First Impressions: I first stumbled across Flight of Blue one day while I was on Goodreads. It was the cover art that truly caught my eye and I loved the pastel effect and decided to look up more about the book. The book synopsis/blurb is a little vague, but it reminded me of The Secret of Nimh and/or The Chronicles of Narnia. I was particularly interesting in reading about a possum who is a sorcerer because that is just awesome. I love possums, those "cute in a ugly kind of way" creatures that like to eat my vegetables in my backyard.
First 50 Pages: I'll admit that I'm cautious about which self-published books I accept to review. I've read some truly wonderful ones and some not so wonderful self-published books. Flight of Blue definitely falls under the wonderful category. It's well-edited, has a fun and exciting storyline, it's fast-paced, has awesome characters, and I read the whole book in what seemed like a very short sitting. From the first chapter the pacing is quick and easy to follow. I immediately liked the characters and how they were presented to me. The whole book had a very magical feeling to it and it's been a while since I could say that.
Characters & Plot: Another worry that I had with Flight of Blue (and most books, really) was that the world building would be sketchy. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by how great the author put everything together. It was never confusing and even though I felt like there were some instances of the author telling rather than showing, everything was explained so well that I didn't have very many unanswered questions by the time I reached the end of the story. Flight of Blue has three realms and each realm has Keepers, Guardians, and Sorcerers who work hard at maintaining order and fixing what needs to be fixed.
If I have any complaints, it would be that this book felt more Middle Grade then Young Adult. I don't mind Middle Grade titles, I actually read quite a few of them, but I didn't know that Flight of Blue was more Middle Grade then Young Adult before starting to read. It's not really a big deal, but I wish I had known that before I started to read and that is probably my own fault.
Regardless, Flight of Blue has some really wonderful characters. We have Kai who is just a young boy looking for adventure (and he sure gets one!) but he is unsure of himself and his role of everything that is happening around him. Elle is Kai's best friend in the whole world and she is pretty special and as the story progresses, she becomes much more than just Kai's sidekick. Then we have Serina who is Kai and Elle's guide through the realms. She also happens to be a bird/girl!
Hands-down, my favorite character is Reginald the Opossum. This is probably because I have a soft spot for opossums, but this one can talk! He is kind of grumpy, but I think that is just a façade. I also like his name because it just suits him so well. Actually, all of the character's names suited each character well. They were easy to pronounce, which is an amazement in a fantasy novel. I'm interested to see how each of the characters develop as the series continues.
Final Thoughts: I think that a lot of people are going to be able to enjoy this story. It reminded me so much of some of the great classic children's fantasy novels and I know that the author has a bright future ahead of her if she keeps writing fantastic stories like this. I would highly recommend Flight of Blue to anyone who enjoys fun characters in a fantasy setting, and definitely to Middle Grade readers.
