21 January, 2016

REVIEW: THE PROPHECY OF SHADOWS by Michelle Madow

Title: The Prophecy of Shadows
Author: Michelle Madow
Series: Elementals #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Mythology
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishinng
Source: ARC
Pages: n/a
Publishing date: 26th January, 2016

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SYNOPSIS:
Filled with magic, thrilling adventure, and sweet romance, Elementals is the first in a new series that fans of Percy Jackson and The Secret Circle will love!

When Nicole Cassidy moves from sunny Georgia to gloomy New England, the last thing she expects is to learn that her homeroom is a cover for a secret coven of witches. Even more surprisingly … she’s apparently a witch herself. Despite doubts about her newfound abilities, Nicole is welcomed into this ancient circle of witches and is bedazzled by their powers—and, to her dismay, by Blake—the school’s notorious bad-boy.

Girls who get close to Blake wind up hurt. His girlfriend Danielle will do anything to keep them away, even if she must resort to using dark magic. But the chemistry between Blake and Nicole is undeniable, and despite wanting to protect Nicole from Danielle’s wrath, he finds it impossible to keep his distance.

When the Olympian Comet shoots through the sky for the first time in three thousand years, Nicole, Blake, Danielle, and two others in their homeroom are gifted with mysterious powers. But the comet has another effect—it opens the portal to the prison world that has contained the Titans for centuries. After an ancient monster escapes and attacks Nicole and Blake, it’s up to them and the others to follow the clues from a cryptic prophecy so that they can save their town … and possibly the world.
I really like magic but I was not exactly sure what to expect from this book judging by the summary on its back.


A copy of the book was kindly provided to me by the publisher but it does not influence my review in any way!

THE WORLD: So the story is based half in our normal world and half not so normal. Basically their is a normal world like we know it and then withing it there are witches who can use different kind of energy. Normally, these witches are not able to move things but the comet flies by and suddenly five of them can. Also, there is some dark magical places that really are just out there somewhere filled with monsters. The idea is very similar to Percy Jackson to be honest, the witches are the descendants of the Olympian Gods and the five of them must go on this treasure hunting trip to fulfill the prophecy. Sounds familiar? Yeah I thought so too. It is not that the world is bad, I actually liked the whole homeroom thing before school where the elders were teaching witches how to perform magic but still, I do not like repetition much. Plus for me frankly it was a little bit weird because some things just made no sense. I mean I have read enough of YA books and know certain amount of knowledge about American teenager world but what are honor classes? And what exactly is this homeroom where everybody goes in high school before classes start? Just something I never heard of before.


CHARACTERS: Okay so as I already mentioned there are five main characters: Nicole, Blake, Danielle, Kate and Chris. Let's start with Nicole. She is a dorky teenager who just moved to new town and finds out she is a witch. All good frankly, I liked Nicole, she was not annoying and she get her head straight, especially when it comes to romance. Me liky liky Nicole! Next is Blake, again I did not have much problem with him except for one thing...he cheats on his girlfriend. That is a no no for me. Danielle on the other hand is supposed to be a bad character, she harms humans, is over-obsessed over Blake and just plain arrogant. But as book prognosis I actually found it hard to dislike her. She is arrogant I give you that but really she is pretty likable after all. Kate is the character I did not really understand, at some point I suspected her of turning into evil crazy character but that never happened. The book ended and I am yet to find out who Kate really is. And that leaves Chris who is just an addition to the group in terms of him being easy going and funny. He is that one person that keeps the group alive and gets rid of the tension.

LOVE: We have a new romance forming in this book and it was alright with me, I mean I really really liked the way the main character handled it, it just sounded very smart and mature, well done Nicole!

PLUS: I like the use of elements and magic. It is what made this book interesting. Plus I also liked the characters, I think they are the strong part in the story.

MINUS: I did not like the story itself much, I really really disliked that it felt just another Percy Jackson.

OVERALL: I know this book is targeted as YA but most of the time reading it I felt a little bit like I was reading a middle grade book. So I would recommend it mainly to people who like easy and fast read of witchery fantasy.







What do you guys think about THE PROPHECY OF SHADOWS?