What worked:
The book follows two stories told in alternating chapters of two larks, creatures that can talk, with separate journeys to travel. Wynn is a swivel-ear who has quested herself to retrieve an artifact that once protected her people. She is a guardian of it but a moment of cowardice resulted in its theft. The other story involves a magical lark named Calla who is worried about passing her tests to become a caster. This is Calla’s primary focus, especially after she breaks her staff until soldiers show up with a summons to appear before the Keepers of Runnelloom. Readers must wait until the book nears its end for the separate journeys of Wynn and Calla to finally merge.
Young readers will enjoy the variety of wilders especially Calla’s three pet twig-trots. Pye, Mischief, and Thimble look like small bushes but their behavior is reminiscent of three cats, each with its own personality. Other wilders come in a wide range of shapes and sizes that lead to curious encounters. A dead wisteria winged-moose is Calla’s first inkling that something is seriously wrong in the forests. Later, Calla is forced to eat web-tailed toads. She bravely faces a dangerous dande-boar while Wynn is forced to flee from a pack of badger-pines. The author adds horns, wings, sharp claws, and pointy teeth to familiar animals which makes them recognizable and frightening.
The two main characters are motivated to prove themselves due to past disappointments. As mentioned, Wynn is tasked with protecting an artifact but she’s distracted from her duties and cowers instead of stopping the thief. She doesn’t share details of the artifact when speaking to others and she’s determined to locate and stop a powerful caster named Blume. Calla takes a personal interest in discovering the reason wilders are dying across the lands. It seems it might involve magic but she feels insufficient with her casting after breaking her staff. Later, Calla is reunited with an older sister which creates a need to prove herself. However, Calla’s impulsiveness sometimes leads to unwanted consequences and causes old issues to return.
What didn’t work as well:
Each chapter begins with an illustration which is nothing new. However, they’re repeated in a pattern and often have nothing to do with the events in those parts of the plot. Pictures at the start of chapters in other books often give visual previews of what’s to come so the illustrations in this book are confusing.
The final verdict:
The author tenderly develops empathy for Calla and Wynn as they try to prove themselves. Readers should be prepared to read the sequel as the plot isn’t resolved and will carry over into the next book. Overall, the blend of strange characters and mysterious story is entertaining and I recommend you give this book a shot.

**Review will be published on my blog on 4/4/23**

I don't usually read middle grade books, but when the author of this book asked me to read and review their book and I saw the cover, my curiosity was peaked. I love the book cover because it's colorful and whimsical plus the synopsis was intriguing.

This story is full of adventure and I thought the world-building was fantastic. The story takes us to a world of creatures and little elves that live in a magical land. We follow two main characters, first one is Wynn who is a swirl-ear and she is searching for the person who stole a special chest she was guarding. Wynn's story is filled with harrowing adventure and she meets some interesting characters along the way. I love how Wynn has never left her home until now - it reminded me a big of Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings, leaving the shire! She learns a lot on her journey about herself and what she is capable of.

The other storyline follows Calla, a flower-elf who is not on good terms with her sister, Saffron but they meet up when she is called to Runnelloom to help with a mission - or that's what she assumes. When Calla and Saffron are together, we get a sense of their tense relationship and that's really too bad for two sisters that just lost their mother. But I feel like it's something that will be worked out, I hope, in the next books of this series.

I did feel more invested in Wynn's adventure, mostly because her traveling companions Lance and Beryl are such great characters! They made me laugh and I love that Wynn seems to have fallen into a found family situation.

I do wish each chapter told us which character we were following. Also because it's such a fantasy world full of creatures we've never heard of, it took me some time to acclimate myself to the names and phrases they used but there is a glossary which was helpful! For some reason, I was reading this whole thing in my head with a British accent (I'm not British! lol) but I just felt like that's how these characters would sound.

My Final Thoughts:

This is a full of adventure, new friendships, quests and magic but also one that deals with some tough issues like strained family relationships, and believing in one’s self and worth. If you are in the mood for a middle grade book that takes you on a fantastical journey, you just might enjoy this one.

Spindleheart was unfortunately a dnf for me. I really wanted to get into this book (and start of a series) but the text did not captivate me. I found there were a lot of new creatures being introduced, ones that have been created solely by the author. The imagination was great but I found it hard to stay connected . Also the shift of perspectives seems disjointed and hard to follow as to why we are hearing from both characters. I’m sure this would resolve in the future and show a connection, but for these reasons I did not wish to continue.

4.5 I love novels that cast non-human characters, like the Tinkerbell short novels. This middle grade is longer than those chapter books but it has a good pace for middle grade readers. Sometimes I get a bit lost where they are, or if it's a flashback, but never who is who.
I like a novel with many characters and to see their goals team up developing in friendships.
There's Wynn who knows a lot of adventures and heroes (only in plays) but she never been on her own adventure. She goes on a journey after making a mistake and losing an Artifact. There is also Calla who wants an opportunity to prove herself and I like her relationship with her sister. Thimble is just cute. Lance and Beryl are fun. They know a lot about pudding, cakes and pies and now I want some.
This is a great start for a fantasy series with action, magic and quests.
Love the cover. Want to collect the physical copies hope all the next covers will be like this one.
Thank you publisher and netgalley for the e-arc.

This is a really great starter fantasy for kids! Lots of fun mythological creatures and names and places. Many kids are going to enjoy exploring this new world!

Overall I really liked this book! I had a bit of a slow start learning all of the characters, creatures, and places, but once the main characters were all introduced, I flew through the remainder of the book. I loved the creativity of the creatures and that they had enough similarities to real animals to picture in my mind, but were unique in their differences. I especially liked swirl-ears and twig-trots. There was enough of a mystery at the end for me to continue the series, so I'm excited for Book 2. I think children who love fantasy will enjoy this series (or young-at-heart adults like me).