Edgar Reyes Reyes من عند جيروفت، كِرمان، إيران من عند جيروفت، كِرمان، إيران

Review originally posted at: http://supernaturalsnark.blogspot.com... MY THOUGHTS Legacies is a story not entirely original in nature, focusing on a boarding school for students with magical abilities, but despite its familiar premise, Ms. Lackey and Ms. Edghill infuse their world with a lingering darkness we've not encountered before. Instead of being a nurturing environment designed to foster trust and understanding of the use of magic, Oakhurst Academy has a rather sinister edge where students are discouraged from forming tight friendships and are forced into rigorous training programs with instructors who don't spout words of encouragement, but rather speak harsher truths presumably designed to hasten improvement. As a result of this unnerving situation, we feel Spirit and the other student's sense of profound isolation much more vividly, the remote locale of the school echoed in the cold teaching methods and lack of student-instructor positive interaction, and we are left with an intentional sense of unease as the physical and emotional coolness mists from the pages and sinks deep into our bones, chilling us to the core as magic and mystery unfold. Though the suspense surrounding the disappearing students is well-executed with clues deftly woven throughout, this is the type of story that's engaging while we're reading–keeping us questioning how each revelation fits with the one before–but when we finish we come to realize we don't have nearly as much information as we thought we did. We scan the final page with the hope a book dealing with magic might have the answers we seek secretly hidden and is just waiting to reveal them to us until we've wished for them hard enough. While we do discover the who/what is behind the disappearances and a fraction of the why, so many of the fundamental issues remain shrouded in darkness, denying us the warmth understanding provides and leaving us shivering on the outside wondering when of if we'll be brought into the fold. Because this is the first book in a series, some unanswered questions are to be expected and ultimately necessary so the series can continue, but in addition to several facets of the disappearance mystery remaining completely unknown, we also learn very little about the purpose for the school itself. We are told initially it's to help train students in their magical abilities so they can defend themselves against those who would use magic to harm them, but we are given no details about either the aforementioned villains or the impending war we're told is coming. Why is this war happening now? Have the two factions always been at war? Furthermore, the title of this series is the "Shadow Grail" novels, yet in this first installment no mention is made of a Shadow Grail outside of its appearance on the school's coat of arms, leaving us with still another question as to why this object is important enough as to name the series, but not important enough to introduce in this first book. Overall, Legacies is an interesting read, one where a dark plot is beautifully revealed and where a romance is not the primary focus, but rather is refreshingly replaced by the bonds of friendship between five gifted individuals. Because the story is engrossing while we're in the middle of it, the long line of unanswered questions only becoming bothersome upon conclusion, it is a series worth continuing in the hope so much information is withheld purposefully. We walk away from this tale longing to shed our jackets, hats, and gloves, leaving them behind in the cold environment of the unknown as we are finally welcomed inside Oakhurst Academy to become privy to her secrets and the secrets of the people she houses. Rating: 3/5