The Silver Strand
Ever since twelve year old Isabelle Tresdon’s silver strand of hair sprouted, it’s been nothing but trouble: bleeding pink dust and sparking like a firecracker. Refusing to be known as the girl with the freaky, grandma hair, she wishes it never grew and the hair withers and tarnishes. The only problem is, the strand is Isabelle’s source of magic, and she can transform particles of energy into matter. It’s also her ticket into Mastermind Academy, a secret school inside the earth’s core. Five days remain before the strand drains her magic and life, forcing Isabelle to enter into a deal with two trickster Masterminds to save it. But what she doesn’t count on is there is more at stake than just her life. The Silver Strand, a MG Fantasy Adventure for 9-12 year olds, is book 1 in the Mastermind Academy Series.
Author L.J. Clarkson
One thing you need to know about LJ Clarkson is that she tells BIG lies. She tells everyone that she gave up her career as an Environmental Engineer and Project Manager to write full time. But that’s not entirely true. Ten percent of the time she sleeps in. Fifteen percent of her day, she spends surfing the internet, researching for new books and her business. Ok, fine. Two percent is for research. But she’s only admitting it so she doesn’t end up like Boldrick. For eighteen point seven five percent of her day, she runs her promotional and support site for authors, called Indicated (www.indicated.com.au). The rest of her time involves writing, reading, watching movies and TV, walking her dogs and falling asleep whenever her boyfriend talks technical computer lingo. Truthfully, she hates early mornings, mondays, grammar (yuck! just ask her poor editor!), broccoli and cleaning. If you would like to drop her a line and let her know what you think of the book, she would love to hear from you. Just not before 8:30am in the morning.
Review
Ok, so I have to start out with a disclaimer. The book has some editing issues, BUT even with the issues that annoyed me like crazy, I really liked the book! I thought it was a great story with a lot of personality. I loved the main character. She was believable and not stereotypical. She was just a girl. I get sick of stereotypical characters cause I don’t feel like many real people fit into stereotypes anyway. So, I loved that about the main character. I also thought the personalities of the supporting characters were all so very different from each other it kept things interesting. Names were fun, but some were difficult to pronounce in my head. I sort of wished there had been a pronunciation guide at times.
The story was a winner too. I thought it was original and just interesting. The concept of magic was simple and easy to explain, nothing too fancy. I loved the idea of the hidden world being at the earth’s core. It seems so well hidden and why not, right? Who is going to tunnel to the center of the earth unless they have magic to assist them.
Aside from anything else I just liked the author’s writing style. She kept things light-hearted and optimistic while maintaining a sense of reality. So, because I could still enjoy the book through the technical errors I think it had to of been a good one. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I am not reflecting the errors in my review because I know the author has been made aware of the technical errors and hopes to improve them. I hope those errors don’t keep anyone from reading the book, cause like I said, I think it was a good book and still enjoyable in spite of the errors.
$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 10/9/13 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you Angelique! So glad you enjoyed it. Those naughty, sly errors are being banished by a laser beam wielding editor from Agartha as we speak.
Oh good! Watch out, though, some of them are in total stealth mode!
Thanks for sharing The Silver Strand and the giveaway. Sounds like a great book. evamillien at gmail dot com
It is! Thanks for reading the blog 🙂