Finding Angel by Kat Heckenbach

291 pgs.
Target audience: Young Adult
Rating: Wizard

Angel’s past is a blank slate, her memories buried deep within her. She longs for her real parents and to find out what happened to take them away. Her foster family is very kind and caring but Angel knows she belongs elsewhere, she’s different. Immersed in her drawings of fantasy creatures, Angel lives the life of any ordinary teenager while looking after her younger foster brother, Zack. That is, until she meets an odd boy, Gregor, with a foreign accent in the library. She and Gregor have an intense and unexplainable connection similar to the tingly feelings she occasionally gets when near trees. One night Gregor saves her life with his Gatemaking magical talent and takes her to his world, the Island of Toch, which is incidentally Angel’s homeland as well. Soon Gregor helps her to learn magic and access her Finding talent. Even with the island’s protective magic, evil lurks in the woods, an evil that desperately wants Angel’s power. Kat has created a wonderfully imaginative one of a kind world in which fantasy fans will revel. The descriptions of the forest and its flora are delightfully rich and detailed. There are trees, such as the Silver Spruce and the Bronze Oak which are named after the metals or alloys they contain that serve as conduits for their magical power and protection – how cool is that? There’s also tamed and wild dragons of all sizes, an Elven musical rock band and an ancient prophecy not to mention the man using science to regain his own lost power by stealing Angel’s. There’s lots of suspense and a nice blend of magic and science. Readers will be anxious for the next installment in this new fantasy series. (This book provided for review by the author, Kat Heckenbach).