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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Prophecy of Days


Author: Christy Raedeke
Publication Date: May 1, 2010
Genre: YA Fantasy
Copy provided by: Publisher
Summary (via Goodreads):

PROPHECY OF DAYS, BOOK ONE: THE DAYKEEPER’S GRIMOIRE is the story of Caity Mac Fireland, a girl from San Francisco whose parents drag her to an isle off the coast of Scotland to manage some family property. Caity finds that a Mayan relic is concealed there, intentionally left centuries ago by Mayan Daykeepers in an attempt to keep their profound knowledge about the year 2012 alive into the current era.

As she delves into this world of secret knowledge, Caity is helped along by a visiting family friend and Feng Shui master, Uncle Li; a Mayan elder named Bolon; and Mr. Papers, her pet monkey that communicates through origami. A handsome Scottish lad gets pulled into the intrigue, as do several other people with questionable motives and loyalties. Caity must weave together a tapestry of information in order to make her radical discovery, a mystery protected by an elite coterie of power-brokers who influence world events. Caity’s twenty-first century mind is put to the test as she tries to uncover the answer to an ancient riddle while trying to outwit this powerful group that will stop at nothing to control the secret, and her.


Why I read this: I really wanted to read this one because the premise sounded intriguing and it's also another debut novel.

Plot: The author starts the novel the best way I've read in a while. The narrator, Caity, is on her way to Scotland and she gives a somewhat snarky version of how she came to be on her way to Scotland. Since she doesn't want to draw it out and bore us, she keeps it short - a page or two. The main premise that Caity arrives in Scotland and discovers there is a hidden room in her new bedroom. The room is full of symbols she has never seen before.

Luckily, her parents are code and safe crackers (the legal kind) and she brings it to them, lying that she created it to see if they could crack it. The code gets cracked slowly and parts of a prophecy are discovered, and guess what? She a part of it.

The only problem I had with the plot is that everything felt too easy for Caity. There's parts in the plot where she has to do certain things for the prophecy, she makes a huge deal of it and then things work out with no problem what-so-ever. Also, the random bad guys that pop up aren't all that menacing, which was a bit disappointing for me.


Characters: I enjoyed getting to know Caity throughout the book, especially when interacting with her parents. Also, she was a normal teenage girl when it came down to it, but still stepped up to do what she needed to when she needed to.

Caity had some great sidekicks, the first of which is a monkey named Mr. Papers who really does communicate through origami. Strange, but fun. Her Uncle Li is also a character, believing her right from the start and aiding her when she needs the help.

The love interest: mm mm mm. Yep, gorgeous and with a personality. He runs a bit hot and cold with Caity, she says something wrong.. he stops talking to her, and so on and so forth. But you guys know something always brings them back together and so we get to see a few small sparks fly. Hoping for more in the later books myself.

Relatability: I felt like I really connected to Caity via her relationship with her parents and uncle. I could definitely see them as a real family and with some similar qualities to my own family. Also, I loved how Caity interacted with Mr. Papers.. he was definitely somewhat of a comic relief character at times.

Cover Commentary: I like it. It's simple and eye-catching.

Rating: 4/5 Roses


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*If you buy this book on Amazon through the link above, I will receive a small portion of the sales.

17 comments:

  1. I just noticed that this is a trade paperback and my store has it in stock! I have been looking forward to reading it since I saw it posted somewhere long ago. Now I know what I am doing at lunch! With your positive review I am happy about my decision to go get this today!

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  2. I REALLY want to read that book now, after having seen a lot of people agree that it's good.

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  3. I'm glad you liked it. This has been on my wishlist.

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  4. Definitely sound like a book I will be able to wrap my head around. Love solving mysteries and it sound like this one will be exciting.

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  5. Going on my to read list. Thanks!

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  6. Sounds like my kind of read. Plus the cover looks fantastic!

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  7. Sounds like a fun read and I love it when the family is involved!

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  8. Thanks for the great recommendation, I can't believe I didn't bother to read the synopsis for this one until now because of the cover. Anyway, your review convinced me to add it to my wishlist :)

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  9. Prophecy of Days looks really good. I've been seeing it around everywhere but never actually knew what it was about.

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  10. Thank you, Kristen, for the opportunity to be interviewed!

    It's a treat to be featured on Bookworming!

    Cheers,
    Christy

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  11. this is going to be my next read!

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  12. This sounds great! I'm going to have to add it to my TBR list.

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  13. Great review. Really looking forward to reading it.

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  14. I do like books with intriguing premise and if they're debut books, I want to read them all the more. This one sounds really good! Great review!

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  15. I really really want to read this one! Thanks for the review - glad you liked it and it sounds like I will too :)

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  16. When you said her sidekick is a Monkey, do you really mean a "monkey"? Wow, that is very interesting! And the fact that it communicates via origami make it even better.

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  17. this looks good but i might wait til my library has it

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