Sixteen-year-old Canny Mochrie's holiday takes a turn when she stumbles upon a mysterious and enchanting valley, occupied almost entirely by children who can perform a special type of magic that tells things how to be stronger and better than they already are. As Canny studies the magic more carefully, she realizes that she not only understands it - she can perform the magic, too, so well that it feels like it has always been a part of her. With the help of an alluring seventeen-year-old boy who is held hostage by a spell that is now more powerful than the people who first placed it, Canny figures out the secrets of this valley and of her own past.
I enjoyed the [b:Dreamhunter|357091|Dreamhunter (The Dreamhunter Duet, #1)|Elizabeth Knox|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316638294s/357091.jpg|3017563] duet so I wanted to read more from [a:Elizabeth Knox|91085|Elizabeth Knox|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1241088778p2/91085.jpg]. I didn't realize this was also set in the same world until I glanced at one of the reviews on the back cover.
But it was fun to go back to Southland and the Found One reminded me a lot of a Noun (I realize that's gibberish if you haven't read the books but I wanted to say it anyway). I liked the allusions to the other books like the dream palace. But mostly I liked how the magic was so much the same, even though the application was completely different.
While the characters were decent, there was a distance to them that made them likable but not lovable. But the world was is so interesting and unique that I really enjoyed it. I liked that it was subtle and complex because that meant that I kept rolling the whole thing around in my head after it was finished. Which was fun.
And it was compelling because there were answers she held until the very end, which kept me reading like crazy but didn't leave much time to revel in the information or enjoy the turn it created in the story. So, I would have like more of that.
