Book "The Final Offering" by J.G.Gatewood

About the Book: As a young Haloti fairy living on top of a maple tree, Thula is counting down the days until she reaches adulthood. Her whole life changes when a Grimmox fairy breeches the long-standing peace treaty by crossing their border. Thula isn’t content to watch the destruction of her world, and volunteers for a new military program to counter the incursion. But once in training, she learns the program isn’t about defense at all. It’s about war, and all of the Haloti people are at risk of annihilation. Thula must look to the most unlikely of allies, the Grimmox, to save their world. But they refuse to fight as it goes against everything they believe in. After receiving a vision from the sons of God, she learns this is their last chance to make peace. She was raised by the Haloti, but now sees the world through the eyes of the Grimmox, and is the only one they can trust with this task. If she fails, God will erase the Haloti and Grimmox from the planet. She only has one day to unite them all.

About the Author: J.G. Gatewood is the author of the Keepers of the Orbs Fantasy Series. So far Book 1, The Unknown Man, has been completed and self-published on Amazon. Book 2, The Rising Past was released on Amazon on December 1st, 2015.

He is currently 70% done with the next book in the series, and hopes to have it released by the end of 2016, with the Final book due the end of 2017 or early 2018.

Other writing projects include, The Final Offering(Late 2016) and The Saukarian Children (Early 2017).

When J.G. Gatewood is not writing, he is a full-time Subject Matter Expert and an avid reader.

He lives in Parker, Colorado with his wife of 14 years, and two sons. In what little free time he has remaining, he is usually busy brewing his own beer, crafting his own wine or enjoying a fine cigar.

My Review: This is another very well written book with a compelling plot that flows in a nice pace, characteristic of this young author.  And the overall plot has a more powerful message than I initially thought, but after reflecting for a while I saw how brilliant the author was on passing this strong message disguised in this lovely fairy tale. 

The plot is simple. Our heroine (Thula) is from a fairy group living in the top of the tree, whose life is controlled by what they call the "elders" of the group. They live in fear of "monsters" living in the bottom part of the tree. By an old agreement, they have to provide an offering every year to the "monster", to keep the peace in the tree, preventing them from crossing the borders of the established regions. The offering is a fairy chosen "randomly" by a butterfly, and it is carried away by this same butterfly to never be seen again. But the truth is not how it seems. A fight for keeping the status quo is what really drives this tradition and Thula begins to see the real intentions of the "elders". 

The plot goes on, and we start cheering for our heroine in every turn of page and the story keep us hooked until the end.The environment is superbly described and the characters are well developed and full of life! And the message is like coming from a fable of Aesop. Just brilliant!
If you enjoy fantasy, you cannot miss reading this book. I strongly recommend it to the permanent library of all readers that enjoy a well written book. You will not be disappointed.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment!