Legacies is (yet another) teenage boarding school paranormal where seemingly average girl goes off to mysterious and slightly too good to be true boarding school, finding herself smack dab in the middle of an evil plot. I couldn't tell you how many books I've read this year alone with this idea, but I will tell you I was excited to see Rosemary Edghill and Mercedes Lackey together on this. Been a long time fan of both and though they've worked together before (Bedlam's Bard series) I was interested to see how they would work out as a young adult duo.

In many respects I wasn't let down by the book. I went into it expecting Spirit to find out something supernatural about herself, to have doubts about the school/orphanage she would be living at, to make friends of various points of archetypal interest. So I wasn't let down by any of that. I did have an underlying feeling of 'tell me more' however throughout the entire book. There is quite a bit of time spent on Spirit's survivor's guilt, some time spent on the 'how' each of her friends ended up at Oakhurst, more time spent on researching what was going on and then very little spent on development.

Spirit is resilient and not quite the same as everyone else. Lachlan felt nothing following his father's death and is rather peculiar in terms of emotional detachment. Burke likes to help out and make people feel comfortable. Muirin has a perpetual chip on her shoulder and likes to 'flaunt' authority. Adelaide is a studious student and has a dry sense of humor. This is the sum total of what we learn about their personalities.

A lot of suspicious activity abounds in this book--not just from the Academy itself (which seems two steps removed from reckless child endangerment on good days), but from Spirit's so-called friends. The only one who seems at all who and what he seems is Burke, but that makes him a flatter character overall. Everyone is just a little bit too much of whatever their part is supposed to be. Muirin is too angry, Adelaide is too prim, Lachlan is too detached and Burke is too safe.

As for the mystery itself, I freely admit to both confusion on how the kids eventually came to the conclusion they did and how they 'defeated' it. The book would spend half a chapter or so describing their discovery than its off to see Spirit fail at magics or Muirin get upset over the lack of forward momentum or Burke trying to teach Spirit self-defense. Not only that, but the idea that the school is setting the students up to all feel competitive towards each other and not make friendships is handled awkwardly. Extremely so. To the point where I wondered if Spirit wasn't also a paranoid person because the plot went almost nowhere.

As a first book this leaves a lot to be desired. As a new insert to the ever growing boarding school supernatural books this leaves a whole lot more to be desired. And I'm disappointed in two of my favorite authors. I will read the next book, to see if things improve, but at the moment I'm wary. ( )

This is a decent juvenile story. it is typical of the author and I expect it to develop in a similar way. still I also expect it to be a good suspenseful story for those not familiar with the writing. Only after the whole series is completed will I be able to discern the overall quality. ( )

A bit predictable(orphan, boarding school, special powers), but still fun. ( )

Not Lackey's best. Shallow characters and oft used plot. Better books, on my wish list, likely preclude my continuing the series. ( )

I picked this up because one of the authors is Mercedes Lackey and I really love her books but I had a hard time getting into this one. It felt different from her other books and I don't know if I'll go looking for the rest of the series. ( )