Review of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

 

I recieved this from Netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

Trying to get through some of my older eARC's this one came out last year! 

Soar into a breathtaking world of heroes and unicorns as you’ve never seen them before in this fantastical middle grade debut perfect for fans of the Percy Jackson and Eragon series!

Skandar Smith has always yearned to leave the Mainland and escape to the secretive Island, where wild unicorns roam free. He’s spent years studying for his Hatchery exam, the annual test that selects a handful of Mainlander thirteen-year-olds to train to become unicorn riders. But on the day of Skandar’s exam, things go horribly wrong, and his hopes are shattered…until a mysterious figure knocks on his door at midnight, bearing a message: the Island is in peril and Skandar must answer its call.

Skandar is thrust into a world of epic sky battles, dangerous clashes with wild unicorns, and rumors of a shadowy villain amassing a unicorn army. And the closer Skandar grows to his newfound friends and community of riders, the harder it becomes to keep his secrets—especially when he discovers their lives may all be in graver danger than he ever imagined.

This one came out last year and I remember  being excited for it but then like what happens with a lot of my eARCs new ones come in and I forget about the other ones. :(  I so should have read this one when it came out as it was pretty good. 

I'ts about a time where there are unicorns and they have learned that if your made to ride a unicorn it's a good thing and it helps keep the unicorns from turning wild. It starts out with riders competing in a great race when someone called the Weaver comes in on a wild unicorn and steals the winners unicorn.

Skandar wants to be a unicorn rider and it's his turn to be in with the group that gets to take the test to see if they can go to the island and open the door to where the unicorn eggs are and if you can open the door and go in you will soon find your hatchling and bond with it. 

For some reason they wouldn't let Skandar take the test which he doesn't understand, then later a rider comes to his house and says he has been chosen as a rider and takes sneaks him on to the island. She said she did this as a favor to his mother (who is dead). He is  very nervous but he ends up opening the door and finding an egg that hatches and gets a pretty black unicorn, only thing is is that he soon finds out from some of the other kids that he has an illegal magic, Spirit, and he should be turned in and his unicorn killed. 

Of course, he begs some of the kids to help him hide things and they go along with it and come up with a plane to get him into the training camp without showing off his magic. Even if you have a certain type of magic (earth, air, fire, water), you can still summon the other elements so Skandar could sort of blend in and test in the water group. 

While they are training they keep hearing rumors about the Weaver and some bad events that could be happeing on the mainland. Skandar is worried for his father and sister and tries to find out more about his elemental magic and why it's forbidden and what it has to do with the Weaver. Adventure ensures.

I like the world that the author has created with the unicorns and riders. I liked Skandar and his friends, there are also some not so fun characters as you always have to have that one nasty kid. It wasn't a unique a plot line by any means as it was very much the normal kind of chosen one who has the forbidden magic that you can't use as it's dangerous but the one who has it is nice and doesn't want to use it for bad things type of trope. :) Still it was fun.

I would recommend it to those who like middle grade fantasy adventure type books.

4 stars