The Hidden Twin

The Hidden Twin is a great fantasy and adventure story. Set in a Caladras City, a steampunk town of metal and gears that is besides a volcano called Mol. In this fictional world, people with magical powers called “Others” exist. A redwing is a child of a human and an Other. Redwings are always born with a human twin. Most redwings are killed shortly after they are born because the redwing is considered evil by the Temple, their religious center. Our narrator, a redwing, was not killed by her parents and she lives with her father and twin sister, but has no name and is hidden away. Sometimes she switches places with her sister, Jey, to experience the outside world. On one outing, she is attacked by priests and forced to use her powers to save herself and the boy, Corvin, who tried to help her. Through this encounter meets Corvin’s sister, Nara, who has an ulterior motive for finding a redwing and learns about a plant that could potentially expose her. A few days later she switches places with her sister, so she could find and destroy the plant. Jey is a gardener at the palace of the Empress, where she can find the plant. Unfortunately, she is betrayed by someone close and gets captured by the Temple who want to execute her. She escapes and with nowhere else to go, turns to Corvin and Nara, who tell her that Caladras city is in even bigger danger. Some of the Temple priests want to destroy the city and only a redwing can stop them from getting what they need to unleash the destruction. Will the redwing save the city and be able to stop the priests?

This story has a nice pace, well described characters, and imparts important messages. The scenes are well paced and keep you interested. The story is told in first person by the unnamed redwing (later on she gets a name). Our narrator is a great character, she is spunky, brave, and kind. The other characters are also very well written with their own personalities. The author also does a fine job building this fantasy city, describing buildings and monuments, creating the fashions the citizens wear, showing us their religious beliefs, and giving them their own expressions of speech. The story does not have any really violent scenes besides people getting tossed about and whipped. Romance is not a big part of the story and there is no love triangle, but the story does have some kissing. Also, the story does not end on a cliffhanger, resolving most of the problems. Some of the messages the story leaves you with are: not to blindly follow someone or a religion without questioning and getting own opinion, do not believe everything you are told without doing any research, and people are not always what they appear to be. I liked the Hidden Twin and would check out other books from the author. I received an advanced copy from a giveaway, which did not affect my opinion of the book. Fans of fantasy and magic books would enjoy this creative story.