Blog Tour: The Waking Land by Callie Bates

This year so far has been full of blog tours which I'm loving as I adore reading and working with publishers is a bonus! I've already published blog tour review posts for A Mighty Dawn, The Intruder, Culture Smart Travel Guides and Beautiful Star with a few more on the way, including this one which is in collaboration with the wonderful people at Hodder and Stoughton. 

*The Waking Land by Callie Bates (400 pages - available now) ★★★

I'm a huge fantasy fan, it's one of my favourite book genres along with magical realism, mystery/thrillers, quirky non-fiction and YA so I was very excited to be part of this blog tour for a new YA fantasy by Callie Bates which includes romance, paranormal and almost folklore elements. It's a little longer than most YA books I've finished recently but it is a very quick, easy and fun read! 

We follow Elanna who as a child was taken at knife point to live in another kingdom away from her family and magical culture but everything changes when she grows up and has to quell her magic, flee from the kingdom she was forced to live in and reunite with her family to save her kingdom and to ensure that magic is bought back to their lands. 

I liked the settings, most of the characters, the politics and the world in general but the best part has to be the magic! I loved the almost folklore attached to the magic, the magical abilities of the main character and the battle at the end of the book. The writing was also very quick and easy, not overly descriptive and definitely kept me turning the pages. However, I did find it a little predictable at times, the ending wasn't quite what I thought it would be (although I am happy with the ending) and it was quite slow in places. 

Overall, even though I had to rush through it a little to have my review published on time, it was a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and fun fantasy read filled with magic, self discovery and a predictable but sweet romance - it's impressive for a debut YA fantasy read. I'd definitely recommend it if you like YA fantasy and I'm interested enough to want to read the second book which comes out in December 2018. 

Are you a fantasy fan? Are you going to pick up this YA fantasy read? What are you currently reading?