I found The Portal on my audiobook app and was intrigued by the cover. But while I was listening I noticed it could have been so much better.
Book Review: The Portal by Kathryn Lasky
Rating:
Title & Author: The Portal by Kathryn Lasky
Genre: History, Fantasy
Release date: March 19 2019
Series: Tangled in Time
Publisher: HarperCollins
Synopsis
Life used to be great for Rose: full of friends, a loving mom, and a growing fashion blog.
But when her mother dies in a car crash, Rose is sent away to live with a strange grandmother she hardly knows and forced to attend a new school where mean girls ridicule her at every turn.
The only place Rose finds refuge is in her grandmother’s greenhouse. But one night she sees a strange light glowing from within it. She goes to investigate…and finds herself transported back five hundred years to Hatfield Palace, where she becomes servant and confidant of the banished princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII.
Rose soon discovers something else amazing—a locket with two mysterious images inside it, both clues to her own past. Could the greenhouse portal offer answers to the mysteries of her family…and their secrets?
I give The Portal by Kathryn Lasky three out of five hearts because it could have been so much more. This novel feels like it is setting up the series, but doesn’t stand on its own.
The historical pieces in this novel are great, the wonder and the differences between now and then clear. It was great since some novels have a hard time making the two easily distinguishable.
Rose is a young girl who has just lost her mother and never knew who her father was. She is dumped with her grandmother and at first, she doesn’t like it, but when she discovers the other world she can travel too and slowly gets used to her grandmother, she finally feels okay again.
The story is cute, but between Rose finding the portal and accidentally discovering who her father was, there wasn’t much of a story. I wished it could have stand on its own, but it doesn’t, making it into a pretty boring read. I wish I felt more for this novel, but I don’t think I will continue with this series.
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For now, let books enrich your life!