Luna Magazine, December Ed. 2013

Starlight Reviews: Undiscovered

December Edition, 2013.

© l_unaMagazine

Starlight Reviews | Undiscovered

Reaching for Fragments, by lovinglycurious 

Review by: tiger002

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Reaching for Fragments by lovinglycurious is a story in the fantasy/romance genre that caught my eye right away. You see, fantasy is my favorite genre, anything with something beyond normal reality really draws me into the story. However, something that makes this genre even better is having a character go from a normal life to one of magic and mystery, and Reaching for Fragments has just that.

The story starts off with the main character, Stephanie, at 10 years old, discovering there is something special about her. During her sleep her mind “jumps” to a meadow in another world, in EtherWise. While there, she meets Hunter, another 10 year old, who was assigned to be her protector, though neither of them know much of what’s going on. Over the years and her jumps to EtherWise she learns to control some magical powers, and becomes great friends with Hunter. However, this is only the introduction, the main story starts when she’s 16 years old, where she learns about a dark prophecy, her best friend is thrown into this crazy world, and all EtherWise changes forever.

Or, so I would assume.

The plot itself is good so far, however, there are only 9 chapters thus far, and not enough to get a full handle on it. So far though, things are lining up to what should be a great story, there is a lot of mystery, a danger evident, and frequent surprises throughout the chapters. There is a romance sub-plot with Stephanie and Hunter, and one of my pet peeves of any story in any medium ever, is when romance weakens the main plot. However, the kind of romance that I think is truest is when best friends become something more. This appears to be the case here, and thus far the romance part hasn’t hurt the fantasy/suspense fun. So, I salute the author for handling this well. There were a few places where I was confused and had trouble following, but this didn’t happen often, and in some ways, this adds to the suspense. Another thing I like about the plot is that the magic isn’t over the top. It’s not like there’s people shooting fire or lightning falling from the sky. It’s simple and possible to grasp for the reader to understand. While the magic may indeed get more mystical as the story progress, this uniqueness is a strong trait.

So far there are three main characters, Hunter, Stephanie, and Rani. Stephanie being the main character, and the narrator of the story, has high expectations for a good character. There isn’t a lot of good or bad I can think of with her. She’s trying to figure things out, keep her friends safe, and is a good protagonist, but there isn’t anything that makes her stand out. Hunter is as the center to much of what’s going on with Stephanie, her guide, but seems to have many questions of his own, and many secrets he’s hiding from Steph. His heart for Steph is clear, and in many ways is his defining trait. This isn’t a bad thing though, he wants to protect her, keep her safe, even if it means putting himself at risk. However, like Steph, there isn’t anything that makes me go “this is an awesome character.” Rani fits the role of the slightly crazy best friend, a character that is always fun to add to the story. She has a very important role in the story too, but I can’t say more because…well spoilers.

The writing quality overall is good. There are times when the quality jumps up to make a scene intense, but other times where it just gets by. Still, compared to most stories on Wattpad, this is quite good. There are a couple typos, but these are rare, and I’ve come across worse in published works.

Overall, this is a good story. I have enjoyed reading it, voted for it more than once, and look forward to the next update. While not perfect, this is a story that is worth a read, one that I look forward to reading more of in the future.