Olde School: Book One Kingdom City Chronicles By: Selah Janel

Olde School: Book One Kingdom City Chronicles

By: Selah Janel – Book Review

About the Author: Selah Janel has been blessed with a giant imagination and a love of story since she was little and convinced that fairies lived in the nearby state park or vampires hid in the abandoned barns outside of town. Learning to read and being encouraged by those around her only made things worse. Her work ranges from e-books to traditional print, and she prefers to write every genre at once rather than choose just one. The stories “Holly and Ivy”, “The Other Man”, and “Mooner” are available online through Mocha Memoirs Press. Her work has also been included in The MacGuffin, The Realm Beyond, Stories for Children Magazine, The Big Bad: an Anthology of Evil, Thunder on the Battlefield: Sorcery, The Grotesquerie, and the short story collection Lost in the Shadows, co-written with S.H. Roddey. She likes her music to rock, her vampires lethal, her fairies to play mind games, and her princesses to have adventures and hold their own.

Catch up with her thoughts and projects at

www.selahjanel.wordpress.com

Book Synopsis Olde School: Kingdom City has moved into the modern era. Run by a lord mayor and city council (though still under the influence of the High King of The Land), it proudly embraces a blend of progress and tradition. Trolls, ogres, and other Folk walk the streets with humans, but are more likely to be entrepreneurs than cause trouble. Princesses still want to be rescued, but they now frequent online dating services to encourage lords, royals, and politicians to win their favor. The old stories are around, but everyone knows they’re just fodder for the next movie franchise. Everyone knows there’s no such thing as magic. It's all old superstition and harmless tradition.

Bookish, timid, and more likely to carry a laptop than a weapon, Paddlelump Stonemonger is quickly coming to wish he'd never put a toll bridge over Crescent Ravine. While his success has brought him lots of gold, it's also brought him unwanted attention from the Lord Mayor. Adding to his frustration, Padd’s oldest friends give him a hard time when his new maid seems inept at best and conniving at worst. When a shepherd warns Paddlelump of strange noises coming from Thadd Forest, he doesn't think much of it. Unfortunately for him, the history of his land goes back further than anyone can imagine. Before long he'll realize that he should have paid attention to the old tales and carried a club.

Darkness threatens to overwhelm not only Paddlelump, but the entire realm. With a little luck, a strange bird, a feisty waitress, and some sturdy friends, maybe, just maybe, Padd will survive to eat another meal at Trip Trap's diner. It's enough to make the troll want to crawl under his bridge, if he can manage to keep it out of the clutches of greedy politicians

Olde School if Book One of The Kingdom City Chronicles.

My Thoughts:

It is hard to put into words what I think of this book. I am not sure love is enough. This book was refreshing, fun, engrossing, thought provoking and awesome. Selah Janel is Brilliant. This is a cross genre book which I was intrigued by from the start. Fantasy, paranormal, urban fantasy, horror, comedy and it is a tried and true Fairy Tale. I love Fairy Tales but (excuse the pun) old school ones and this one fits the profile. This book is smart and witty. Janel has created a word full of interesting and engaging characters and a world so vivid at times I could picture myself in Kingdom City. The first night I started reading this I read until I could not keep my eyes open and that night I dreamed of Kingdom City, that is how vivid it is and how it stays with you. I could not wait to get back to the story. I adored Padd and would love to sit down with him at Trip Trap's diner for a chat and a meal. I am looking forward to more books in the series. Janel has quickly climbed the ranks of must read for me.

Olde School also has some amazing art work. Another high quality book from Seventh Star Press.

My Rating:

An Easy 5 out of 5.