Keeper of the Lost Cities:

Exile (Book Review)

If the first book kept me on the edge of my seat then this one left me only a
millimetre away from slipping off it. Even the initial chapters are very
exciting which compelled my curiosity to hold on tight till the last page.
The book picks up right where we left, just after the tribunal which Sophie
faced to decide whether she would be continuing her elvin education at the
Foxfire academy (the elite academy for elves to enhance their special
abilities like telepathy, vanishing, light leaping, etc. ) or go to Exillium
(The academy for hopeless cases or the elves who fail to manifest a special
talent.). Luckily Sophie manages to escape going to Exillium by hair’s
length as she failed alchemy but she is saved by the discovery of her third
ability, other than telepathy and polyglot (Ability to speak all languages
without learning them.), infliction making her qualify for eight subjects for
the third level at the Foxfire academy.
The book starts with Sophie being on the search for a sasquatch , a creature
with beady eyes and beak like nose, along with Dex (her best friend),
Grady ( her adoptive father) and Sandor ( her bodyguard, who was assigned
after Sophie’s kidnapping incident which almost killed her) in Havenfield.
She is a key part of this search as she uses her advanced telepathy skills to
track the thoughts of the sasquatch across the immense fields of Havenfield,
but accidently she stumbles across the thoughts which are unusually calm
for an animal. This rings all the caution bells of her brain but her curiosity
triumphs her logical sided and she proceeds to follow the unusual yet calm
train of thoughts. When she reaches the destination she finds out that the
mysterious creature is an Alicorn, a creature sacred to elves because they
believe that this creature can reset the timeline and save the elvin world
from the atrocities which have been unveiling since the unanticipated
arrival of Sophie in the elvin world.
After the enormous discovery of the alicorn (who Sophie affectionately
named Silveny ) is given a suitable home in Havenfield home along with
several other creatures both known and unknown to humans. The council is
forced to make decision to entrust the training and care of the alicorn in the
hands of Sophie and her adoptive family because of Sophie’s unique ability
to talk to Silveny telepathically makes her the only one to convince Silveny
to stay under control as she is a creature of free spirits.
Concurrently, Sophie is just a week (This week was hands down the most
eventful week anyone could possibly have.) away from the start of her
level-3 class at Foxfire. During which she visits Jolie’s grave with Grady
and Edaline (Jolie is their deceased daughter) and her own and Dex’s grave
which were made because they were assumed to be dead when they were
kidnapped. But even more traumatic was her visit to meet Brant Jolie’s
fiancé, whose sanity is cracked because of the mournful death of Jolie, and
her visit to Exile ( which is literally a place at the core of the Earth.) with
Alden to perform a memory break on Fintan one of the most oldest and
powerful pyrokynetics ( it is a forbidden talents because of the harm it has
brought to the elvin world in the past), who is accused of withholding
information regarding Black Swan ( it is an rebel organisation regarded as
then bane of the elvin world. However, something goes horribly wrong
during the memory break causing Alden to get lost in Fintan’s broken brain
and Sophie losing her concentration during the crucial process.
Although, Sophie is able to pull Alden back at the nick of time, but every
action has a consequence and this one had a gravely dangerous one.
By Seerat Ghai