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Farida Mestek

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Highland Court Chronicles: Almendra's Quest Kindle Edition

by Farida Mestek (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 14 ratings

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There's a prophecy that could save her kingdom and a plot that could destroy it all…

Almendra Ravenlock, 17, has never been outside her kingdom in all her life. So when an unexpected messenger arrives and tells her that the prince, she has been waiting for, is at death’s door and that she is the only one who can save him, Almendra grabs at the chance to take her life into her own hands.

As she travels through her kingdom with her wolf companion and her new friend, Almendra unearths a horrifying secret buried deep under the ground, discovers that her life and her kingdom are in as much danger as ever, and that the prince she is determined to save might not be the one meant to save her or her kingdom after all.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08G1KJLJY
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 21, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5261 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 299 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,546,155 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9,697 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #11,665 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
- #18,195 in Historical Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 14 ratings

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Farida Mestek

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Farida Mestek lives and works in Odesa, Ukraine. English is her profession and her passion. She loves teaching English during the day and exploring English-language literature in the evening (when there are no air raid sirens to disrupt her peace and quiet). She spends most of her time travelling different fantasy worlds that live rent-free in her head. During her travels she meets lots of interesting characters, whose stories she then narrates (with their permission) on the pages of her books. Her favourite companions are books and talking animals. Incidentally, Farida has a dog named Dean, who might actually be an enchanted prince.

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4.5 out of 5

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Robert Lauer

A highly enjoyable YA Fantasy novel and I look forward to more!

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2021

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Highland Court Chronicles: Almendra's Quest by Farida Mestek is a YA fantasy novel in a similar vein as say, Harry Potter. I wish I could give a better compassion title, but YA is not my strong suit; to be honest, when I think of YA, I tend to think of either teen romance, or dystopian future sagas, neither of which strike my fancy. So I have probably unfairly avoided the category all together, leaving my knowledge rather lacking.

With this being my second YA ‘fantasy’ this year, I am seeing that there is a section of this classification that I absolutely need to explore, because just like The Wing Thief, this novel was a real pleasure to read! Farida does an excellent job of setting up a very rich world, with extended lore and extremely likable characters; the star of this tale being a true gem! Lady Almendra of the Upper Kingdom is sassy, sweet, compassionate, somewhat awkward, and ultimately a character I cannot help but want to root for.

I would classify this as a true fantasy adventure, with the bulk of the story being a journey from one point to another; though there may be a detour or two along the way. Lady Almendra has a companion in the form of a wolf, and she is also accompanied by a really solid, and equally likable messenger (of sorts). There are plenty of exciting moments, reveals and turns along the way.

My only criticisms are a few typos and other minor editing errors, and there is a slight anti-climatic nature to the story, but none of this disrupted my overall enjoyment in reading. There is clearly more that this author has to say in the universe she setup, and I hope with all of my heart that she continues on; I absolutely want to read more in the future!

There is a companion piece to this, Nermina's Amulet, which I did read and will also review. I read that first, but have since been told that it was intended as further reading, not pre-reading. Ooops.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2021

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Almendra sets out to save a prince. in this highly enjoyable book by Farida Mestek we get to see a princess save the prince for a change. I found this to be such a fun book. I would highly recommend it!!

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kyle

A Breath of Fresh Air

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2020

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Admittidly, I am not one for YA these days. I'm a characterization-type reader, and sometimes I find something lacking in YA which makes me struggle with attachments to characters and plot.

However, I really did enjoy this book. To put it plainly, it was a breath of fresh air. It has some distinctive characters you'll find lovingly annoying, a fantasy theme that's not cliche which you can still enjoy, and a interesting story that reveals itself more and more as you turn the pages. The magic is unique, the worldbuilding was perfectly balanced, and you could tell the author put a lot of time and thought into the plots and twists.

Although I found it hard to cope with no chapters or titles, Almendra's Quest was very well written. It was fun to see our character grow from the "trapped princess" to the woman she became within the outside world. Sometimes it's hard to transition and grow our characters, but the author did very well.

Well done!

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Nicole

Charming magical escapism

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021

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Highly imaginative; charming and energetic narrative voice; all-female cast with a believably flawed lead. Inverse damsel-in-distress in which the prince needs to be rescued. Has a slow start, but an engrossing mid-section. A perfect read for anyone who enjoys fanciful, magical escapism with a very, very tidy and optimistic ending.

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2021

Fun and enjoyable :) definitely recommend it to everyone!

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Ashish

Enchanting

Reviewed in India on April 11, 2022

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The world-building & interplay of words are exquisite. 2 instances made me swoon at the prose.
1. A phrase that describes the frailty of a prophecy.
2. A vivid description of a kitchen catastrophe that jumps out of the pages in front of you.
Though the middle slows and meanders it's way, the twist and turns in the third act send your heart racing. A must read for anyone over 14yrs of age.

ryan

Funny and full

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2021

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Almendra's Quest was my first introduction into Farida Mestek's Highland Court Chronicles fantastical world, and what a good one!

I must admit this story surprised me in probably every way possible.
Highland Court Chronicles is a true YA fantasy book. Most of the story unfolds during a journey from one fantastical place to another where MC Almendra comes face to face with mysteries, violent enemies, magical wonder and surprising friends.

When I started the story, for the first few pages I wasn't quite sure if it was labelled properly as YA and I wondered if it would have been better off as a late middle grade.....I was wrong. Not only is the MC in her late teens, and goes on a journey that a middle grade student should never realistically take on by themselves, but the story also contains a few villainous situations that might be just a bit outside of the middle grade comfort zone (this is not to say that the story is very gory, but there are one or two moments in the story where the details might be a bit too much for a young student under 10 yrs).
The reason I originally wondered about the category is because Almendra has a very playful, young and slightly naive personality which comes especially to the foreground at the beginning chapters. Throughout the book we see how come she's developed this way though, and that the themes of the story are a bit more mature.
So that was surprise one for me.

Surprise two was Mestek's humorous tone, which I absolutely loved. I would probably pitch Almedra's Quest as: Harry Potter & Terry Pratchett's stories had a high fantasy hero's journey baby.
I LOVED the interactions between Almedra and her animal companion Woo the wolf. I really enjoyed her excited, but cheeky nature and her passion and it was so easy to root for her from the beginning of the story till the end.

The rest of the surprises I think I'll have to leave unsaid as they have to do with the plottwists and the ending. However, I will say that throughout the first 1/3 of the book I thought I had the story quite well figured out and that knew roughly how it would end. ......I was wrong. Highland Court Chronicles had some very surprising plot twists, and I quite enjoyed the ending. I'll be looking forward to book 2 in the series.

So if I loved it, then why not 4 stars?
I really missed more frequent chapter headings. The book consists of a few big parts, and I like to finish a reading session with the ending of a chapter. Because there weren't many clear chapters, I ended up either reading really big chunks in one go, or having to finish in, what felt like, the middle of a story. So that's something I would have preferred.
Another thing is that I sometimes felt like the big important moments in the story felt just a little anti-climactic. Not all of them, and the story definitely gave me 'the feels' in a good way and was immersive, but I felt like sometimes it could have done with a little longer lingering on certain moments, if that makes sense.

Sexual content: none
Coarse language: none
Violence and gore: moderate

In conclusion
My three favorite aspects of this story were:
1. The super creative, non-cliché, worldbuilding that was just done SO wel, and was such a breath of fresh air
2. The surprise plot twists in the second and third parts of the book
3. Farida Mestek's humour that just made the tone for this story so very enjoyable
So if you like a classic fantasy story, and the above three things sound like fun to you, then I would definitely say Highland Court Chronicles may very well be your thing!

Thanks for the copy, Farida! I've really enjoyed your beautiful story and envy your worldbuilding skills!

Cadence Larissa Alice Beth Beresford

Fun Yet Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2020

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Aimed at teenage girls but could be enjoyed by anyone who isn't a small child, as it gets quite dark in places. This is a fun book with interesting / likable characters. However it could really really do with an Editor, and the ending leaves a lot of loose threads and was quite unsatisfactory for me. Maybe there will be a sequel that will somewhat fix that but there isn't one currently, as far as I can see.

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Highland Court Chronicles: Almendra's Quest Kindle Edition

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