Prophecy in Stars; Seyma Blue

“The Prophecy in Stars” seems to suffer from the indie book mistake of not including the full synopsis on their page, and only includes it on the paperback which is currently out of print. Unfortunately, what information IS available doesn’t do this story justice, so if you want to check out the full synopsis first, you can read that here. This debut novel has taken the tried-and-true trope of the “chosen one” and flipped it on its head, which I love! Nalia finds herself at the center of a prophecy, not to save the world, but to end it. She doesn’t think she would do something like that, but she has harbored her bloody desire for revenge against the group of people she blames for her lost memories, and the death of her parents, for almost a decade. Being bullied in an orphanage most of her life, Nalia rarely speaks and is quick to anger, so while she may not want to be the harbinger of the end of the world, the reader can’t completely discount it either, which was another fun twist. Oh, and did I mention there are dragons in this book? Because there are!

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This story held a lot of potential. I love how many tropes it flips on its head, and enjoyed all the unique races neighboring each other. The concept of having nations that are suspicious of one another because of unsubstantiated rumors also felt accurate. So it was plausible to read how, when Nalia flees her beloved Ignis with Ensel, a boy who should not like her as much as he does, I could buy that danger followed them everywhere they went. I also liked that different magic wielding people could read the prophecy Nalia is in at different times and come to different conclusions about what the prophecy means, and then how they should treat Nalia in return. But there were a few things that kept me from really loving this book, and they all may just be personal tastes of mine, but I feel they are important to share.

This book is written in a present tense 3rd person POV. It’s one of my least favorite types of POV, as it just reads a bit unnaturally to me, so if you have similar issues, just know that before you start reading. This book is also supposed to be a YA fantasy, as the characters are at least 18 or older, but all the characters, especially the two side characters that accompany Nalia and Ensel read and act much, much younger. Sometimes I really liked their playfulness! Other times I felt it didn’t mesh well with the situation the characters found themselves in. Nalia is also very hard to like. She rarely speaks and her reactions to people being nice to her are usually mean, plus when she’s angry or feels like someone is sneaking up on her, her initial reaction is usually violence. Which is fine and makes sense for her character, but because she so rarely speaks, you don’t get a lot of her internal thoughts, and she takes so long to show any kind of emotional growth, I often questioned why her “friends” gave her such fierce loyalty. Also, I wish there had been more dragons. They are there! But not nearly as much as I personally would have liked.

All in all, this story had a lot of potential and the author clearly had a lot of fun building this world, the magic system, and the people in it. It’s unfortunate that this book is part of a series and ends on a type of cliffhanger, and so far, I haven’t seen anything about when the next book may come out. But because most of my hang ups feel like more personal issues than anything wrong with the story, I’m giving this book 3.5 stars, as it is a really nice introduction to this author’s work, and the story and writing would be good for MG readers who want to start reading some YA fantasy. And thanks to the author for sending me a copy for an honest review!