#Review - Dragon Redeemer by Amy Bearce #YA #Fantasy

Series: World of Aluvia # 3
Format: Paperback, 220 pages
Release Date: May 23rd 2017
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Four years have passed since a fairy swarm released the voice of prophecy in Nell Brennan. In that painful moment, a skilled warrior became a reluctant leader and defender of Aluvia’s magic. Now a new enemy threatens their still-fragile lands, one Nell feels powerless to stop even with help from the voice within her.

A mysterious dark alchemist from the Ice-Locked Lands is rising to power on the strength of his sword arm and an ice-breathing dragon obedient to his command. He promises unlimited magic to his followers and death to those who defy him. If he takes over the ports, his corrupt elixirs will disrupt the delicate balance of peace between Aluvia's people and all magical creatures.

The voice of prophecy sends Nell and her friends to their enemy’s treacherous domain to find a sword of legend. Only the sword’s magic can prevent a return to a world of dying fairies and caged merfolk. But Nell’s up against the toughest foe she’s ever faced. In order to defeat him, she must master the unimaginable power of the sword―and the unwanted magic inside herself.

Dragon Redeemer, by author Amy Bearce, is the third installment the authors World of Aluvia series. Nellwyn (Nell) Brennan was first introduced in Fairy Keeper in something of an antagonistic role. She served as a foil for Sierra, with a more aggressive personal style. Nell was an enforcer for the ruthless gang of drug-dealing alchemists who was doing what she had to for her family's safety. Nell has struggled with the role she's found herself in the last few years--acting as an unwilling mouthpiece for a mysterious voice advocating balance among all creatures and proper stewardship of the world (usually at the least opportune of times).

Nell has gotten somewhat used to the voice taking over whenever it decides a message needs to be relayed, but she's not entirely at peace with it, nor with having given up her identity as a warrior to learn how to be a healer instead. While her boyfriend Corbin is thrilled with her transition into a peaceful way of life, Nell feels like she's setting aside an integral part of who she is. As a former enforcer, she finds peace and quiet somewhat binding, and realizes that she's actually missing her days of wielding her sword.

 This conflict - both within herself and between her and Corbin - comes into sharp focus when the group learns that a magic-user calling himself The Dragon is drawing out all the rats to him including former friends of hers like Jason. The Dragon plans to take over the world and declare all magical creatures - such as fairies, mer-folk, fauns and dragons - as subservient to humans, who can use them and their magical abilities however they want. Now it is Nell's time to stand and deliver while traveling to a far off land to find the legendary Tree of Life and the Sword of Aluvia which is said to have powerful properties or fade away to the background while a new villain rises up and attempts to take over Aluvia.

The final book in the "World of Aluvia" series wraps up the stories of our six heroes - Sierra, Micah, Phoebe, Tristan, Nell and Corbin - quite nicely. While all six are involved, though, this is truly Nell's story. The task for Nell is nearly impossible; somehow find a way to combine sea and land and sky magic, and defeat a powerful Dragon who has been using dark magic to enslave creatures. But with her friends by her side until the end when she's given an even more impressive task; freeing Dragons, Snow Sprites, and Wind Steeds.

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#Thursday Review - Fairy Keeper by Amy Bearce (Young Adult, Fantasy)

Series: World of Aluvia # 1
Format: Mobi, 236 pages
Release Date: March 5, 2015
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Forget cute fairies in pretty dresses. In the world of Aluvia, most fairies are more like irritable, moody insects.

Almost everyone in the world of Aluvia views the fairy keeper mark as a gift, but not fourteen-year-old Sierra. She hates being a fairy keeper, but the birthmark is right there on the back of her neck. It shows everyone she was born with the natural ability to communicate, attract, and even control the tiny fairies whose nectar is amazingly powerful.

Fairy nectar can heal people, but it is also a key ingredient in synthesizing Flight, an illegal elixir that produces dreaminess, apathy and hallucinations. She's forced to care for a whole hive of the bee-like beasties by her Flight-dealing, dark alchemist father.

Then one morning, Sierra discovers the fairies of her hatch are mysteriously dead. The fairy queen is missing. Her father's Flight operation is halted, and he plans to make up for the lost income by trading her little sister to be an elixir runner for another dark alchemist, a dangerous thug. Desperate to protect her sister, Sierra convinces her father she can retrieve the lost queen and get his operation up and running.

The problem? Sierra's queen wasn't the only queen to disappear. They're all gone, every single one, and getting them back will be deadly dangerous.
Sierra journeys with her best friend and her worst enemy - assigned by her father to dog her every step - to find the missing queens. Along the way, they learn that more than just her sister's life is at stake if they fail.

There are secrets in the Skyclad Mountains where the last wild fairies were seen. The magic Sierra finds there has the power to transform their world, but only if she can first embrace her calling as a fairy keeper.

Fairy Keeper is the first installment in Amy Bearce's World of Aluvia. Meet 14-year old protagonist Sierra Quinn. Sierra is a rare breed. She was born as a Fairy Keeper, and has the tattoo on the back of her neck to prove it. She has the ability to communicate with the pesky, irritating fairies that produce a nectar that is used for such things as healing, and not so incredibly, an addictive drug called Flight which is her own fathers invention. 

But, after discovering her entire flight of fairies dead, Sierra is forced to go on an adventure in order to bring her own Queen back, and to save her sister Phoebe from a life of slavery at the hands of a dangerous thug. Sierra is teamed up with her father's enforcer Nell, and her best friend and fellow fairy keeper Corbin's whose own Queen has disappeared. Later, Sierra and teammates meet a faun who Sierra names Micah as they travel to the Skyclad Mountains to find the runaway Queens, and an eye opening revelation as to why they ran away.

Although there is supposedly a slew of mythological creatures like Nagas, Manticores, Trolls, Dragons, and Merfolk in this world, readers only really get a brief glimpse of a Dragon, and a young Merfolk who helps Sierra and Phoebe. As the journey to the mountains becomes even more intriguing and dangerous, Sierra's abilities suddenly grow much stronger and as does her connection to her Queen. But, Sierra must still find a way to get back home and rescue Phoebe before it's too late.

Fairy Keeper is being marketed as a Young Adult Fantasy, with Romance. It's apparent that Sierra has some major issues, and who can blame her? She has issues with being a Fairy Keeper. She has issues with her father who pushes and pushes and pushes, and ignores what is happening around him and beats her time and time again. The only thing that matters is Flight. Then there is the fact that she is teamed up with Nell who for one reason or the other, doesn't much care for her. In fact, Nell is pretty much focused on Corbin.

So, let's just put it out there. Sierra is a young teenager who has issues. Issues with feelings and how to express them. She is angry that Corbin and Nell seem to connect on a level that she and Corbin haven't nor will. For Corbin, Sierra is his little sister, and that is pretty much all there ever will be. Sierra's anger towards her father, and the villainous thug, push her into doing things she's never done before. The ending of this book wraps up in a way that definitely leaves room for more of Sierra's journey to enlighten the world. However, it is apparent that the next book in the series called Mer-Charmer, will actually take place FOUR years from the ending of this book and feature Phoebe. 

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