Finnikin of the Rock Collage

So readers are often asked what their all time favourite books are and we all know that is an impossible question to answer. I could probably do a top 20?

Finnikin of the Rock, Froi of the Exiles and Quintana of Charyn would be on that list!

The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta are some of the best books I’ve ever read. When I’m away from them for a while I recommend them to everyone and have a special place in my heart for them but when I’m rereading and in the middle of the trilogy like I am now? I’m obsessed and would absolutely choose them as my Desert Island books!

The thing about these books is that they are SUPER hard to review because there are just so many potential spoilers.

Spoiler free part of my review for Finnikin of the Rock from 2017:

Unfortunately, the displacement of people, the massacre of minorities and the ill treatment and violation of those in war torn countries, and refugees who have fled those countries, is not fiction. All monsters are human and this book makes no bones about that fact, but it also shows something else. It shows hope! We are capable of orchestrating the worst atrocities upon each other but we are also capable of making the greatest of sacrifices to save each other.

MindforBooks Finnikin of the Rock Review 2017

‘Dark will lead the light, and our resurdus will rise.’

Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. But then Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar, is alive.

Evanjalin is determined to return home and she is the only one who can lead them to the heir. As they journey together, Finnikin is affected by her arrogance . . . and her hope. He begins to believe he will see his childhood friend, Prince Balthazar, again. And that their cursed people will be able to enter Lumatere and be reunited with those trapped inside. He even believes he will find his imprisoned father.

But Evanjalin is not what she seems. And the truth will test not only Finnikin’s faith in her . . . but in himself.

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

‘Be prepared for the worst, my love, for it lives next door to the best.’