked. Her journey made sense and I wished she had more time to shine. Though I wasn't sold on her friendship with McKenna at first, they did have some nice chemistry.

2 stars, rounded up to 2,5 because of Nissa's storyline.
It's a short read so I'd say if you're interested it won't hurt to try it out, but I wouldn't really recommend this.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say, this one really disappointed me. I loved the vibe of this book so much, the darker undertones with magic and witchy things, and even the atmosphere in Ireland was wonderful. But, that was as far as it went. The main character, McKenna, is unbearable. She was annoying and just super immature for a young woman her age. Then there was all that weirdness with her and Nissa. I didn’t understand why they didn’t become love interests? I think I would’ve enjoyed that more. Then, the whole age gap with Cillian was just not it for me. The author should have made her at least 18 or 19 if she was going to have her love interest be 24...just kind of creeped me out a bit.

If this sounds interesting to you, go for it! But, for me, it did feel like a waste of time and energy, unfortunately.

I accidentally got a copy of this from BookSirens as well, so this is the same as my other review. Sorry!
This book was very controversial for me because some parts I enjoyed, like the scenes where she met magical creatures and the scenes where she was with Esme, however at other points it slightly fell flat for me, like when she was talking to other people at her school at the beginning of the book, but otherwise, I enjoyed this book a lot, and I think that this was a well-written book. It gave me a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender vibes when she was having flashbacks to her past lives, and I liked that idea. 4/5 stars from me!

I thought I was going to like this book. I really wanted to like this book. Ireland, Faeries, LGBTQ-rep - technically, I should have liked this book. I did not like this book. Not at all.
Mckenna was horribly unlikeable; I loathed that fact the main gay couple parted (I seriously hate it when some GIRL, nontheless, breaks up my gay-ship) and the small chance I had of a beautiful bi-representation was compleatly squashed. I don't know how I managed to read this book.. I don't know why I continued to read when I was hating it so much. I think it was because I was curious how and when the Fae would take their part in the story, but I was horribly disappointed because it wasn't at all what I expected.
The whole story seemed to me like an unconected collection of scenes. Of course, there was some context, but all in all the book itself didn't seem well done. There was too much telling in my opinion and the characters were all horribly unlikeable. Mckenna was annoying from the very start and she didn't turned out any better by the end of the book. She is a Mary Sue if I've ever read one. At first I thought I was going to like Cillian -but it was quite obvious where this relationship with Kenna was going and I am bored out of my mind of having too much hetero-representation in my queer books. Kenna's Bisexuality was not portrayed well and I hated her for the way she acted toward Nissa.
Let's be honest, Nissa was the only character I cared about by the end of the book. If the author was to write an entire series about Nissa and her family, I'd read it. Nissa's story was more interesting than the whole book. I also think this book would've done well with a lot more Fae-representation. I hope there will be more in the second book, but I doubt I'll know. I am seriously not interested in the second book, since that first one has annoyed me so much. Don't claim to be LGBT if all you do is "kill" the LGBT parts of the book.
I really didn't like it. I can't say much on the historical accuracy of the book, but why would an Irish character use an obvious Scottish slang?! Couldn't the author come up with some Irish words? I love Ireland and I was very disappointed by that book and the way Ireland was represented. .
Two stars because of Nissa and her way too underrated story and one for chosing the setting of Ireland, although th representation failed horribly.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This story was not to my taste at all. I enjoyed the premise of this book but it lacked a certain sense of composure.

Received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This is a weird book. I don’t really know how to sum it up more than that. It’s pretty short, clocking in at under 300 pages, and yet it manages to be quite slow-paced at times.

Mckenna is… okay. She’s fine. She doesn’t feel like a real person to me, but she isn’t horrible. I don’t like how she treats other people at all, especially her dads, and she’s got a bad case of Dumb sometimes, but she’s… fine.

A lot of things in this book are just… fine. The writing is fine, the characters are fine, the idea is fine.

Let’s talk about what I liked and didn’t like. Starting with positives. I really like that McKenna (I can’t keep typing “Mckenna”, my laptop and I hate it.) has two dads! It’s something really uncommon in YA, so it’s nice to see it.

I also really liked that when McKenna is upset and confused, she actually has a conversation with her parents. That’s way more realistic than some YA. Parents actually care about their kids, and it’s very obvious Seán and Andre want to understand McKenna.

I enjoyed how McKenna reacted to her past lives, good or bad, as well. She’s able to acknowledge their faults and mistakes, but recognize that her current life is different and she can make new choices. It’s a very mature mindset.

One of the big things that bothers me is the spelling of “Mckenna." I know that’s a really dumb thing, but every time I read it, I was like that’s not how you spell it!!!

Another thing is the weird Irish representation. It kind of reminded me of Leap Year, where it’s very clearly an American doing their idealized version of Ireland. There’s lots of Guinness and Irish historic site mentions, but the author spells craic like crack. The story is also set during the Troubles, and I do understand the author’s point, but she sort of pooh-poohs the conflict and is all about environmental concerns, which are obviously pressing, but to basically dismiss a very real conflict that has claimed a lot of lives, is not great. It also kind of brings up the question, why set it in the Troubles then?

Speaking of Irish sites, the amount of Wikipedia-page info-dumping that happens whenever they visit one of these sites is insane. It was completely unnecessary, and it wasn’t written compellingly, so I wasn’t interested at all. And I love history, so :(

There’s also that classic bisexual thing of “I don’t like labels” instead of the character just saying bisexual. That’s dumb. It’s 2020, just say bi. It’s not a dirty word. Grow up.

I also think the author may have seen Outlander? There’s mysterious women in white flowy gowns doing magic around historic sites, and a hot guy calling people “lass”. Even though he’s Irish. And yes, I know he says he stole it from the Scots, but come on.

And here’s my biggest issue. McKenna and Nissa are seventeen years old, and they are making some incredibly stupid and dangerous decisions. They run away from home to an unknown city, jump on a BOAT TO EUROPE with a random couple they met hours before, then get into a car with a random man who offers them a ride to another country. Those are decisions that would get a seventeen year old girl killed. To portray those as easy, good decisions is insane to me. I know it’s a book, but that is a HUGE thing for me to suspend my disbelief for. I have a very hard time being okay with that.

This one is 2 stars for me. It is a short read, so if you’re interested, try it, but it’s not gonna be my first recommendation.

This book was really beautifully written. The descriptions of Ireland make you want to immediately travel round in search of magic. Everything is lush and verdant and stunningly described. I love the characters, and the counterpoint of Irish troubles, environmental fears and magic. Desperate to see what happens next, especially with the slight twist at the end. Great book. Well worth a read.

The Wise One introduces us to Mckenna, a girl who seems to have had the World's Worst Nightmare after her 17th birthday. It's hard to forget about being burned at the stake. However, things start to get weird in the most magical way. On top of the nightmares, birds can hear her thoughts and knows what others are feeling. It all leads up to the revelation that this is all because of Mckenna's mom, Abby, who Mckenna hasn't ever met. She knows deep down that finding her mom is going to get her the answers she needs. With her new friend Nissa tagging along, Mckenna travels all the way to Ireland to find out what is really going on. Things seem to fall in place, even with the addition of Cillian to play their tour guide. It's almost like there's a force out there working in the backgrounds to make sure Mckenna makes her journey through...​

By the description alone, I was intrigued by this book. I was in for a treat because it was a page-turner for me. This ended up being... an okay read.

I experienced a roller coaster of emotions while reading this. The novel was very fast-paced for me due to it being an easy read. Because of this, I had many questions but received few answers. Like how and what is a Wise One? I knew it was important, but after all this time, I really can't explain what a Wise One is. Which I think causes it to miss its mark since the book is literally named after it. Also, how did Mckenna get a girl she barely knows to travel across the ocean with her? In what world are we living where two teens can just run away, and everything falls into place? A lot of these questions get answered, but unfortunately, the ones that mattered did not.

I can't even say I liked a single character in this book. Mckenna was annoying and reckless. When you can't even like the main character, then I often get frustrated because then what is the point? Nissa was her opposite which was great, but I felt like she got taken advantage of a lot. Cillian was fine, but I didn't get to know him or his motivations either. Also, please don't get me started on Abby, Mckenna's mom, and her role in the drama between Séan and Andre, Mckenna's dads. I did not like the implications that Séan might still be hung up on Abby and Andrea thinks it's okay for Mckenna, as a teenager, to go on a adventure and come back when 'she cools down.'

I don't know what else to say other than I expected more. Despite being about Celtic folklore and magic, there was barely any magic done in the book itself. I can't tell you if it's a good thing that this screams First Book in A Series for me. There is a lot of potential, but there's also plenty of growing pains. I'm curious enough to want to know about what a Wise One is and how that impacts Mckenna, but we will have to see if I'm still interested by then.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the author’s writing style and found the characters interesting and engaging. I was disappointed however, that the story doesn’t even reach a natural break in the storyline, it just stops, not even just a cliffhanger but right smack bang in the middle of things.
A good read but you might want to make sure that you have the second book ready to read before you start.
My thanks to NetGalley, Kat Biggie Press and K. T. Anglehart for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

This was a fun read. The pace of this story was nice, and I believe perfect for this story. I know there are some underline messages in this story. One message was okay, not to pushy, and it gave Nissa and another character something to be passionate about. It intertwined with the story well, but it got heavy towards the end. 

The main character Mckenna for myself was a little hard to get into at first. She is supposed to be a 17-year-old, and I kept mistaken her as a 14-year-old. The maturity level did not feel right in some parts. I know everyone is different, but I felt a miss here. I know I have been told I was more mature for my age and maybe this could be the reason. She seemed annoying and whinny at some points. Overall, I enjoyed how she followed her instincts and took signs given to her. For me, this showed the more mature side. She took chances knowing a new friend, Nissa, was there to balance her, Mckenna being the introvert and Nissa being the extrovert.  

Nissa was my favorite. I love how optimistic and naïve she is. Like Mckenna, I kept mistaken her for a 14-year-old instead of a 17-year-old. At some points, though, I often felt Nissa being the oldest between the two. Nissa is not like Mckenna. Nissa is a passionate and curious person. She is not afraid to ask questions and learn. I feel as if she is more of a rounded character then Mckenna. I am excited to find out how Nissa’s story will continue to intertwine with Mckenna’s in the next one.

What drew me into this story was how well the Celtic Mythology was researched and told mixed into other cute stories. Everything was blended nicely, like it was natural. This is the only book I have read so far with witch/wiccan/pagan beliefs in its natural spiritual form instead of the “energy or flame balls" forming in your hands like Charmed or Supernatural and other fantasy paranormal books. Though I am not against this, I find it fun to read, I very much enjoyed this difference. I am familiar with most of nature spiritual beliefs and this connected me into the story. The Irish setting was pleasant. I felt I was there.  

 This was a fun read. I would recommend this to someone who wants a fun fantasy to read.

**WARNING: this review contains spoilers (I just couldn’t help myself [laughs nervously])

First of all, thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC and giving me the chance to read it. It’s been a pleasure.

The Wise One follows the story of McKenna, a 17 year old teenager that starts experiencing weird and magical things that belong to those stories of fairy tales. She then sets off on a journey which purpose is both discovering herself and investigating as well as trying to find someone she never thought she’d ever meet. Now, accompanied by a new friend Nissa and a stranger, McKenna faces new challenges as well as she gets to know more about her past and her origins.

I believe this is the first book in the saga “The Scottish Scrolls” and even though it started really slow-paced, things get interesting as we dive more into the action. I have to admit I was dreading to start it, but that’s what happens to most of the books I read. However, I am very pleased to say it has been worth every second of my time.

Let’s dive into what I liked and I didn’t like, shall we?

The story is quite slow-paced, at some points too slow-paced for my liking, and sometimes I had to put the book down just to process what I was reading; between all the touristic and history facts that are told about every place they go. However, I can tell I learned great things and that’s one of the things that I find the most intriguing about books.

My favourite character? I don’t think I really have one in specific, I’d have to read more to actually find a character that I can relate to and love. But I do specially like Nissa, the carefree girl who’s all about nature, who cares so much about nature and constantly thinks of ways to preserve it. She’s really passionate about what she likes and the fact that she reads nature books,,,, that’s what made me like her so much. In addition, her blindly trusting someone she barely knows and joining McKenna in her journey to self-discovery says a lot about her. Nissa is such a baby and by that I mean she’s got to be protected at all costs. I love her a lot. Despite this, I also would like to mention how she’s way too innocent and maybe takes very dangerous risks, for instance when she follows an old lady into a narrow and dark street and when she convinces McKenna to stay with a pair of strangers. That’s what weirded me out quite a lot because we’ve all been told since we were children that we must never trust strangers, lest follow them to wherever they might lead us. I thank the God above Nissa’s been lucky to find trustful and good people.

The characters didn’t actually feel real to me. There’s so many things I find so strange and risky, maybe it’s due to my european upbringing and my lack of knowledge on american culture and habits. First of all we have McKenna running away to Boston to get to Dublin and then go to Ballycastle, leaving a two-line short note to her parents, persuading another teenager to accompany her and not even once caring about what this might do to her parents. Yes, she did end up wondering about what her parents might have thought and feeling guilty, which was a plus because I hated reading how she “didn’t want to think of her parents because they wouldn’t understand her emotions and what she’s going through” at that moment. Seán and Andre are her family, the only family she ever needed and she was fast to leave them behind pursuing a lead to find her mum whom she doesn’t know if is alive or has perished. She sets off on a long journey with nothing planned, a rather improvised decision that shows she was too angry, overwhelmed by her own emotions and thoughts to think clearly and give a second thought before running to find her mum without hesitation.

I’ve got to say Seán was right to go look for her and get her home safely. Andre’s opinion to let her cool down, find her answers and come back once she was ready was one of the most unrealistic things I’ve ever read, but I do understand why he may have said it. We teenagers tend to act rather unpredictable and we tend to take decisions made just when we are overwhelmed. McKenna took a big decision without second thoughts and I felt like Andre was wrong to tell Seán to let her come back when she was ready. Let’s remember McKenna is 17 years old, still a minor. If I were her mother, my first thought would’ve been to go look for her, get her back home and tell her off. And maybe then just be grateful I’d found McKenna and that nothing bad happened to her. Don’t forget she didn’t just run away to another city or town or state, instead she ran away to another continent, which is something to really really worry about. And this may be the reason why I started liking Seán, till he kissed Abby, which with me counts as cheating on her husband. I was really pleased to see Seán and Andre parenting McKenna though.

However, the big big NO was McKenna and Nissa going through her journey and trusting complete strangers: from the adorable old couple to Cillian, whom they just met like maybe 5 days ago, and with whom shared a bedroom and the journey through the green landscape of Ireland. In real life that’s the most most MOST dangerous thing to ever do, but I also understand this is a book and not going to lie, if I were a book character I’d probably do the same. I’ve even dreamed and wondered doing this while sleeping at night.

The story didn’t keep me guessing. I was partly angry at McKenna for acting rather childish and selfish and the other part of me was just soaking up all the information and taking notes on the scottish and irish words used throughout the whole book. I did wonder though if McKenna would ever find where her mother was hiding, and if she would cross paths with her father and her mother at some point. And I’m still waiting for this to happen in the following book.

My favourite part of the book might have been when McKenna met a faerie with whom she exchanged pleasantries and who returned her Converses to her way after she returned to the “real world”. Another favourite moment of mine is when Nissa and McKenna reunite again, after McKenna finally realises her mistake and astral projects herself to where Nissa may be and then, when she goes back to her to apologize, both of them hug each other and then share their findings.

As for the question whether the book made me laugh and cry,,,,,, it’s safe to say I didn’t do either? I did find every scene written greatly which helped me picture every word in my head and play it as if it was a film. However, this is the first book so there hasn’t been lots of pure action,,,, which brings me to the following point: there weren’t enough sad or tense and romantic scenes for me to actually appreciate the way they’re written. I DO love slow-burn romances so I’m cheering and rooting for McKenna and Cillian in the second book.

All in all, the surprising thing has been the ending. With a cliffhanger like that, who expects the book to no longer give you more scenes? It basically cuts off your supply on chapters right after she finally meets her mother through astral projection. It’s frustrating and I’m just waiting for the next book to come so I can read what’s going to happen but at the same time I wanna leave it because I’m dreading what might happen next. I am ready for the next book but at the same time I’m scared what the next book might bring to the characters. I do want, of course, Andre and Seán meeting and fixing their marriage, because these two are the best thing in the whole book. And I just wish them the best.

To summarize, I’d like to thank again the publisher for giving me an ARC and letting me read this story. As for what public this may be directed to, I’d daresay this book is perfect for teens (teenagers) around 14-18 maybe 14-17. For young readers who love a slow-burn romance and slow-paced story that might teach you quite a lot of things about Ireland and its myths.

Despite the things I’ve learned and the new vocabulary, I give this book a solid 2 star rating. I really hope the next one picks up and gives us more action as well as more backstory and maybe shows us the character development of McKenna. I truly wish to love her with all my heart and I want to be able to say I love McKenna after the following book.

Sad to say this even really wasn’t for me, the writing felt all over the place and a bit naive and unpracticed, the characters I didn’t really connect with so I couldn’t really say I liked or disliked them.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an honest opinion

The Wise One takes place in the 1990s and is immersed in Celtic folklore. When McKenna turns 17 she begins to discover that she has abilities. In a quest to learn more about her mother and her abilities, McKenna and her friend, Nissa travel to Ireland. During their travels McKenna learns more and more about who she is and a dangerous prophency involving her and her mother.

The Wise One has a great premise. I was very excited to dive into the Celtic folklore and was immediately intrigued. The Wise One truly makes you feel like you're a part of McKenna's story while she discovers more about herself and grows into her powers. The friendship between McKenna and Nissa was great and heartfelt. I couldn't really connect to the Priestess motives and felt like these weren't really clear.

The pacing of the story was at times slow and certain parts didn't fit together that well. At times the story jumped from one place to another while the ending felt a bit rushed. I did enjoy the cliffhanger a lot.

I am curious to find out what'll happen next. I hope that in the next book we will learn more about McKenna's mother and the motives of The Priestess, Maeve.

An interesting introduction to a YA series based on Celtic Folklore.

McKenna is a Wise one who is basically a super witch with past lives that is wrapped up in a prophecy that may determine the fate of the world. At the same time she is also a 17 year old girl, with 2 gay dads, feeling a lot of teenage angst and that she doesn’t fit in a sleepy little nothing town in the US. Most of the book deals with her traveling through Ireland with her friend Nissa, and Cillian a potential love interest.

This book is short and even though not a lot happens - I found it engaging. I enjoyed reading about how McKenna grows into her powers. There are a lot of coincidences and lucky things happening to the girls that are explained as the mystics helping them on their journey, or are “engineered” for nefarious reasons. We are introduced to a potential baddy but she doesn’t have a lot of weight at the moment and comes across as 2 dimensional.

Essentially this feels like the fluff piece before we get to the meat of the story in the next book. I enjoyed reading about the fae and random creatures based in Ireland and Scotland and I want to visit the places mentioned. Overall, I would give this a 3.4/5 stars.

Witches, Faeries, and Ghosts: The Perfect Samhain Read
The Wise One is a delightfully spooky tale starring a reincarnated witch, mystics who are conservation radicals, and a host of mystical creatures found in Scottish and Irish folklore. As any fan of the Shadowhunter universe would sagely caution: all the stories are true. This is a lesson that Makenna (the Wise One) will have to quickly accept, if she wants to stay one step ahead of the magical forces hunting her, and her mother, whom she has never met. The only problem is that Makenna is very logical, and has been told nothing of her supernatural heritage by her father Sean, and his husband Andre. In fact, they have always led her to believe that she was the product of a surrogacy, and that they have no ties to her mother. But when Makenna discovers that this is untrue, she sets off on a highly illogical journey to Ireland, with her new best friend Nissa, to uncover that truth of who she is, where she came from, and what happened to her mother. See the source image

In order to avoid any spoilers, I don’t want to discuss the plot in any more detail. I will say only that it moves quickly, and for the most part believably, from adventure to adventure as Nissa and Makenna uncover the secrets of their pasts, and race against time to keep Makenna safe from a fate she doesn’t yet understand. One aspect I particularly enjoyed is that the villain in the story is far more interesting than a typical evil sorceress, in that she and her followers are trying to end human abuse to Mother Nature, in an effort to stop climate change. The only problem, of course, is the methods they plan to use to accomplish that noble goal…involving the destruction of millions of souls. This naturally gives Makenna no small incentive to try to stay out of their reach until she can find her mother, and learn how to fulfill her fate without causing mass destruction. Pretty heavy concepts for a YA Fantasy novel right? But, I believe young people will enjoy pondering the question: what can be done to reverse the damage being done to our planet, while still allowing for longer life spans and expansion of the population? While a massive purge of souls is clearly not the answer, something must be done, and I firmly believe that our current young adult population will be the ones to find an answer to that question.

Image result for ireland gifThis book is fun and spooky despite all that, as Makenna faces down a vengeful ghost, meets a coven of witches, and explores the beautiful Irish countryside. As Makenna and Nissa travel, they learn as much about Irish folklore as they do about Irish politics in the time of The Troubles from their mysterious guide, Cillian. There is a budding romance between Makenna and Cillian as well, that is tested by his loyalties and goals for Ireland’s future. I have a feeling that the series being set toward the end of The Troubles (the time period of violent strife between Protestant loyalists and Catholic nationalists, over whether Northern Ireland should be part of the UK or the rest of Ireland) will have greater importance in future books of the series, and I look forward to seeing how that will be interwoven with the need for conservation…and with the magical fate of the Wise One. Image result for samhain gif

All in all, this is an excellent YA fantasy…it ends on Samhain, making it perfect for this season that we are moving into, and serves as a reminder of the natural world’s cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. After all no matter how dark the metaphorical night, or how cold the metaphorical winter, eventually spring will arrive, bringing new hope for the future.

A solid 4.5!

ARC from NetGalley

Well this was better than I had assumed from the cover.

This is a decent YA fantasy. McKenna sets off to find out more about herself after having been left in the dark for her entire life. Her travels through Ireland were really interesting, and I enjoyed the facts that were wound up with the fantasy. While there was certainly a lot of folklore and mysticism in this book, it is setting things up for even more in the books to come, and I am intrigued for that. I want to know more about the characters. I want to see where this goes.

There really isn't a lot of romance in this book. I didn't really miss it, though I hope there will be more to come, which is hinted at. This book ends on a cliffhanger, so if you hate those, be forewarned.