We've heard stories about people turning into creatures: finding out you're part werewolf, or are secretly a mermaid, you have a demon in your belly...people turn into creatures all the time. But this time, it's a tree. And the tree turns into a girl...or is it the other way around. These and many other questions make up this first novel in the Tree of Ages saga. Let's begin.
Finn doesn't know what happened. One minute, she was a tree and the next she wasn't. She's rightfully confused, but she's soon saved by a strange hermit named Áed, who agrees to help her find a way to transform back into a tree. But as Finn travels the world as a human, she falls into things fairly easily and surprises herself with just how much she knows about the world she's supposedly never seen. Their journey takes them across the world, meeting strange new characters, and Finn starts to learn that her place in the world of humans might be more significant than she ever realized.
To start with, the characters in the book really stood out to me. Everyone was enjoyable and had a clear, developed personality. Finn, who showed danger signs of a whiner in the beginning, soon grows out of it and becomes a competent character, but she doesn't have too much in the way of personality, especially when compared to some of the others we meet in this book. Áed is a riot, the crotchety old man with a soft heart that will help you but grumble about it. He was a lot of fun. We get two potential love interests, Iseult and Kai, but the love triangle aspect is seriously downplayed in the book, which I appreciated. Any possibly developing feelings between the characters are downplayed in order to focus on the plot, which is a good thing. We're here for adventure, not forced romance, and this book gave it to us. I liked that.
As a bit of a downside, the pacing in this book is pretty slow. There's a lot of traveling on the road and it can go on for awhile. There's a lot of staying at inns, finding supplies, losing supplies, moving, stopping, moving, stopping, repeat. When the action does start, however, it is interesting. You learn that this world has been torn apart by war and Faie races are starting to make their way back into the world after being banished. There's a lot of potential with this story, it just takes a long time to get there.
This book includes several plot twists that take place in this story and, I have to say, they're pretty good. I honestly didn't see some of these things coming (though the ones toward the end I did) and the tension is very well done. The characters deal with their new situations and deal with the issue head on. There's no "I don't want to"s or "it's too hard"s that sometimes pop up when dealing with these types of stories. The characters take the situation before them and deal with it. They make the most of their skills and work together to deal with the issue. They all had great attitudes and faced their problems like pros. Now, really quick, I will say that the ending of this thing felt pretty rushed. It didn't really end so much as it...stopped. We get an info dump from some random guy and then we just stare into the horizon and wonder what lies in store. I don't know, it felt a little Empire Strikes Back (granted without the carbonite) and it was a little off-putting. Not bad, mind you, just a little lackluster.
Final Verdict
This was a fun adventure and a great way to begin the series. While it had it's flaws and dragged in places, there wasn't anything bad about it. I never got angry or got too bored with it. All in all, if this sounds like an interesting story for you, feel free to check it out but maybe wait for it on paperback.
Have you read the book? What did you think? Comment below and share your thoughts. Please make sure to Follow Midnight Readings for instant updates. Have a book you'd like me to read or would like to make a recommendation? Contact me on goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/65448711-michelle-beer
Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Powerless-Shelley-Miller/dp/1543482546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519062043&sr=8-1&keywords=powerless+by+shelley+miller
Xlibris: https://www.xlibris.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001175242
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