Jon Hartling

Seven-year-old Eric has always had an active imagination and a fascination with snow and cold weather. Initially, his father Ben doesn't think that his son's talk of a magical kingdom known as Lukana is anything more than a little boy's typical childhood imagination. Ben, himself, prefers the summer, while his late wife Jamie - Eric's mother - loved the winter. Jamie died giving birth to Eric, but her final act in life was to apologize to Ben.

Ben never knew exactly why Jamie apologized to show more him, although he vowed to himself that as his son grew, Eric would always be loved. Then, one winter day, Eric sculpts a snow owl in the backyard. With such a simple and childish act, Eric unwittingly sets in motion a series of events that cannot possibly be anything but magical. Now Ben faces the terrifying prospect of losing his only child to a wintry spirit...a spirit that just might be the boy's true father.

I must say that I chose this book because I liked the cover. I also enjoy reading fantasy, and was curious to see how the story would eventually pan out. I give this story an A! - It was a quick and engaging read, and I look forward to reading more from Jon Hartling in the future. show less

I enjoyed the premise, but I think the story would have been better served by beginning in the second scene where the action actually begins and then letting the back story be revealed later. From the second scene, the tension builds up nicely - and then all the trouble literally melts away without any effort on the part of the characters. An otherwise enjoyable writing style is unfortunately marred by punctuation errors and dialectal use of the word 'anyways.' I think this story has a lot show more of potential and I would really like to see it get that polish. show less

What a nice short story! I loved it! Synopsis: A loving couple. She dies during child birth but not before she asks him for forgiveness. As soon as he sees the baby he realizes that she asked for forgiveness because the child is not his. He makes the heart wrenching decision to raise this child as his own. At seven this child sculpts a snow owl and sets in motion a series of magical events where he confirms that he is Prince of Lukana and he will be traveling there soon. Again, this story show more was AWESOME! The writing was on point. The author did a really great job in creating the ambiance, the intrigue and even a better job at wrapping this story up. It really left me wanting more. In fact I started to look up other books this author wrote. I will definitely read Jon Hartling's other stories as well as re-read this one. I recommend you pick this FREEBIE up on Amazon for Kindle!! show less

This was an enjoyable short story about the magical world breaking into the humdrum. Nice work.