What's Elizabeth Reading? ...Hilari Bell

I told you the goal was to finish two YA novels in a week, if not a weekend.  I started them both on Friday, didn't read at all on Sunday, and finished them both today (Monday).  I'm rather proud of myself.  It isn't even midnight yet.  I haven't even eaten dinner.

Fall of a Kingdom by Hilari Bell was ... good.  It wasn't anything special, but it definitely wasn't torturous reading, either. My only real complaint is that I felt the story skipped too much.  With the turn of one page, the narration skips several months, and we are left to assume that those months were filled with nothing but training, hunting, learning, something.  This happens multiple times throughout the novel.  I wanted to watch the female protagonist, Soraya, learn to use magic.  We came in at the end, just in time to watch her figure out the last piece of the puzzle.  I wanted to watch Kavi visit her in the wilderness, watch him as he wheedled information out of people.  Instead, his story seemed rather stagnant; we watched him give his reports and wonder about which government he should be helping. I wanted to watch Jiaan ... you know what, with Jiaan, it really sounded like he spent the entire time doing drills for war.  Something interesting should have happened there.

If I have time and I remember to come back to it, I feel like the second book of this trilogy will probably be better than the first.  Usually, first books are used to set up a story (though in a trilogy, they should be involved as a part of the story, too).  So maybe the reader is able to watch Soraya reach her magical potential (and get a little wiser).  Maybe the reader will watch Kavi and Jiaan do something.

The writing, as I said, is good.  Nothing to sing about, but nothing to put down.  I just wish there was more to this story.  There is more, I can feel that there is more, but the novel is just too short for the story, in my opinion.  I need more detail, more story.  I want to be forced to read the next book, instead of thinking it might be a nice idea.  BUT.  Props to Hilari Bell for having an interesting story that makes me say, "give me more," instead of, "please put down your pen and walk away."