Review: The Unblessed Child

Name -The Unblessed Child

Pages -208

Author -R.J.Kaldanis

Publisher -Self-published

Genre -Fantasy, Teens & YA

Rating -4/5

Review no. -07

Synopsis -

There are two types of people in The New Realm: those who are blessed by the gods of the four elements and those who aren't even worthy of their family name. They are unwanted, unloved and are simply known as The Unblessed.Eighteen year old Aardriyah Veros has it worse than most, forever living in the shadow of her powerfully water blessed brother and trying to survive in a broken and poverty stricken nation, to support her father and little sister. Matters only get worse when after two weeks of vivid nightmares, she finds herself being hunted and kidnapped by a mysterious robed figure, powered by a glowing amethyst eye amulet.With her elderly neighbour and new found canine friend in tow, our unblessed child sets out on an epic journey to uncover the truth behind her dreams and why she is being hunted. As she traverses the deepest of oceans brimming with terrifying beasts, volcanic ash covered empires and tunnels of haunted kingdoms, Aardriyah learns that there are worse things in The New Realm than being Unblessed.

Review -

The Unblessed child is the first of the Blessed Chronicles and I can now say it is such a fantastic story to have such a great twist to it, I have never read something like this before so it was so fresh to me and I loved it!!
Aardriyah has grown up bullied and treated like a second class citizen in a works divided in 2: The Blessed and the unblessed. The Blessed have power over the ”four elements “: earth, fire, air, water; while Aardriyah does not. This, however, does not stop her from wanting more out of life and does she ever get it. During her adventure she learns more about herself and the world around her than she believed possible.  
This story was well written with a great plot and beautiful world, but I found it was a slow start. The first half of the book was slow but the second half felt rushed and I would have happily devoured another 100 pages of details.
Aardriyah was such a fantastic character I cannot wait to see what the rest of the books will be like!!