Most high school grads hold a world of opportunity in their hands. Will and Morgan hold the fate of two worlds.Since his mother’s tragic accident, Will Owens has been a loner. And for good reason: he claims to see dark creatures emerging from the forest near his home. Ostracism is a way of life until he meets Morgan Finley, a fencing champion with everything going for her—except a dark family … everything going for her—except a dark family secret.
In pursuit of answers, these unlikely friends enter the forest and discover a magical kingdom threatened by a powerful enemy. When a young sage reveals their true identities, Will and Morgan join a small but courageous resistance on a quest to save the Fourwinds.
Can friendship and hope stop the swelling tide of destruction from breaching the portal into our world?
Across the Fourwinds is the first book of the Maidstone Chronicles, a page-turning YA fantasy series. If you enjoy escaping to magical worlds, swashbuckling action, and homespun heroes, you’re in for an exciting adventure with this epic tale by Shane Trusz and Darryl Frayne.
Buy a copy today and start your journey…Across the Fourwinds.
”…a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy adventure in the same spirit of the Dragonlance books by Weiss and Hickman. Although the books are geared toward a young adult audience (PG rated story), there’s enough here for adults of all ages to identify with.” (Edward Lazellari, Author of the Guardians of Aandor series)
more
This book just got better and better as I read it.
Hang in there thru the nightmarish terrors and the dwarves, elves, merpeople, gnomes, dragons and so many others good and evil and you have a very enjoyable read.
I struggled a lot with this book in the beginning but it slowly grew on me and I was hooked enough around 50%. As I was reading it, I thought I was going to rate it 3 stars but after I finished it, I thought, well I did end up having a good time, why not give it a 4? So yes, I enjoyed a good chunk of the book, there are thought some things that I’d like to talk about.
A rushed beginning
The book starts with Morgan and Will at our current time on earth and then it moves on Fourwinds the fantasy place, where fantasy stuff happens. Now, Will and Morgan didn’t know each other before the beginning of the book. The plot introduced the characters very poorly, it brought them together quickly and moved them on Fourwinds. Without two of the main characters been established enough, the plot just kept moving too quickly, in a time when learning and understanding the characters and the world is very important. Because of the poor introduction, I didn’t enjoy much from the first half of the book.
The characters
As I mentioned above, the introduction of the characters wasn’t good but later on, I was able to actually understand them. Will and Bremer for me were by far the most interesting of all the characters. It was very fun to see them interacting with each other. They made for a good combo and they were still interesting as individuals. Rowe, on the other hand, is a character that I have seen many times in fantasy. He was the too good guy, who will never put himself above the greater good and will sacrifice himself to defeat the evil forces and so on. He was a character that I couldn’t really dislike, but still, he wasn’t very original. Lastly, Morgan, the only woman of the company, was just there for the sake of a woman been there? She was a passive character, I was waiting the moment she would shine and it never came, which was really a shame.
An interesting world
My favorite part of Across the Fourwinds was the setting. Fourwinds had a Middle-Earth feel, meaning that the world is pretty vast with many different places and mysteries. I was eager to find out where the story was going to move next and learn about all these places. I do like a little mystery in my fantasy world, like places that no one knows what’s going on there or people have disappeared on them, things like that, and Fourwinds had a lot of that. Maybe a bit more than it should? Saying for example that no one has come back alive from that place to say what is there, it does sound cool but it also works conveniently for the author, so he doesn’t need to explain that place. The mysteries of Fourwinds could be better balanced, but for me, it didn’t bother me that much. There are also a lot of different creatures and races that for someone maybe it’s hard to handle, which again it didn’t bother me.
Final Thoughts
I think the book could have been a lot better in some areas but in the end, what mattered was that I enjoyed the story as a whole and without expecting it, judging from the beginning, I ended up having a good time.
I usually don’t enjoy books that authors dump every fantasy thing they can think of but in this case, it somehow worked.
I received a free copy of this book via BookSirens
Across the Fourwinds was one of the most unique books I’ve read in some time. It began with two high schoolers with two different sets of problems. Morgan, a champion fencer, worries that her father is growing increasingly violent and abusive toward her mother. Her father is a pastor who had always been loving and patient, but suddenly changed when they moved to a new town. Will’s parents are both dead and he has become the town outcast, since, well, he sees monsters which no one else can see.
A series of impossible murders brings a new detective to town, a detective who knows things about Will’s past that Will doesn’t know. And so the story begins. It seems like a mystery with some supernatural elements, but then Morgan and Will “fall into” a new world. While this world has some similarities to their own, there are dragons and demons, elves and mermaids, creatures that can appear to be human as well as deformities beyond my imagination. And the story grows dark. People die. I was actually angry about one of the deaths because everything about it felt wrong.
This is not a children’s story. The way this book tackled the battle between good and evil felt more realistic than a lot of the fantasy books I’ve read. There were truly good and noble people in the story. Yes, some were complicated and had a dark side to them, but others who chose love and truth and were willing to sacrifice even their own lives for what they believed in. There was evil, seeking to corrupt everything, not simply someone power-hungry or hurt. The descriptions of evil were frightening and disturbing, on the verge of horror. (This is where I reiterate, it is not a children’s story!) The fate of the world was at stake, possibly several worlds, and heroes stepped up according to the knowledge they had.
I loved all the twists and turns in the story. Just when I thought I had it figured out or I was thinking about putting the book down because things were starting to get too dark, something surprising happened, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Even the ending didn’t feel like a ploy by the authors to read the next book, although they definitely left the story open to be able to continue it in several different directions. It also seemed like the authors didn’t understand the rules of fantasy, that a book ought to stay in one genre for its entirety; the result was something different, something new, and something really good. The Fourwinds is a strange and frightening and wonderful place. You never know what might happen there.
I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Entertaining throughout the entire book. Definitely a lot going on so I did have to re read in a few places to keep everything straight as there is all kinds of creatures. Unique story that had me comparing it to the Shannara Chronicles. Morgan and will are both great characters as are all of them. It’s a wild ride and I loved it
I received an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review
Wonderful story with great, well developed characters and a very imaginative story world. If you are a fan of high fantasy like Tolkien or Robert Jordan, you will like this book. I highly recommend it!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.