{Fourth of 5 of [[[Medoran Chronicles]]]; fantasy, YA, adventure} (2018)

A light YA fantasy which, despite its flaws, keeps me reading. Alexandra Jennings has been called from our Earth (known as Freya) to Medora which is a magical/ technologically advanced world and has rediscovered Meyarins, elf-like immortal beings, one of whom wants to destroy all the mortal sentient races. After visions of what could happen, Alex knows that she has to persuade the other races to ally with humans and the remaining Meyarins against Aven and his Claimed Meyarins to prevent the destruction of Medora. But that is easier said than done.

Aven finally takes his war to to mortal races of Medora - but with war, necessarily, comes death and suffering.

Alex was covered in blood.
It was splattered on her arms, her legs, her chest, even her face—silver and red blood, coating her from head to toe. Black blood from the Shadow Walkers. White blood from the Dayriders.
Blood.
Everywhere.
All around her, the four races were fighting on a vicious, merciless battlefield.
There were bursts of darkness as the Shadow Walkers appeared and disappeared, and flashes of light as the Dayriders did the same. More flashes came as the Dayriders called forth lightning, using it as their chosen weapon of attack.
There were humans amongst them, too—humans who had answered Alex’s call after she had activated her Beacon tattoo, tracing the sideways figure-of-eight five times to send out her location. Bubbledoors had appeared almost instantly, with the armed forces charging from the colourful portals and into the fray.

So; this book was fun and Alex gets to beat up/ get beaten up by different humanoid races (although they all have different coloured blood) - although, to be honest, violence isn't my thing but I can see my kids lapping it up. But the story arc progresses well - and my e-book finally had a map. I find myself looking back at book 3 with nostalgia; I liked that story line.

On the minus side for me, there are a few 'teen romance' moments although I suspect the target audience wouldn't mind them. I also found Sir Camden's Olde English speech so hard to get through (fingernails on blackboard) because his grammar is horrendous (thankfully, there's only one scene). And it may be that age is taking its toll on my memory as well as my eyes because I'm starting to lose track of the 'extras' characters whom we don't see so often. Oddly, the bad guy (Aven) had more dimension in book 3 than Alex‘s friends do in this book/ series. They're nice and supportive and all but we're told how Alex sees them rather than seeing them for ourselves whereas (in the previous book) Aven had flaws and reacted to events and evolved into the character we know.

I also thought the acquisition of a Shadow Wolf was a bit glossed over and incidental (and yet another addition to Alex's exclusive tool belt indicating her Chosen One status). Wouldn't you like a puppy that was full grown in a week, toilet trained and fed itself and took itself for walks? I'm pretty sure our dog is a lot more effort even now. I'm not sure why she was introduced because she doesn't do much in this book; maybe she has a role in the last one.

Those were the minor gripes. Overall, though, still fun. Let's see what happens in book 5 and how it all comes together though I will miss my favourite character.

June 2021
3.5**** ( )

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Niyx. ( )