The Golden Key Chronicles (The Golden Key Chronicles #1-4)

TIME TRAVEL/FANTASY:  Rowena is an antiques dealer who has just bought a white elephant of an armoire. Not only does it have fire and water damage, she can’t get the door open. She finds a key on a chain in a hidden compartment, but it doesn’t fit anything. Sometime in the middle of the night, the armoire door opens of its own accord and the mirror lit up! Inside the mirror is the most handsome man Rowena has ever seen. The man then addresses her in Medieval English. Soon Rowena learns that this is no trick, but an alternate reality, in which she is a white sorceress. She is able to go through the mirror but loses her memory doing so.  The man, Prince Caedmon, is sent away to war, so she is forced to fend for herself.

This story is a familiar one if the reader has read any of the Narnia books or “Alice Through the Looking Glass”.  A.J. Nuest skillfully weaves a new story while using elements of the old. The battle scenes as well as the love scenes tended to drag, thus losing this reader’s interest for a time but the third and concluding section of the book was excellent! Lots of emotion, fast action, and a startling but fantastic ending pulled everything together beautifully. In spite of those slow moments in this book, it is well worth the read!

Belinda Wilson