Why You Should/Shouldn't Read...The Five Kingdoms(series) by Brandon Mull

The Outskirts is an in-between place, a place between wakefulness and dreaming, a place between reality and imagination, a place between life and death, a place with pockets in time and space, and a place that stretches the limits of technological innovation.  It is also the place where Cole and his friends were taken, enslaved and separated from each other.  Cole sets out on a breath-taking journey to rescue his friends and get back onto Earth, and at the same time helping a long-lost princess find her sisters and overthrow evil overlords.

I think you should read the Five Kingdoms if you love fantasy and don't care about romance, because, well, the Five Kingdoms series is practically all fantasy, and like no romance.  Obviously.  Besides lacking of other genres, Brandon Mull is very very creative, and the Outskirts(setting of the story) is the place I want to visit the most out of all the fantasy books(Yes, even the Lost Cities...Yes I know the Lost Cities have beautiful crystal buildings which are better than the wooden shacks in the Outskirts...Yes I still want to go to the Outskirts more...Okay, stop making me doubt myself...Shut it.).  Anyways, the Outskirts have tons of cool places, plus I'll most likely have really cool shaping(hopefully Sambrian shaping!...No it's not because I can create friends since I don't have any in real life!  Ok, maybe a little bit actually.).  Anyways it's really cool.

I didn't really like a lot of parts of this series, because it wasn't really interesting sometimes.  The first and third books were really interesting, but the second and fourth books, especially the fourth book, moved slowly and weren't as interesting as the others.  I was actually really disappointed when I read the fourth book, because the majority of the story they were just running around looking for help.  I also didn't like how there wasn't any romance, but that's just personal preference.  But read the book anyway.

Age Group: Grade 5 - Grade 7
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, More Fantasy, Magic Abilities, Even More Fantasy
Rating: 
2/2 for Creativity/Originality
1.2/2 for Character Development, Empathy Felt
0.1/1.1 for Romance
0.8/1 for Length
0.7/1.5 for 'How Badly I Want To Know What Happens Next'
0.4/1.4 for Mystery/Questions
0.5/1 for Comedy/Funniness
Bonus Points: 1 for Fantasy Awesomeness
Total Rating: 6.7 out of 10

As you can see, I didn't really like this series, but still read it anyway.  You might like it more than I did!