Lexicon Chase: Scrolls of the Harlequin (Book One)

Lexi Chase’s life drastically changes on the 25th of September when her grandmother’s magical rose transports Lexi to a medieval castle in the Kingdom of Everhope. Used to being the butt of ridicule at her high school, the fifteen-year-old enjoys her new princess role until she learns the horrible truth of a curse that not only affects Evenhope, but also the life of her beloved grandmother. Although she is determined to find the hidden tome that will break the curse, Lexi is unaware there is an even greater diabolical plot in the works.

Jonathan Fore’s 6th novel, and the first book of the Lexicon Chase and the Kingdom of Everhope series, takes readers on a fantastical C.S. Lewis-like journey. Laced with a good-versus-evil theme, Fore’s third person narrative features an underdog whose self worth is directly proportional to her impoverished and dismal life. Indeed, the last thing Lexi expects is a sudden shift to royalty (a definite Narnia feel). Aided by a colorful benevolent and miscreant cast, the coming-of-age development of Fore’s principal character is also surrounded by a host of mythological and mystical beings. Fore includes an interesting mix of faes (fairy-like creatures), elves, ghosts, gibberings, gnolls, as well as a friendly ogre and a unicorn amid an all-things-apothecary-and-magical setting.

While Fore doesn’t incorporate talking beasts, and there is no religious allegory attached to his plot, the mere fact he mixes a present-day youth with her ties to an otherworldly past, and then combines that with all the above-mentioned elements, is enough to give his novel a reminiscent warm-and-fuzzy feel of Narnia. Yet Fore’s writing style is quite unlike Lewis’s old-British vernacular, consistent throughout the Narnia novels. Lexi (who is learning how to be a proper princess), for example, takes her 21st century lingo and actions with her to Evenhope, which makes for an interesting, and sometimes hilarious, contrast to language and practices of an archaic society.

Alternating between various unexpected character scenes of both the present and the past, Lexicon Chase and the Scrolls of Harlequin undoubtedly closes with a light cliffhanger in preparation for part two of this exciting new series—Lexicon Chase and the Riddle Song—coming in 2016!