13 year old Jeanne Tucker always had belief in the unusual. It would be hard not to being so unusual herself. Peter Burns’ only belief is in what he can see, touch and feel, pragmatic to the core. When a freak accident sends both Jeanne and Peter through a guardian tree and into a world at war they each find they must cultivate their special talents to overcome evil and find their way back home.

I have conflicting feelings about this story because there are some themes so obviously culled from another famous work, but at the same time it is an interesting tale which runs very smoothly. This is a book which was originally self-published and through earning the 2002 EPPIE Award was published through the Amber Quill Press, which by itself, was enough to make me curious about the book. I was surprised after starting the story to find it was written for a much younger audience than I originally expected. I believe this is a story best suited for early tweens and younger teens. It was well written, the characters were engaging and the story moved along quickly. I especially liked the “Fleet Ones” as characters and have to let out my fan girly squeal for the love of horses *giggle*

Keeping this in mind I have to say I was very strongly reminded of The Lord of the Rings (the movies if not the books). I’m not the sort of person who typically notices similarities that other people find obvious, but to me this story took the liberty of lifting quite a bit of the plot and characters from that classic. There is, of course, the quest against evil, a grey wizard, a blond elf, a hidden glen where a counsel of war is held, and even a magically endowed ring involved. However, considering the age the story is most suited for its intended readers probably won’t notice and certainly won’t mind this storyline re-hash.

I also have to particularly mention Peter, while being a character I liked very much, was unbelievable as a 12 year old, acting way too mature for his years (although he did play a respectable Samwise to Jeanne’s Frodo). I think the characters were introduced to us as being so young so that she could write this more as a friendship based fantasy rather than a romantic one. Jeanne is a good example of a strong, young heroine and together the main characters shared a strong friendship and some interestingly diverse but still interconnected powers. It isn’t often that I enjoy non-romantic stories, but I will say that this one was pretty good. There was a small bit of redundancy in description and maybe a couple general typos, but nothing I found too distracting. Overall I think this would be a very good story for the age level it seems to be aimed at and I would recommend the book. ( )