An Epic Quest Through The Magical World of HavengladeA sinister wizard. A mysterious teacher. A kingdom on the brink of collapse. In the ancient kingdom of Havenglade, a brutal enemy is ravaging the countryside making his way closer to Gradur Castle. An aging king seeks protection from a council of loyal wizards. A peasant girl finds herself at the center of it all after bonding with a magical … after bonding with a magical crystal and absorbing its magical essence.
After losing her parents, Laurena was given the chance of a lifetime to study wizardry under the mysterious and renowned teacher Unai.
Can she learn to harness the powers inside her before it’s too late?
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I really enjoyed this book! The mechanics of magic was different and original, the characters well developed and likable! I look forward to reading more!
This was a very good story,had to get the next book Wonderfully written.
Would love to read the whole series.
I enjoyed this book. It’s not terribly written, just a little too cliche. I might have enjoyed this more as a child, but this book a child, but it does hit all the coming of age wickets. Laurena was pretty well written and developed as a character, but I wish I could have seen more from the other characters as well. The cover art is phenomenal by the way.
Daughter of Havenglade is the beginning of a series by HC Harrington. It begins the story of Laurena. Her father dies and her mother tries to kill her before she herself is killed. Laurena goes to her aunt in another village and becomes involved with Unai as an apprentice enchantress. The pace of the book is very slow, even the battle sequences. Unai disappears and Laurena thinks he is dead. She is only 14 years old and trying to fill an adult function in this story. I probably won’t buy or read the next book in the series.
A good read for the Tolkien fans. Maybe not as loaded with characters, but a good read in the fantasy genre.
Great!
Imaginative and intriguing!
This was an excellent read, I recommend it to everyone.
All-in-all a good YA novel and promising introduction to a series. The author maintains characters behaving in consistent ways, a good pace of action and an imaginative world. We are spared the trope of reliving high school, and focused on saving this new imaginary world instead. The magic forest sequence of chapters seems a little forced or hurried, and Laurena’s magical training seems like it could tie in better with her future tasks. That is, the plotting could be tighter.
I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys this genre and is looking for a light read.
This was a very good book. I started reading it and didn’t put it down till I was done!
The characters were well built and very believable! I was right there as I read it. Had to keep reading it until the end to see what was happening! I did not want to put this book down there were so many new and interesting things going on in it but it did not seem like so much was going on that it was confusing.
What a great book!
Interesting read, but not sure if I want to read seven of these stories. I like strong characters but smart dumb isn’t strong it was hard to see where it was going at times. Best Wizard in the land going down without a fight. Join me or die. So be it Seen that plot line before.
H.C. Harrington’s Daughter of Havenglade, the first in the author’s Daughter of Havenglade Fantasy series, is s heck of a fine high fantasy novel. I love the premise here, with the evil Lesmarglor conquering all and closing in on Gradur Castle whose aging king is desperately magical aid. I love Laurena, feisty orphan given the golden opportunity of studying with the great mage Unai. I love how Laurena develops and ultimately takes on everything. Really, I guess I just love this book – and expect that I won’t be alone in this regard. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises – the book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to Black Dragon Deceivers, the next book in this series.
This might be a lovely book if the author had better English. It appears translated by someone whose first language was not English.
This was a pretty good book. It was a straight forward storyline, uncomplicated and well paced. It was good enough to read the next one.
A waste of time. This novel is choppy, with the plot full of holes. The characters are one dimensional and not developed.
Far too many unexplained, undeveloped events and ideas. A baby dragon appears in a cave, then leads the mc out. If the dragon was also trapped, how did it know how to get out? If it had deliberately entered the cave (to save the mc?) how? Swimming upstream in an underground river seems not an option there. It requires some explanation, but none is given.
The crystals are a neat idea, but again, it seems so random. She picks up 3, and a soon as one starts to glow, she’s all “I’m good.” Something needed to be said to give the reader a sense of what was happening. Obviously the mc knew a lot more than the reader did — we should know what she knows, even if her knowledge is limited.
Characters came and went, and there was nothing to distinguish who was important and who wasn’t, except duration. We need to feel more connection, and more sense that the mc is connected.
I liked the idea of the book, but it was at once too complicated (too many ideas, characters) and too simplistic (no explanations, too much ‘just accept it, okay?’)
And the conclusion — the bad guy was so easily defeated, one wonders what all the fuss was about.
And yes — for all the fancy imagery, the author never actually states that the jewel is in her forehead. She’s holding it, images happen, events happen, and suddenly, pages later, someone says, ‘hey! how’d you get that jewel in your forehead?” Again, too much assuming things have been said or explained and they actually never have been.
Sophomoric and rather poorly written.