New YA fantasy book reviews of Lethal Inheritance

LETHAL INHERITANCE is the first in the YA fantasy Diamond peak series. I don’t know if author Tahlia Newland had a particular peak in her mind as she wrote this series – but I spent the whole book with Mt Cook in my mind. I hasten to add that Mt Cook doesn’t have demons living in it, whispering reeds, shifting stones and a group of different zones to lure you in and make you forget the real world. At least I hope it doesn’t.

Ariel and her mother Nadima live alone, her father died when she was small. Life seemed pretty normal for the teen, going to school, gossiping with friends and avoiding doing her homework. But that all changes one night when Ariel wakes up to hear her mother screaming for Ariel to hide and Ariel sees her being dragged away by a huge monster. The monster comes after Ariel but a bright light flashes out and when Ariel wakes up she is in her bed. It hasn’t been a bad dream though, an old woman named Maya is there and tells Ariel she has to go on a quest to discover her hidden powers so she can free her mother and kill the top Demon in order to save the world. Ariel meets her guide, Walnut, and his young assistant, Nick, and they train her as she climbs up Diamond peak to rescue her mother and hopefully save the world.

Tahlia Newland has built a wonderful literary world for her characters to explore, a blend of reality and fantasy. I loved the idea of an alternate world that is all around us that we can’t see – one full of demons that send out a snake like weed that covers us whenever we do unkind things. The demons feed off anger, negativity, sadness and hunger and the more we get covered in the weed the less human we become. It is one explanation for the inexplicable cruelty that humans can sometimes carry out. The only way for humans to escape is to have the demon that infected them killed; that is where Ariel and her new found supporters come in; they are demon killers; and it would appear that Ariel has the capability to be one of the best if only she can find the confidence to listen to her trainers and look deep inside her for the power she has.

I really liked Ariel as a character, her moods are all over the place which is situation normal for a female teen; she sulked, she was grumpy, she worried, she was absolutely terrified at times, but she dug her toes in and listened to advice (occasionally) and gradually it all started to come together. Most of the story is related by Ariel, but occasionally the point of view switched to Nick – who is a character of significant interest. Nick is further up the experience chain that Ariel but he still has problems to overcome, secret from the past to reveal, and growth to happen. I like it when a character shows signs of growing and even though the expectations are that Ariel is going to be one powerful young lady she is not there yet by a long shot. Tahlia Newland has not pushed the growth to an unbelievable level but paced it, there is a lot more to come and I am guessing that the final battle will not be until the last book in the series. There is adventure, humour, danger and friendship – there is good versus evil and I really enjoyed reading LETHAL INHERITANCE.