Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce

Title: Melting Stones - Evvy's Book


Author: Tamora Pierce (American, 1954- )
Originally published: 2008
Page count: 312

Dates read: 1/29/22-2/16/22

2022 book goal progress: 3 out of 20

Back to the Classics category: x
Author Challenge: Tamora Pierce

Mindful Readers' Family Bookclub genre/theme: x


Read my other book reviews for my 2022 goals HERE.

Description on back of book:
Four years have passed since Evvy left the streets of Chammur to begin her training as a stone mage. At fourteen, she's unhappy to be on a new journey with her mentor, prickly green mage Rosethorn, who has been called to the Battle Islands to determine why the plants and animals there are dying. Evvy's job is to listen and learn, but she can't just keep quiet and do nothing. With the help of Luvo, the living stone heart of a mountain, Evvy uncovers an important clue. Now, with the island on the brink of disaster, it's up to Evvy to halt sheer destruction.

First sentence:
"Hey kid - stop hanging off that rail!"

Favorite quotes:
"That is what magic is for, to help us think of the world in new ways."

"When I lie, I'm smart enough to keep it simple. That's where liars always go wrong. They get fancy. Then they forget the details. It's best to have a simple, basic lie that you don't have to worry about remembering."

"Ifs just make your head hurt. They're probably bad for your teeth, too. Concentrate on 'will,' as in 'I will do this,' or 'I will do that.' It saves you head- and toothaches, take it from me."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 6/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters      - 7
Atmosphere   - 6
Writing Style - 6
Plot                - 5
Intrigue          - 5
Logic             - 6
Enjoyment     - 7
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

This book was OK. It did not have any of the 4 original mages, which was disappointing. I thought this was supposed to be Daja's book, but it was about Evvy, a stone mage that we met in Briar's previous book. Rosethorn is in the story, so there's some familiarity. I wish we could've learned more about additional types of magic, like water, since there was a water mage that traveled with them. The book was also very predictable and quite simple. 

It also got into the existence of stones spirits and living mountains/islands, which just didn't seem to fit in with the previous books in the Emelan/Circle Universe. I feel like what she basically did was mess with the tides, which has always been a big no-no in this series. She used way too much energy for all the magic she did and she was able to just get it back from the stones with barely any consequences - everything just seemed too easy. Rules set in the previous book were broken and it just was confusing and ruined the cohesiveness of the universe a bit. Overall, this story was pretty meh.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Tamora Pierce have the last words:

 "It's funny, the way you learn how decent people are, when things get bad."