The Last Order
Angela M. Caldwell
Published: 3rd February, 2015
Rocket Circus Press
Summary:
Lana forms a secret order of women knights to fulfill her father’s final request: find the queen who was thought to be dead and return her to the throne.
Lana Crewe is a strong, fiercely driven seventeen year old living in a village ruled by fear. With their king and queen both dead, strife and division have taken hold. Ruthlessly attacked by an Order called Talons, Lana’s father is fatally stabbed. Before he dies, he imparts upon Lana a directive to save the statue of Saint Peter, and tells her that the queen yet lives. Now it is up to Lana to unravel the mystery of Saint Peter and bring an end to all of the war by finding the queen.
A medieval tale of hope and mystery, The Last Order is an action-packed story with one of the strongest female leads since Disney’s “Brave.” Not your average YA novel; The Last Order takes upper teenage angst and spins it on its head. You’ll be gripping this book as hard as it will be gripping you.
What I liked: I really liked the story because of the world building and the way the writing works with the story. It flows brilliantly, and the scenes are never too slow to drag, but nor are they ever too fast-paced to keep up with what is happening. It’s not all battle scenes and big action moments, there are plenty of more mundane moments as well with the characters. Lana is a character who is stubborn and wants to do what she thinks is right, do what her father asked her to do. So she goes out to fulfill his last request of her. There are some interesting twist, but a few of them I saw coming or guessed beforehand because of clues early on in the story that weren’t hard to pick up on. The worldbuilding itself was well done, it wasn’t too complex to understand, rather simple as a whole.
What I didn’t like: I think my expectations for Lana were way too high since she was likened to Merida in Brave. As someone who has seen that movie dozens of times since it’s release I expected more from Lana than I got because of that reference. I didn’t connect with Lana, and maybe it was because of my expectations. I didn’t really get any sense of an emotional connection with Lana or the story. My expectations were just too high because of the summary. I also wanted a more complex worldbuilding than I got, it was too clean cut, too simple for me.
Overall Review: Don’t set your hopes up too high with the expectation that Lana is going to be super fantastic because the summary references Merida. I’ve read a dozen stories with leads like her that I connected to better. That said, I did like and dislike the world building. It was simple, clean cut, and not very confusing to read about and understand, which for me was both a positive and a negative since I’m a big fan of fantasy books. The angst that was promised wasn’t as strong as I was hoping either. While the characters are interesting to read and the story is as well, I was just hoping for a whole lot more than I got. I do look forward to reading the second one just to see where we go after the ending and how everything is going to change.
Recommend?: This was an okay fantasy, and it’s likely lower fantasy because of the worldbuilding being so simple. I was expecting more though so maybe if I hadn’t expected so much I would have enjoyed it more than I did.
My Rating: 3.5/5
Rated Materials:
Cover: 4.1
Idea: 3.5
Story: 3.1
Characters: 3.3
About the Author
Angela M Caldwell is an author, photographer, and digital filmmaker. She studied video production and photography at Radford Univeristy then relocated to Los Angeles for an adventure. After seven years of city life, she moved back to Virgina.
Angela loves a good story and she has a broad range of likes when it comes to reading. Give her characters that she can root for and take her on an adventure. Angela’s journey back to the written word is a story of its own with dyslexia keeping her from writing for years.
But, she is a storyteller at heart. Through the years, she enjoyed expressing her stories through a variety of forms: photography, painting, music, film-making, and writing.
She lives with her husband and 4 kids, who are her biggest fans. They have one dog, and two cats. Perhaps one day they will have a farm. And her dream of having a horse will be realized.
Author Links:
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook│Tumblr
GIVEAWAY*!
*Books and Ashes is not responsible for any lost, damaged, or unreceived materials that you may win. Books and Ashes does not handle the materials, or have any input on who receives a prize. In the case of a Books and Ashes Sponsored Giveaway Random.org will choose the winner. US and international followers eligible where applicable.
booksandashes.wordpress.com 