The Legend of Finndragon's Curse by Richie Earl

Title: The Legend of Finndragon’s Curse

Author: Richie Earl

Series: Tales of Finndragon

Genre: Children’s novel, fantasy, adventure

Source: ARC

Pages:264

Rating: N/A

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon.com

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Three children racing against time, desperately searching for their missing father.

A medieval kingdom cursed by an evil wizard.

An ancient legend beneath our very feet.

The Legend of Finndragon’s Curse is the first book in a unique, two book fantasy adventure series and is a fast paced, engaging and thrilling page turner. The story races along with plenty of twists and turns as it heads for the prophesized confrontation between the children and the evil Finndragon himself.

Combining wizardry and magic with modern technology and containing magical animals and terrible demons, The Legend of Finndragon’s Curse is a rollercoaster of emotions that will make you laugh out loud and then fight to hold back the tears, as the children race against time to rescue their father. In doing so they have to kill Finndragon and put an end to the dreadful curse.

My Review:

You may have noticed that there is no rating for this book. Before I get into my review, I would like to explain why. The Legend of Finndragons's Curse is very clearly a children's novel. The author is a fellow book blogger that I highly respect so I jumped at the chance to read his book, not fully realizing it was a book for a younger child. If I had given this book a rating by my usual standards that are adapted to YA and adult fiction, it wouldn't be quite fair because it isn't that find of book. This time I ask you read my review, read the book, and judge for yourself.

Let's start off with my favourite topics, characters and development. The characters were well written and had a lot of detail written about them. I clearly saw in each character in my mind and Richie Earl did a great job of painting that picture. I did think that they could have used more depth to who they were, but remembering that this is a children' book, sometimes the characters don't gave that much depth. The children are put in a position where they have to set off on an adventure to save their father from Finndragon's curse, and through this you get to see how each of the three children (Emma, Megan and Scott) push past their own limitations and fears to go on this quest and complete its challenges. Saying that, I felt that the development was pretty standard for a first book in the series. It was just starting to really happen, but a lot more can be used in the following books of the series.

The book's plot had a lot of potential. It was something interesting and fun and full of fantastical elements and legends dating back to Arthurian times. I do feel that the plot was belittled a bit by the writing style choice though. Problems often had quick and easy solutions and the reader didn't have to do much thinking or discovering for themselves. Most answers were given right to you and there was a lot of telling instead of showing, if you know what I mean. Again, saying that, I can still see my younger self who didn't like reading all that much actually liking this book. Difficult plots aren't always the best choice for younger audiences, I know it wasn't my style choice back then! I think the author could have definitely done a lot more with the plot, but what he did wasn't bad, just very simplistic and obvious.

Overall, it was a fun read. It brought out the child in me, although the adult in me screamed that it could have been more. I would definitely recommend the book for the younger ages... 7-11 year olds. This would definitely be a fun book to read to your kids at bed time! I challenge my younger readers to give it a try and tell me what you think.