The Fires of Calderon (Balance Keepers, #1)

by Lindsay Cummings

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

I feel really bad for not enjoying this book, you guys. I had a quick look on Goodreads and everyone has rated it highly so far, and I feel like I am missing something because I just couldn’t get into it. Oh well, what can you do?

I love the whole premise of this book, despite not having actually enjoyed the execution. I love the idea of the Balance Keepers keeping all of the realms in order, and I that’s the reason I requested this book for review. It could have been so exciting, but it just wasn’t. It’s weird, because all of the elements were there and ready to wow me. There was world building, action scenes, a slight mystery, OTHER REALMS, and yet it all just disappointed me.


I had a really hard time getting into this book, and I didn’t end up following the story at all because it didn’t captivate me like I had hoped. To be honest, I think it was Cummings’ writing style that was the issue for me, because like I said, everything else was just as it should be.

I thought that the characters spoke far too maturely for their age. This is a Middle Grade novel and the characters are going around talking like adults. I like to think of this as the John Green Effect, because he does the same thing with his books. The characters aren’t meant to sound like professors, they are children.

I’m very disappointed because I was looking forward to getting stuck into a good Middle Grade fantasy, but I wasn’t able to. Hopefully things will go the way that the Goodreads reviews indicate, and everyone else will love this book, because I would really hate for the potential to go to waste.