All seems to be lost, until a human girl named Taylor is mistakenly transported to Bethany. Kane, the king over these nations, despises her whole-heartedly at first, and then she makes him laugh for the first time since the devastation began years ago. And the earthling manages to find new ways to surprise him with her valor and loyalty every single day. Unfortunately, Taylor’s only wish through their dangerous quest to reunite three magical stones and save the kingdom, aside from surviving this fearful place, is to return home.
But as fate goes, she soon discovers the only way to recapture the stones and save the lives of the royals she’s come to love as her first real family is to give up any hope of ever returning to her old life. In the end it all comes down to what sort of hero she truly is, one to her own self, or one to entire nations.
War has fractured the kingdom of Bethany. It is into this volatile situation that Taylor finds herself when she is pulled from her own home. Her desire to return home slowly shifts to a desire to see peace in the land that her new friends call home.
The reader is thrown into the action right from the start, which can be a bit disconcerting but left me with a desire to know more. As a whole, the story has a steady flow and is an excellent addition to the fantasy genre. The characters are fun, although a bit on the clichéd side, and the dredgelings were truly terrifying.
I highly enjoyed the interactions between the characters but I feel like it could have been expanded more. The sudden POV changes mid-chapter were confusing at times. Also, the actual stones don’t come into the story until about 75% into the book, which I found disappointing.
Overall, I found this to be a fun way to spend a few hours and would recommend this to any reader fond of fantasy and fish out of water style stories.