Book Review: The Mirror of N'De by L.K. Malone

About the Book: In the mythical city of N’de lives thirteen-year-old Hadlay and her people, the Ramash. Scorned and abused by the unloving and absent Emperor, the Ramash are poor people, placed second to the ruling class of the Oresed. Young but bold, Hadlay rages against the injustice in her city. When she is chosen for the honor of serving the Prince in the Tower, she hopes to find a way to right the wrong... but soon discovers that things are worse than she believed.

While Hadlay works to better her people’s condition, she struggles to abide with the abusive Oresed and understand the meaning of her dreams in which a fantastical white horse appears to her and speaks in riddles. When Hadlay stumbles into one of the Tower’s secret rooms, she discovers a hidden mirror that doesn’t just show her reflection, but reveals much more: the horse’s name is Sirach and he has a plan to save the children of N’de, if only Hadlay can bring them to the mirror. Hiding her knowledge of Sirach from the Prince, Hadlay sets out to do Sirach’s bidding. But when Sirach’s presence is revealed, Hadley’s life is in danger and the only way to save her is for Sirach to give up his own.

Crafting powerful narrative and creative characters, author L. K. Malone spins a compelling tale that combines exciting entertainment and the Christian story. In The Mirror of N’de, readers will empathize with the desires of an oppressed people, will anger at the affliction of a cruel adversary, and ultimately rejoice with the revelation of a Savior.

My Thoughts: I admit to somewhat surprising myself when I signed up for this blog tour as fantasy is not my usual genre of choice. In fact, my exposure to it has been limited to the Chronicles of Narnia and a few books by Ted Dekker. However, I did like what I read in those books and thought this book sounded interesting enough to give it a go.

I'm glad I did! An allegory of the Christian story, it was completely different to any others I had read previously and it was definitely not as predictable as I first thought it would be - in fact, things were often not what they seemed.

Hadlay, though far from perfect, is a very likeable character and her desire to do her part to help rescue her people reminded me a bit of Queen Esther, one of my favourite Bible stories. Hadlay battles her desire for revenge on the Oreseds throughout the book, very realistic for her circumstances.

Anyone interested in the fantasy genre would like this book! It definitely swept me into a whole new world.

Thank you to Stephanie and Amy from Litfuse Publicity for organizing this tour and providing me with my complimentary review copy.