Nature is out of balance in the human kingdom. The sun hasn't shone in years, crops are failing, and families are starving. Worst yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance.
To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and the destinies of two seventeen years-old girls become entwined when they are chosen to go on a dangerous and unheard of journey to Taninli, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a powerful Sage-in-training, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other, and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one Huntress to save it, and the sacrifice required could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.
I love this book; I am in love with the characters, the setting, and the world of Kaede and Taisin. There were a lot of things in this book, such as their culture in funeral and superstitious belief that made the story felt familiar to me. I admit I seldom read about fantasy adventure with Eastern setting, so this was very refreshing. Most of the fantasy adventure I read involved dragons, witches and knights, but this one centered on a world hold together by energies, and these energies were upon which all the living creatures' lives depended on. Faeries and human live with a treaty that kept them separate and distant from one another, and the distrustful as well as prejudice between the faerie and human were well written.
All the characters are likeable and interesting. The book focused mainly upon Kaede and Taisin's struggle but there were considerable time spent on Con, the prince they were accompanying on the journey, as well. Kaede struggled with her identity as the Chancellor's daughter and wished to follow her own path in life rather than be a mere political tool, while Taisin struggled to understand and control her power lest she fell into temptation. The romantic development between these two were sweet, never overdone. I liked how both Taisin and Kaede, despite their feelings for one another, never forgotten their ambitions and goals. And it was also great to see that their romance never took over the plot. I cannot seemed to favor only one character in this book as all of them were very memorable to me. Con, Tali, Pol and Shae all had their own charm which made their conversation and the story a lot more enjoyable.
The adventures were great as the author knows how to balance action and drama, couple them with fear and anxieties as well as relieve and joy. There were times when the characters were thrust fully unprepared to the unknowns, and the events that happened to them were suspenseful as well as terrifying. Actions were described in simple words but with so many details and emotion. I liked how the author incorporated a sense of respect for all things living in this book, their actions always influence the energies of their world or vice versa. Somehow this made the world seemed a lot more realistic, but maybe that's because I'm accustomed to Feng Shui, in which I think the concept of the world applied a little bit.
I thought the fight against the main villain was a bit disappointing. The villain wasn't even developed well for me to truly understand the significance of her character. In the end, the villain didn't quite matter and the ending fell quite short. The conflict between the Fairy Queen and the villain was also downplayed, so the whole reason behind their world falling into a state of chaos seemed rather- meaningless. The journey for Kaede, Taisin and the rest of the party to Taninli was filled with danger and uncertainty, but those danger and uncertainty were undermined by how easy things were in the end. However I don't dislike the way things end either. I might be a bit dissatisfied, but it was still a good way for the story to develop and end. I just hope we get to know more about the villain and the Fairy Queen since both of them had so much potential.
I'm also a bit unused to the POV technique. I kept losing track of who was thinking that I had to re-read sentences back over and over again. Like how at one moment I was with Kaede thinking about her family while she was with Taisin, and the end of the paragraph, Taisin was suddenly thinking about how she shouldn't be encouraging her feeling to Kaede. Somehow, somewhere I missed the part where Kaede suddenly swapped to Taisin, and I got confused for a few seconds. It's not exactly a bad way of telling a story, but perhaps some readers would find it hard to follow.
Nevertheless, the book entertained me from the start to the end. The story is engaging and the characters well-written. And I recommend this to all of the fantasy adventure lover out there.
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