Wood Sprites
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Book 4 in the Romantic Times Sapphire award winning Elfhome series.
Even though they attend a school of gifted students in New York City, child geniuses Louise Mayer and her twin sister Jillian have always felt alone in the world, isolated by their brilliance. Shortly before their ninth birthday, they make an amazing discovery. They’re not alone.
Their real mother was astronaut Esme Shenske and their father was the famous inventor, Leonardo Dufae. They have an older sister, Alexander, living on the planet of Elfhome, and four siblings still in cryogenic storage at the fertility center. There’s only one problem: the frozen embryos are scheduled to be destroyed within six months. The race is on to save their baby brother and sisters.
As a war breaks out on Elfhome and riots start in New York City, the twins use science and magic to plow over everything standing in their way. But when they come face to face with an ancient evil force, they’re soon in over their heads in danger.
At the publisher’s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spencer's fourth Elfhome novel (after Elfhome) maintains the series's solid quality. When youthful curiosity with combustibles sends eight-year-old twins Louise and Jillian Mayer to the hospital, the doctors make an intriguing discovery: blood types prove that the girls are not biologically related to their loving parents. The twins' investigation into their origins leads to the discovery that they have elven heritage, and entangles them in the fraught politics between humans and elves. Amid escalating acts of violence, Louise and Jillian's search for unknown relatives places them in a pivotal role in a conflict spanning the human and elf worlds. The girls are endearing without being twee and bright but not implausibly brilliant, and Spencer's prose remains engaging. The m lange of science fiction and fantasy tropes, starships rubbing shoulders with proud elf warriors, is uncommon but tasty. Established fans will enjoy this installment, and those unfamiliar with the series or Spencer may find it an intriguing introduction to her work.
Customer Reviews
A swerve off-course
The previous three books were entertaining action-romances in an urban fantasy setting. This book takes many of the elements of the previous ones and seems to caricature them. The twin teenage prodigy-genius protagonists are insufferably smug throughout, and their maturity is an informed attribute not shown in their decisions or behaviour.
I had hoped for the fourth book to show Tinker & Windwolf both having to cope with the fallout of their decisions in Wolf Who Rules and the consequent political earthquakes they caused. Instead, this is a work of extremely juvenile fiction apparently aimed at the Young Adult market and brushes all character development aside for more ‘kewl akts' from the prodigious pair. I despised the protagonists, and I don’t think it was deliberate on Spencer’s part.
This isn’t a horrible book, but it’s badly mismatched in tone and characterisation compared to the others, and should not have been sold as a sequel to readers who enjoyed the previous three.