I read, therefore I am: Discuss (or Review of The Winter Letter by D. E. Stanley)

 

I suppose I'm supposed to say "SPOILER ALERT" as though someone actually reads my blog. :P
Anyway.  I started to have a few doubts when Jared got all up in Will's face and took the letter from him after the Awakening Ceremony, but then wrote it off as his just being stressed.
However...For the last several chapters, ever since Jared forbade Gat, Will, and Wohie to attempt a rescue of the missing orphans and tried to imprison them when they decided to rescue them anyway, I'd started to suspect the King Mel is not the evil one after all.  It's all a conspiracy.  Or, as Phoebe might say (I was watching Charmed last night): "Somebody's working on a massive evil plan!"

At this exact moment, I suddenly got an incredible epiphany.  See...according to the SSF (story so far), there were three major knights/guardians of the Kingdom of Neba.  Markus (who is now called King Markus of the Under-Kingdom), Andrias (whom the children all think is an evil spy, turned by King Mel), and the last, being Eleazar.  The only one we haven't met yet is the last.

I just drew the connection when Jared started yelling at Will about his parents.  Will's dad's name was Eli.

It was no accident that his parents died.  It was no accident that he ended up in Baru.  And it was no accident that some bird dive-bombed him on his way to meet the King.

I love it when epiphanies come before the end of the book.

Oh.  And the book is called The Winter Letter by D.E. Stanley.
It's something you should definitely read if you were a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia (trust me on this; I read Narnia every Christmas and have for like the past fifteen or so years!).  The story itself is a good faith-fantasy.  The characters are fun (I dare you not to enjoy a "butterbug" named Jabber, a tree named Forest, a trio of talking lions who aren't just lions, or a quartet of boys named Yoh, Goh, Broh, and Sloh), the "magic" is real, with real costs and real consequences.  The story has adventure and tragedy and hope.

Really, I cannot wait to read the next installment.  I even liked the author's page (as well as the book's page) on facebook!  And you know how I feel about facebook!