The Crescent Stone - Matt Mikalatos

A girl with a deadly lung disease . . .
A boy with a tragic past . . .
A land where the sun never sets but darkness still creeps in . . .

Madeline Oliver has never wanted for anything, but now she would give anything just to breathe. Jason Wu skates through life on jokes, but when a tragedy leaves him guilt-stricken, he promises to tell only the truth, no matter the price. When a mysterious stranger name Hanali appears to Madeline and offers to heal her in exchange for one year of service to his people, Madeline and Jason are swept into a strange land where they don’t know the rules and where their decisions carry consequences that reach farther than they could ever guess.

MY REVIEW: YA Fantasy Fiction has never been a particular favorite of mine, but I have loved other books by Matt Mikalatos so I wanted to give this a chance. I admit it did drag a bit for me at times, but that's not the fault of Mikalatos. In fact, although it took me longer than usual to read "The Crescent Stone," I did want to know how the story was going to turn out. It definitely points in his favor that I had enough interest to keep going forward.

And there were quite a few twists and turns on the journey. Things and people were not always what you thought and there were a few surprises along the way. Most of the characters were very intriguing. I was disappointed not to see some further developed and a few did not interest me as much so I would get a bit bored.

Sometimes there was a touch too much of social justice warrior type conversation, yet I did thoroughly appreciate historical background that is not shared as frequently as when I was in school. More important for me was that the reader is made to realize that things aren't always what they appear and that there may be another side, or even sides, to a story.  Of course, I am several decades beyond the intended audience age... and have less interest in this type of fantasy, so I am not the intended audience. I definitely recommend it for others to try.

 I received a copy of this book for review purposes from Tyndale House Publishers.