Week 28 Review: First of Tomes

From Goodreads:
Apparently, time-travel spells have a sense of humor and don't take direction well. Mei Li could've done with knowing that beforehand, and fully blames Shunlei for not forewarning her.

Instead of going back a few years to rescue the missing tomes, Mei Li finds herself thousands of years in the past, with the original events she needs to learn about still ten years into the future. She is stuck in a hurry-up-and-wait pattern she doesn't appreciate.

It doesn't help that this world is full of its own problems, and Mei Li has more than enough of those already. Now she must face shape shifting demons, volatile water deities, and a murderous sword on a rampage all while trying to figure out WHY the spell sent her here in the first place.

There are a few side benefits. Mei Li gets to meet younger Shunlei—or Shunlei the Red. Seeing him as a young dragon is fun. It's also fascinating being with the first group of magical troubleshooters, the original founders before the Tomes system ever existed.

And when the past starts to intertwine with the future in ways she could never have predicted, Mei Li prays she's able to navigate it without ruining the future. If she does, she fully plans on blaming Shunlei for that as well.

My Review:
Oh, man, wow, I loved reading this book! I loved the first one so much, and I was dying to read this book, so when Honor Ractoneur posted in the Facebook group that it'd been added to Amazon, to wait to see how long the processing would take, well, I went to Amazon, and I refreshed until it came up. And since it was free with Amazon Unlimited, well, I took advantage of the free trial just to read this book, because I just had to read it, right then and there!

I really enjoyed really getting to know this basically new cast of characters. Mei Li's the only one who hasn't changed, because Shunlei the Red, well, he hasn't had the full life of Shunlei the Black yet, he's only around 20 years old vs. over 5000. Like her initial relationship with Lady Kiyo. But I enjoyed that they worked it out!

It was interesting to see how much this world has changed in over 5000 years. Like the magic, because a big reason why Mei Li came to the past-that in the present they really only use the easier magic, so don't know how to use the older stuff without instruction, can't create something new. So thus the time travel. So it was interesting to see the magic, which didn't have all the techniques that Mei Li has learned, so that was interesting!

So I had a really big suspicion, with all the hints that were left in the first. There were comments in this book, and I was like, really? You haven't guessed? And then it turns out I was right, and while Mei Li does struggle with it, well, yeah, it was just so wonderful to read! And Mei Li works it out, the logic and the reason why things happened the way that they did.

Honestly, I was just so happy to read this book. I was basically beaming the whole time I was reading this book, it was just a pleasure, and I loved Mei Li and Shunlei's interactions, they were just so darned cute! This book was so great to read!

Loved this book so much, it was so fantastic, I am so excited for more from this series!

Author: Honor Ractoneur
Series: The Tomes of Kaleria #2
Read: July 10th, 2020
Source: Ebook.bike
Reason Why: Love her writing and the first book, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2020 Book!
Publisher: Raconteur House LLC
Published: July 10th, 2020

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars