Review - Under a Fairy Moon by T.M. Wallace

TITLE:    Under a Fairy Moon
AUTHOR:    T.M. Wallace
INFO:    Paperback, Fiction, 212 pages
PUBLISHED:   Brownridge Publishing, 2011
SOURCE:   Received from Publisher for Review and Blog Tour

GOODREADS:  If you are longing for adventure and your family moves next-door to a beautiful garden full of lush plants and ancient stone, wouldn't you steal over to have a look at it – even if it was owned by the neighborhood witch? For Addy Marten the answer is obvious: It is only a matter of time before Addy sets out to explore the garden's winding paths and especially, the rows of mysterious stone statues that she has glimpsed through her bedroom window. Instead of the enticing hideaway she has imagined, however, she finds herself in a chaotic and dangerous place.

The Garden takes on a persona of its own that both entices and threatens. Its dark, secret places lure her with their promise of hidden mysteries, then “surprise and wound” her with the “prick of stinging nettle claws and barberry teeth.” Too late, Addy discovers that she is a prisoner in the Median Realms and an unwilling pawn in an unusual game of Fairy Chess. She must use all her courage and wits to win the game and free herself from a malevolent group of fairy creatures and their twisted fairy-tale world.

An ABNA Publisher Weekly Reviewer has this to say: Maybe Addy didn’t fall down a rabbit hole, as Alice did, but after being swallowed up in a garden that morphs into strange environs and challenged to a do-or-die game by a stone Sentry sure to upset the realm of Fairy Queen Adalira, this story is a similarly hallucinatory adventure. In the human realm, 14 year-old Addy Marten has just moved to Windy Falls and is compelled to trespass in Mrs. Tavish’s garden where she meets Connor, a boy in a yellow raincoat. As the garden becomes an altered state, the duo is drawn into strange and dangerous territory where they are separated and strive to reunite in time for the Midsummer’s Ritual. Entrusted with Adalira’s crystal pendant, Addy tries to conceal it from evil characters such as Elf King and use its powers to win the game. A misbehaving pixie named Enitua steals the limelight as the novel’s most precocious character and later becomes a key ally in guarding the humans’ safety. UNDER A FAIRY MOON was a quarter-finalist in in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel competition.

MY TAKE:    This was a delightful story that I think will appeal to older middle grade readers and up.  T.M. Wallace has created a story chock full of characters that kids can relate to.  They are well written and quite believable in their actions and dialogue.  I enjoyed the fact that the author's fae were based on the darker, more malevolent beings from myth and legend.  The lighter "sparkly" fairies tend to get the majority of the attention so this was a refreshing change.  Fairies weren't the only supernatural beings inhabiting the garden and this book.  We were introduced to elves, lizard men, sages and other interesting players.

While I know next to nothing about the game of chess, I am an avid gardener.  The careful research obviously undertaken by Ms. Wallace is much appreciated.  Her descriptions of certain plants and flowers were quite accurate.  The garden was well thought out.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this lovely tale.  Thank you to the author T.M. Wallace and the lovely ladies at Pump Up Your Book for including me on the tour.  If you'd like to read the first chapter, you can visit Literarily Speaking.  

Out of 5 JEWELS, I give it:

   

 
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