Review – Moonstone by Marilee Brothers (3/5 stars)
Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 236 pages
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Release Date: August 1, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0980245349
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in Unbidden Magic series
Source: From NetGalley.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
I got a copy of this book through NetGalley(dot)com. This was a book I had had on my “to read” list for a while. It was an okay book, a quick read and the characters were likable but not incredibly original. There are two more books in this series so far Moon Rise and Moon Spun
Allie lives with her chronically sick mother in a trailer on her uncle’s property. Her life isn’t great, but it could be worse. Then she gets zapped by a power-line and starts being able to move things with her mind. When an old friend of hers gives her a Moonstone that she says is prophesied to be Allie’s, things start getting even stranger. Allie finds out that she may be part of a prophecy involving two ancient races that have been fighting each other for centuries.
This book was okay. Allie is a likable enough character and even Allie’s mom (who is definitely not mother-of-the-year) is somewhat likable at times. The boy who ends up helping Allie out is also easy to relate to. That being said none of the characters are very deep and they are all pretty 2D.
The story is pretty simple, it basically involves Allie discovering her powers and trying to keep the Moonstone away from bad people. Nothing that happened in the story was very surprising or original. It was all just okay.
Brothers writing style is readable and the dialogue natural sounding; the story was a quick read. Things were wrapped up nicely but a storyline was definitely left open for future books. The purpose of this book seemed to be mainly to set things up for future books, so I am hoping the future books in this series have more complex and deeper stories to them.
Overall this was an okay book. It wasn’t an exciting read, but it wasn’t horrible either. When I finished it I mainly thought, “Huh, well okay guess I am done with that.” I wasn’t eager to read more about these characters or learn more about the world. If you are interested in a young adult book featuring a girl with telekinesis this may be the book for you. Personally though I would skip it or get it from the library. I don’t plan on reading future books in this series.