Review: Gaia’s Revenge, by J.A. Browne

Description

The epic environmental coming of age fantasy continues. An ideal series for YA and MG readers who love fantasy, the magic of nature and want a stellar female cast of characters.

After one of the bloodline Elementals is snatched, Hannah and her guardian – a magical silverback fox called Alpha – must journey into the unknown to save a future still under threat.

But is it a trap?

As old enemies emerge and darkness spreads across the worlds, Hannah discovers that her own mother has mysteriously gone missing. With Gaia, the Mother of all Nature, hellbent on seeking revenge against those that are trying to destroy her, Hannah realises she’s running out of time and that to save the future, might just mean the mother of all sacrifices.

My Review

Thanks again to the author and to Anne.

I have the hardback of this novel, so the cover is a bit different but the artwork is quite lovely, as you can see from the tour calendar (bottom of the post).

I’m ill. I haven’t finished reading this book, because I’ve been too ill to read. It’s really frustrating! However, I will review it based on what I have read.

We pick up where ‘Hannah and the Hidden Tree‘ left off, in the Hidden Tree observing Hannah’s great-great-grandmother, Harriet. Furies attack Windsor House in 1821, so Hannah and her grandmother dive back into the past to help rescue their past family. Alpha the fox goes with them. Things happen in 1821 and Harriet is kidnapped, probably by the Lord who is poisoning Gaia.

Hannah, her grandmother, her great-great-grandmother’s siblings, and her 3xgreat-grandmother, and Harriet’s guardian, a dryad, head to Gaian, to retrieve Harriet and save Gaia. In Gaian they meet two of the guardians of the Elementals (Hannah, John, Charlotte and Harriet) and search for Harriet and Hannah’s mother, Caroline, who is still lost somewhere in the ether. The realisation that Gaia, and subsequently Gaian and Earth, is suffering because humans have weakened them and the Lord who is poisoning Gaia has taken advantage of the situation. Hannah feels guilty for being human and angry at humans in general for their selfishness.

The descriptions of Gaian are rich and lush, imaginative and brightly colourful. The feelings of fear and excitement in the younger characters as they explore this entirely new world are vivid. The adults and Gaian characters are sensitive and sensible to the needs of their young charges, and the world around them.

I found the story entertaining and the descriptions colourful. I think this book will definitely appeal to children just getting into fantasy. It also imparts important lessons about our responsibility for the planet we live on. We only have the one.

I’m going to finish reading this book and will add anything extra that I feel needs adding.