The Age of Larkspur
Aleighsha Parke
YA Fantasy
Flora has spent her entire life hiding in the trees and ignoring the cursed, poisonous larkspur growing from her ankle and eating away at her life. She lets her anxiety and fear control her, but fate forces her hand when her adopted mother is kidnapped by a cruel witch. The only way to save her is to find the magic shards of her family’s amulet scattered throughout her land.
With no time to waste, Flora sets out with her best friend, and along the way they meet a darkly intriguing stranger. But Flora is running out of time and can’t succumb to distractions. If she trusts the wrong person or lets her anxiety win, Flora risks losing more than just her mother …
Uncaged Review: This is a good debut from a new author, and although this started a tad slow for me, it pulled me in when Flora began her quest, and I then read straight through. Flora has been in hiding all her life, with a tattoo on her ankle that is actually a curse, and is slowly sapping her life away from her. When she turns 18, she finds out that she needs to find all the shards of a family amulet to not only save her life, but also fix the devastated lands and claim her own powers. But the shards are spread out, and it will be a dangerous journey. Many people want to find her as her birth mother is the one that destroyed the lands with her corrupt magic. Her best friend (and sometimes annoying) best friend Anise sets out with her and along the way they meet Kaanan, a young man that has secrets of his own, and whether he’s trustworthy or not, well, I won’t tell.
There were a couple surprises and a couple things I guessed, but this is a good start for this author. The world building is easy to picture as the reader goes along, and the characters are well flushed out. This book started off a bit confusing, but it does come together nicely. I think my favorite character was Kaanan, because you don’t know for most of the book if he’s good or bad or has an agenda with the people hunting Flora. The ending kept this as a standalone book, but I actually could see this book moving into a series easily. It’s a good book that will work for older teens and up. Reviewed by Cyrene
4 Stars
