Review Detail

15 year old Lucy have been living on isolated island with her old servant Norie since they survived the shipwreck. She has been warned many times never to take of her necklace or listen to the songs on the wind or (heaven forbid) sing. And Lucy is not forbidden to sing for the same reason as me - because she has the vocal capacity of Scuttle, the seagull from The Little Mermaid. No, if Lucy sings, the darkness will find her. *insert ominous music*

But one time Lucy just can't resist the melody she hears in the wind and... her adventure begins. Transferred from the island to a heart of a 17th century London, Lucy is out of her depths while trying to find out more about her family, her strange singing abilities and the current political going-ons.

I will be honest, there were some things that simply did not work for me in this book. I could not just wrap my mind around signing magical spells for example. When I tried to imagine that scene it always turned out to resemble a bad musical. And also I wish the side characters were a little bit more detailed. They were given an unique set of distinguishing virtues (or faults) but sometimes they felt a little bit shallow like they needed more depth. But since this is Amy Butler Greenfield's young adult debut, I am willing to be a little bit forgiving. Especially since she worked against some usual young adult novel tropes.

Yes you heard me. No usual irritating cliches here. No insta-love or love triangle romance. The attraction between Lucy and Nat starts out slow and progresses even slower while they get to know each other. Also I liked that Lucy does not get anything easy. She is stubborn, persistent, hard-working, willing to admit her mistakes and work hard to correct them. As Albert Einstein once said: "Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work..."

Chantress is an out-of-the-ordinary coming of age story about the usual problems: family, first love, dealing with changes in your body, trying to find your identity and place in the big big world... It's a perfect read for young adults because it has a clean romance without sexual language and with a good set of values and messages shared. This is a book that you can with a clear conscience recommend to any teen or young adult that is a fan of historical fantasy.

Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for a honest review.