First, I love the concept of this story, and thank you to the author for the give-away opportunity! When a wizard's young apprentice lets his curiosity get the best of him, he unleashes into enemy hands a powerful artifact that can alter the very threads of existence. The apprentice begins an epic journey to retrieve the hidden keys that can save his world, meeting all sorts of fantastic beings along the way.

I have to say, though, that the execution of the story falls flat. The book itself is in desperate need of a proofreader/editor. Commas run rampant where they shouldn't be, random words and phrases are italicized, and transitions from scene to scene happen far too abruptly, in paragraphs rather than separate sections.

The dialogue and reactions of characters seem artificial and unrealistic. Grand changes occur that present horrendous dangers to the characters and the people they care about, but the characters seem emotionally unfazed. New pieces of vital information only inspire the equivalent of a shrug, with no time for the characters to mentally process them.

The magical abilities of the characters almost seem too convenient. Despite the main character's youth, especially in comparison to his millenia-old master, he can perform magic at a highly advanced level, doing things that few have done before. He meets beings who have the exact abilities he lacks to overcome the obstacles on his path. Even though he does meet trials, he and his companions always overcome them.

Like I said, the idea is wonderful. I just would have liked to see the amazing world the author created more fleshed out and the unique characters more realistic and flawed. ( )

Thank you for the goodreads win! I received my copy March 24, and I will start reading it very soon. It seems like an intruiging read, and the cover is beautiful! More to come!

Update:
The book was good. I liked the story, and the characters were likeable, though a bit transparent. At times it was hard to follow who was where and who did what.
The world in which Tina crated was definitely magical and quite unique from what we are used to seeing in this genre, not far removed from, say, Piers Anthony's Xanth realm, and I like that. However, things seemed to happen out of nowhere at times and it became a little confusing.
There was alot happening in throughout the story, and at a mere 216 pages, the story seemed rushed, as it just didn't seem to take its time to explain the situation in any length. Again, the characters likeable, but they could have been bumped up to believable if they were just a little more "fleshed out".
All in all, I think I would give the second volume a chance, as I am curious to see where the story will lead. ( )

Cover

The forest, moss-covered key and addition of the swirly, leafy drawings combine to make this an interesting cover. It's interpretation leans more towards the series' title rather than the book's title.

Plot

A wizard's apprentice is overcome by curiosity while his master is away. His actions initiate a sequence of events that are potentially catastrophic. It then becomes his responsibility to clean up his own mess by tracking down and collecting all of the Keys of Fate.

Main Characters

Galax - A wizard's apprentice. While reading, I noticed he appeared to be full of gifts, but had no real talent. Whether that was due to the fact he had not been trained in his gifts yet, I don't know ... but it did seem a little ... off. He always seemed unsure of himself and his actions.

Elazar - The wizard over Galax and master of the castle that houses the Tower of Change. He is extremely old, wise and talented, but often seems forgetful.

Mortighan - Elazar's oldest friend and uncle to Justise, a lady that helps Galax on his quest to find the Keys of Fate.

Overall

For an adult, this book may seem to start off a little slow. For a child, however, the book would be captivating ... which is wonderful since the book is written for nine-year-olds and up.

There were good wizards, bad wizards, flying keys (reminiscent of Harry Potter), Bloodwyns, faes, trolls ... many mythical creatures you expect to see in a fantasy book. I will give the author credit in that she created four different types of phoenix ... which is something I've not read about before.

I would definitely recommend this book/series to children rather than adults. ( )

I was really excited to read this book. The cover art is amazing and the synopsis sounds great, but the execution wasn't the best.For me, this book was quite choppy. We jump around from character to character quite a bit which makes it hard to follow. I just catch on to the fact that I'm reading about one character and then suddenly, I'm reading about something else and then I have to figure out who it is and where they are at. I also found a few grammatical errors which are slightly off putting. I really wanted to like this book but it was so hard. I feel like this really had the potential to be a great story, but other things that bothered me were the magical aspects. Everything had long, strange names, some spells sounded like they were trying to copy Harry Potter, and then suddenly, hardly any magic is used, and I thought this was a book about wizards and other magical creatures. I doubt I will continue the series. ( )