Tiana Smith

There was a definite Percy Jackson vibe to this book, so I can see it appealing to a similar audience. The beginnig was a little rushed for me. Within a few pages, Link saves his mom, learns about his powers and is shipped off to the academy. Then there's a lot of background info about the academy and the origins of the powers. Once I got past that beginning part though and into the actual action in the book, things became much more interesting. Where the author excells is in his action writing. There's always something happening and it was intriguing to see the various characters interact. Although, I sometimes got some characters confused because there are a lot of different names ... I remember a few different points in the novel where a name was mentioned and I couldn't remember the character to whom they were referring. There's a full cast to appeal to many different readers, both male and female. Some of the events were a little hard for me to swollow. I get that they have powers, and that there are other beings with powers, but ... the fact that some animals not only can understand human speech, but can actually talk back had me rolling my eyes. Also, that Link and his friends were the only ones who weren't captured simply by their good timing and luck was kind of a cop out, I thought.About 3/4 of the way through the book, there is a point of view change. This might seem like it'd be kind of late to change POVs, but I thought it worked well. Also, there was one part at the end where I was genuinely surprised - the fact that Link's brother is still alive, and fighting for the wrong side!. I love it when books can actually surprise me.All in all, it was a really fun read. If you're not that into it at first, give it a few more pages. Once I got into the story, I had to keep reading to see how it all ended.