Sparkles and Lightning

****FINAL RATING: 3.65 STARS****CATCHALLI was actually very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this. I expect a lot out of my fantasies, but this one was tons of fun and a very quick and pleasant read. I had a awesome time reading this and swallowed it in three sittings. And the only reason I stopped at all is because i was in school. But if I could have, I would have read through this all at once. It captured my attention from the first pages and didn't let go.THE HEROINEEMMAEmma is our very spunky heroine. She's used to moving around a lot, being at the bottom of the food chain at school, being nothing special. But in her latest home, she's starting to realize that se's more than that. She's very determined to do what's right, and while she starts off as much of a realist, she slowly comes to step up to the new reality she's found herself in and I really admire that. She's very caring of others, and many of her acts are selfless.There are other important characters, but as I was writing this review I discovered it's really difficult to speak frankly about them without being spoilery, so.THE PLOTWhen she moves into her new home, Emma immediately notices something seems off about it. Almost like it's–alive. This freaks her out for obvious reasons, but she thinks she must be imagining things. Then she starts to see little people, but convinces herself that she is dreaming. However, her denial can only take her so far.I loved the way the entire process worked. It was realistic, and Emma's reactions seemed fitting, although she did adjust rather quickly. However, being thrust into the new world as she was, that only makes sense.The plot moves fairly quickly too, so there's a lot going on. It can get confusing if you don't follow things carefully, but it was a lot of fun.Something I wasn't expecting: a lot of mythology, particularly of the Greco-Roman variety. It was woven into the story as well, and the way it was done was really clever and original. The mythology and the fantasy were both equally elements of the novel, and there were some concepts that I can't remember seeing before that I loved.THE ROMANCEThere's actually no romance in this book, but I'm hoping there is in the next!THE WRITINGTanya's writing is highly enjoyable. It's third person, but even so I managed to get a strong grip on Emma's character and thoughts. I loved the descriptions of the fantasy world too, which felt like just enough without being infodumps. There was a certain smoothness to the writing, and it had a type of spontaneous feel to it that was unique.THE ENDINGActually, the ending really threw me off a lot and I didn't like it. This random thing happened that made absolutely no sense to me and kind of just ruined the whole end for me. It really wasn't explained to my satisfaction and just felt random and left me wondering where the hell the missing pages were. But seriously, yeah, not a fan. The ending was easily the worst part of this book, but then when it gets to the very final pages it kind of makes up for it.WRAPUPI really did love Root Bound, and I'm actually really, really looking forward to see what the next book brings to the table. I'm interested to see what will happen next, especially with a certain character! I'm going to have to keep an eye out. I highly recommend this book and suggest that y'all go and read it. It should really be more feel known.FINE.Find more of my reviews on Sparkles and Lightning!