Early Reader Review: Follow the Shadows by Rosemary Drisdelle

Source: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

Follow the Shadows by Rosemary Drisdelle 

Series: The Tales of Moerden Book 1 
Publisher:  SparkPress
Publication Date:  September 19, 2023 

 

Format: Ebook

Rating:
DNF

Goodreads Synopsis: 

When Marise Leeson gets her hands on a crystal ball, she believes her knowledge of Wicca is about to expand. The magic, however, goes horribly wrong. In short order, she’s thrown into an alternate world, attacked by a dragon, and rescued by Javeer, a young male dragon in search of a friend.

Marise is desperate to get home alive. Instead of dabbling in scrying and spells, she must now use her Wicca skills to survive in Moerden―navigating rival dragon factions, riding Javeer without falling, and dodging unknown perils of an alien landscape. Through a series of adventures and mishaps, she learns that the dragons face slow extinction from a mysterious disease. Some see Marise as part of the cause. Some hope she’s a key to a cure.

Marise grows up fast as her focus switches from escape from Moerden to saving the dragons. She draws upon her powers, intuition, and some help from home as she and Javeer begin a quest to solve the puzzle of the stagger. If they survive, and if their trust and courage are strong, they may succeed. If they do not, the dragons of Moerden will cease to exist.

Review: 

I was so sad not to enjoy this one. I read about 100 pages before I decided to stop reading. 

This book follows a young girl named Marise. She is also Wiccan. I found this a bit hard to believe but gave it a shot. She gets a crystal ball and ends up in another world with dragons. Sadly, this one didn't hit - Marise was a bit of a brat. Especially about the orb/ crystal ball. She saw her teacher with it and hyper focused to the point of being rude and eventually stealing it. And that is AFTER her teacher goes missing and she has no sense of remorse or sadness about it. She was just like 'oh! He's gone, now I can have it' and that never sat right with me. 

Past that, I found the next bit to be a bit drab and boring and there was too much telling versus showing.  

This seemed like it would be such an interesting one, but sadly it just fell really short. 

If you are looking for a book about dragons, you might enjoy this more than I did. I also liked that there was a different religious perspective, but I don't really think it was conveyed well.