Frewin Jones

Like many a reluctant hero, Trundle is a bookish homebody of a hedgehog, happy to live his lamplighter life. A mysterious princess/gypsy hedgehog named Esmeralda barrels her way into his life, cajoling him into a quest to find six mythical crowns. I included this in the pirate roundup because the hedgehogs' main adversaries are dastardly pirates in the form of hogs, rats, and shrews. Trundle and Esmeralda manage to elude the pirates, save a mineful of slaves, and test their abilities. The show more best part of this book was the relationship between Trundle and Emerald, including their witty banter and their growing friendship. This is a nice introduction to fantasy for young readers. show less

Reviewed by Cat for TeensReadToo.com

Tania thought all of the threats to her beloved Faerie disappeared with the Sorcerer King of Lyonesse's death in battle; she was wrong.

Life is sweet for the Faerie princess and her family at the beginning of THE IMMORTAL REALM with the enchanted wedding of daughter Cordelia to Bryn Lightfoot, but tragedy strikes when a Faerie infant quickly succumbs to a mysterious illness. Since disease and death are unheard of in this realm of immortality, suspicion show more immediately falls upon Tania's mortal father for attending the wedding while sick.

As members of the royal family fall ill, those stricken flee to the Summer Palace of Verglad to prevent further spread of the disease. A new threat looms with arrival of Lord Aldrich of Weir, one of The Great Lords of Faerie and father to Tania's (banished) former fiancé, Gabriel Drake.

He insists that Faerie's current strife lies in Tania's half-mortal taint and demands either her banishment behind an unbreakable enchantment, or the removal of her ability to shift between worlds. This, coupled with sister Cordelia falling victim to the mysterious illness, spurs Tania into desperate action, putting not only herself and her family in danger, but an innocent human as well.

I have to say that THE IMMORTAL REALM is the best and my favorite of THE FAERIE PATH series so far, mostly because Tania finally breaks free of (what I've always felt is) the unrealistic "eternal" attachment to Edric, and starts discovering what she's capable of as an independent young woman. The addition of a human friend from Tania's past helps ground her in the reality that she has very little "life experience," while the separation from Edric and time spent with sister Rathina contributes to her overall growth.

I only wish there had been more of a resolution instead of a "to be continued," which lent to my final grade of four stars, rather than five. show less

When Branwen was little her brother Geraint would tell her old nursery stories of Pooka's and Coblyn's and Gwyllion's. When she was little he told her stories of the Shining Ones. They were the Old Gods, the forgotten Gods, and it was forbidden to talk of them.

When Branwen was younger her brother Geraint gave her a slingshot that she taught herself to use and to hunt with. When she was younger he taught her to handle a sword if ever she had a need to defend herself. However these lessons show more were always with swords of wood and always held in secret.

Now Branwen had watched as her brother Geraint displayed bravery and courage when faced with the enemy. She stood and watched as he was killed, she stood and did nothing. But what could she have done against a band of armed men, she was after all still a child.

Sent far from home to an unfriendly place with strange customs, Branwen stumbles upon a grove, a place once held sacred but now believed haunted. Here a choice must be made, follow her duty and her parents' wished to a loveless marriage far from her home, or follow her destiny and the wild and pitiless Old Magic of Rhiannon, a Shining One, to an unknown future as a warrior.

Rhiannon of the Spring has returned to save a land in danger. Warrior Princess Branwen must learn to cope with grief and loss as she makes a choice between her duty to others and following her own heart. A fantasy adventure based on Welsh mythology, this is a journey of discovering belief in oneself and about standing up for what is right, even if you stand alone. Do not be put off by the cheesy description of this book; what's inside is well worth the read. show less

Branwen must choose her future, stay out of harms way or fight against the Saxon invader. What she doesn't realise is that there are powers at work, powers that could help or hinder her choices.

Branwen is caught between a lot of different worlds and her choices aren't easy, nor are they depicted as easy. In several instances they're depicted as being pretty uniformly bad, for a change in some YA novels (recent experiences may have coloured this comment) she chooses the hard rather than the show more soft route and while there was some romantic moments the romance was very secondary to her development as a person (double yay). The covers don't do this series any justice, she should really have a weapon in one of those hands! I'm looking forward to more in this series, while there were moments that didn't quite work, most of it was very well done. show less