I was sent an eARC of Arcacia by T.A. Barua to read as part of the Digital Reads Blog Tour.
Rating: 3/5
Here is the synopsis:
When a beautiful sorceress-queen, Selina, spurns Setanor, a powerful, jealous northern warlock, an invasion of Western Arcacia begins. To save her newborn triplets from death, they are cast down a magical river to the New World, a place called, ‘London, England.’
Thirteen years later in a cold, Victorian London attic… The future of Sophie, an impoverished orphan looks bleak but everything changes, to her astonishment after a young witch arrives through her bedroom window with an incredible message and a warning. So begins her life in a beautiful, enchanted ancient world…
How do Sophie and her four friends summon the tremendous courage to rescue her long lost family while restoring Arcacia from dark, ruling forces? Mystical beasts, sceptres, powerful witches and daemon-trolls are just some of their challenges. Meanwhile, the dreaded terrifying warlock, Setanor and his witch-consort Lilith have sent a secret enemy to plan their downfall…
This is a debut novel by T.A. Barua but before I even begin with the actual book can we just appreciate how beautiful the cover is! It’s what attracted me to the book in the first place!
This book is a story with magic and a fun adventure. It has family love, friendships and coming of age.
The story starts with thirteen year old Sophie, who’s grown up in an orphanage in London, when she discovers that she actually comes from a magical land and is the daughter of a sorceress-queen. She gets taken to Arcacia and finds out she has a brother and sister and that the land is being ruled by an evil warlock, Setanor.
We travel with her as she discovers the new land and finds out about all the magical creatures that live there from trolls, elves and goblins to witches and wizards. She also attends a school for people with magic and then decides to go in search for her parents and siblings. So the main story is in her finding them and saving the land from the evil Setanor.
I really liked the plot and the world that the author created but the story felt a little jarring and didn’t flow well which did make it harder for me to truly enjoy the story.
There was plenty of characters from the kids that Sophie befriends and adults who help Sophie along the way which I liked as it gave the chance for the kids to be the heroes but also get support from the adults to help them. But I wish there had been more character development. They felt a bit one dimensional and the story while good could have been great with more complex characters and more development as the story went on.
The story had a lot going on which made it a fun read but I do wish there had been more plot twists or obstacles in which the characters had to overcome as I felt everything happened too conveniently.
Overall I enjoyed the story and it’s a fun, faced read for anyone who enjoys travelling to magical worlds.
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The Tsundoku Chronicles 