Review Detail

At its heart, Maradonia and the Guardians of the Portal is a battle to protect an essential and valuable portal. There is an evil king who wants to use it for his gain, and there are also humans searching for it. As these stories usually go, there are chosen humans who will help save it, revive it, and defend it from those who want to harm it. I found some severe levels of violence in this book, and the death of mermaids and humans alike. I enjoyed learning about the Mermaids who are protecting the kingdom, exploring the other kingdoms, and the interesting side angle of the human military wanting to find the portal as much as the evil king did. The story, though hard to read and hard to understand, the amount of destruction people will wreak on animals and the world around them to achieve control of something kept me on the edge of my seat, and I highly recommend this to any young adult reader who wants a chosen one story with mermaids.