Cover Reveal: Appointed by Kandi J. Wyatt - Coming February 11th

 

Genre:  Young Adult, Fantasy

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Shawnahur longs to be more—to do more—than just herd wooly ducks. If

that means he can make his brothers proud of him, all the better. He doesn’t think much of it

when he helps a wounded dragon, but suddenly, he’s gaining attention.

First the chief’s mage shows up declaring Shawnahur dragon king of a nonexistent kingdom.

Then he receives a summons from the chief’s household to be the chief’s personal musician,

which shows him a side of the warrior he’d never expected.

With the clans united against a common enemy, Shawnahur’s brothers march to war. When

Shawn takes supplies to his brothers, he unwittingly walks onto a battlefield, and with his

dragon’s help, defeats the champion.

As Shawnahur’s successes mount, the chief’s approval turns to jealousy. Shawn soon finds

himself on the wrong end of a glaive more times than he can count. Now he only longs to stay

alive; pleasing his brothers and herding would be a life of ease.

If you like action, a hint of romance, and dragons, you’ll love Kandi J Wyatt’s epic fantasy.

Buy Appointed to enter a world of dragons and heroes today!

Pre-order Appointed direct from the author - https://payhip.com/b/VMUzR

Appointed retailers pre-order link - https://books2read.com/sovereigns7

Read the first Chapter on Kandi’s website here:

https://kandijwyatt.com/appointed-chapter-1/

First Book Review of 2025 - Kianola by Nathan Roth

Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction,  Fantasy

Source: I won a copy from LibraryThing. The opinions expressed here are my own.

As a middle school teacher I often see kids like Nole. They may not always hide away in video games, but they hide away in their art or something else. I often see them with someone who acts like a friend, but at the same time tends to bully them, just on a milder level.

In this book our main character  has gotten the most coveted new game, Enix. Within this game he can be the opposite of who he isn’t in his real world. When he meets a girl named Dapple he begins to build a friendship and a crush. Then Dapple introduces him to her friend, Kianola (Kia).  Nole’s crush moves from Dapple to Kia.  Through playing this game Nole gets a whole new perspective on life. Teased and bullied for being overweight, he has such low self esteem. In the imaginary world he can be the opposite of what he believes he is in the real world. However, this soon carries over into his real life. Nole begins to make changes in himself, to become the person he wants to be and the person he is determined to become.

The gaming part of this book was awesome.  I say this having grown up with the original Sega and graduation to Play Stations (as an adult). I was never good at playing games. Just ask my kids or my nieces and nephews. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like them. The world building in this story is done so expertly that when Nole and his friends entered the game I felt like I was there. I could envision the different worlds in the games.  I understood what was happening in the game. Were the game real I still couldn’t play it and win. My eye-hand coordination is not good, the same with my reflexes. I believe this is a book my middle school students are going to love.  Especially since they so patiently try to explain to me  the games they are playing. I would have to classify this as fantasy world meets the real world.  If I could give this more than five stars I would because this has to be one of the best books I have read in the last few month.