Book Review – The Elemental Stone, A Mortaran Novel by Madelaine Taylor
First published, 2020
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
In The Elemental Stone, we follow the exciting journey of a young girl as she travels from her quiet homestead to the big city in search of justice for a terrible wrong, for which her family may have to pay the price. Picking up friends and allies along the way, Lana is not any farm girl. She has a deep connection to nature and a kindness and purity of spirit that makes for a tremendously memorable character.
I’m not going to spoil the story for you, but I really enjoyed the characters. If you’ve read many of my reviews before, you’ll know I really don’t like a heavy-handed accent. I don’t need every vowel sounded out for me and phonetic spelling slows me right down, which irks me no end. The wonder with Ms Taylor’s writing is that I could hear the characters’ voices─north of England and Scottish─without being bashed over the head with it. The writing was concise and the story very satisfying. With the key elements of nature, fantasy, and a long, perilous journey, it’s very tempting to liken the story to J R R Tolkien, and I know other reviewers have done just that. Definitely one to read.
Petrina Binney - Author 