3,5 stars from me, and a big thank you to the author, because I enjoyed this read.
Almendra's Quest was my first introduction into Farida Mestek's Highland Court Chronicles fantastical world, and what a good one! I must admit this story surprised me in probably every way possible. Highland Court Chronicles is a true YA fantasy book. Most of the story unfolds during a journey from one fantastical place to another where MC Almendra comes face to face with mysteries, violent enemies, magical wonder and surprising friends.
When I started the story, for the first few pages I wasn't quite sure if it was labelled properly as YA and I wondered if it would have been better off as a late middle grade.....I was wrong. Not only is the MC in her late teens, and goes on a journey that a middle grade student should never realistically take on by themselves, but the story also contains a few villainous situations that might be just a bit outside of the middle grade comfort zone (this is not to say that the story is very gory, but there are one or two moments in the story where the details might be a bit too much for a young student under 10 yrs).
The reason I originally wondered about the category is because Almendra has a very playful, young and slightly naive personality which comes especially to the foreground at the beginning chapters. Throughout the book we see how come she's developed this way though, and that the themes of the story are a bit more mature. So that was surprise one for me.
Surprise two was Mestek's humorous tone, which I absolutely loved. I would probably pitch Almedra's Quest as: Harry Potter & Terry Pratchett's stories had a high fantasy hero's journey baby. I LOVED the interactions between Almedra and her animal companion Woo the wolf. I really enjoyed her excited, but cheeky nature and her passion and it was so easy to root for her from the beginning of the story till the end.
The rest of the surprises I think I'll have to leave unsaid as they have to do with the plot twists and the ending. However, I will say that throughout the first 1/3 of the book I thought I had the story quite well figured out and that knew roughly how it would end. ......I was wrong. Highland Court Chronicles had some very surprising plot twists, and I quite enjoyed the ending. I'll be looking forward to book 2 in the series.
So if I loved it, then why not 4 stars? I really missed more frequent chapter headings. The book consists of a few big parts, and I like to finish a reading session with the ending of a chapter. Because there weren't many clear chapters, I ended up either reading really big chunks in one go, or having to finish in, what felt like, the middle of a story. So that's something I would have preferred.
Another thing is that I sometimes felt like the big important moments in the story felt just a little anti-climactic. Not all of them, and the story definitely gave me 'the feels' in a good way and was immersive, but I felt like sometimes it could have done with a little longer lingering on certain moments, if that makes sense.
Sexual content: none
Coarse language: none
Violence and gore: moderate
In conclusion
My three favorite aspects of this story were:
1. The super creative, non-cliché, worldbuilding that was just done SO well, and was such a breath of fresh air;
2. The surprise plot twists in the second and third parts of the book;
3. Farida Mestek's humour that just made the tone for this story so very enjoyable.
So if you like a classic fantasy story, and the above three things sound like fun to you, then I would definitely say Highland Court Chronicles may very well be your thing!
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