What are people saying about HEIRS OF PROPHECY?

Inevitably there are lots of reviews that occur for any given book. Even for the best and most timeless books, there will always be fans and there will be detractors.
For instance, someone might say that they love the story they just read largely because of X, while another person might say X ruined the story for them.  Clearly an author will never make both of those parties happy.
I posted a list of the blog tour locations so any of you can take a look for yourself what those guys write about it. I for one cannot stand when an author self-advertises and pats himself on the back – but I suppose I can try to be somewhat realistic about it. It happens. I try to share data on occasions to at least inform, and not necessarily attempt to sway the reader.
I also try quite hard not to compare myself to others. My goal is simply to write a tale that the largest audience possible would enjoy in the demographic I am targeting.
As to the demographic I am targeting, I think the sweet-spot I am shooting for is the world of readers. 🙂 However in the book world, the parlance is usually termed MG (middle-grade) and YA (young adult). I personally am not thrilled with those labels since people will sometimes mistake them as “If you aren’t a person in 5th grade – you can’t possibly enjoy it”. So I would say the readers of my books are typically nine years old and up.
That being said, we do have genres to talk about. Some kids/adults/etc like stories about sports, some go crazy over vampires (paranormal), and others absolutely must have a story about kittens or they won’t even open the book.
I try to write what I consider to be “Approachable Fantasy” – or Fantasy for the die-hard fantasy reader as well as those that are skeptical of the genre and why it even exists. I would also say that my tales tend not to be Saturday morning cartoon-like, and instead are much larger in scale. The phrase I often use is Epic, but since I’ve been told I use that word too often by my kids, let’s just call it Grand Fantasy, in the style of Tolkien, but with an ear more toward family dynamics.
Ok – let’s move on to the title of this post. What are people really saying now about the first book (now that its been out) and maybe even some sneak feedback I’d receive that reflects the beta readers of the second book.
Certainly Amazon has several reviews, and I am guessing those reviews will grow significantly with the Blog tour that will happen in the next month or two. However I have gotten lots of sneak peeks at feedback and comments both through here, Facebook, e-mail, and in person and there are generally a few themes regarding the first book’s response.

• Wholesome story
  Many people feared that it might be a very dark tale. Certainly there was plenty of opportunity what with the prologue introducing the execution of someone for seemingly trivial reasons by an evil wizard, there are assassins, and your typical neighborhood bullies.
  People seem to be universally delighted that the story, albeit having plenty of action and suspense, was an overall wholesome tale that didn’t introduce unseemly things that weren’t necessary for the story. I personally was somewhat worried what a particular clergyman would think when he told me he was reading it. I’ll be frank – that wasn’t the demographic I had in mind, and I was shocked to hear him praise the story and thought it showed a great social dynamic between the kids (who are the main characters of the book) and the adults/parents in the new world.
  
• Easy for all ages to relate to
  With the first book, I am not sure whether it is the story itself or it is the writing itself, but the age demographic of the reader has been as wide as imaginable. So far, readers that I know of are 8 through 65+ (wouldn’t admit her age aside from winking and saying medicare eligible.).
  Sure the story starts with a set of parents and their kids in this modern world. Most people can likely relate to that. The story then progresses slowly from the shallow end of the Fantasy genre eventually hitting the deep end with wizards and magic and prophecies.
  Most of the comments centered around how relatable the characters were for people and folks would often say things like, “I laughed out loud because what Aubrey was thinking was exactly the kind of reaction I would have.”
  Of course for the kids, scenes and settings that give them the fish out of water scenario, and they are faced with chores, albeit in some cases bizarre ones – they can relate. Who can’t relate to unpleasant bullies?  And since the kids are the stars, give them moments to contemplate, “What if I could do that. Wow…”
   
• The girls like it too!
  I’ll admit it.  I was particularly worried that the girls wouldn’t get into the stories because the two main characters from first page are two young boys. Yes, I introduced girls in the mix later, but nonetheless – I worried if I was going to capture a female set of readers.
  I would say that a significant number of the readers that I have learned about either directly or through their parents are actually female.

Okay folks – this post is getting a bit long for a normal blog post, so I will sign off now.  Rumor has it the second book of the series will be out in July, so keep your eyes peeled. It’s coming….