The Unexpected Adventures: The Evil Prince

The Unexpected Adventures #1

by Tom Colley

In this exciting first story of The Unexpected Adventures book series, two young sisters are thrust into a dangerous quest in a magical land. They must restore the kingdom and figure out how to stay alive and make it back home. The Colley kids come from a long lineage of unlikely heroes who find themselves in the middle of perilous and unexpected adventures. They must rely on their wits, strength, and each other to complete their quest and make it back home. The Unexpected Adventures series tells but a few of these spectacular stories. The Evil Prince is the first of these tales. Ella and Kaelyn are sent on a dangerous quest in the middle of the Shadow Forest, which has been overrun by an evil force. They don’t want to be there, but the arrival of these two young sisters is no accident. Along their journey, they encounter giants, ogres, and many strange creatures, not to mention the Evil Prince! Their greatest asset will be each other, but will that be enough? Follow their first adventure to find out what happens and if they do indeed make out of the Shadow Forest and back home. Happy Adventuring!
www.theunexpectedadventures.com

Genres: Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2017

About the author

Tom Colley grew up in a small town in southern Missouri. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest with his beautiful wife Jennifer and their five kids, along with a few pets here and there. He works as a software developer. This book series is inspired by, and stars, his family.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

Two girls enter a world where their make believe play was reality, and go on a quest.

Not bad, but didn't hold the structure of a game of make believe.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

First I would like to state that I have received this book through the Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank the author for giving me this opportunity and honor in being able to read this book. When I received this book I began reading it at once. I really enjoy the authors writing style. This book was a very interesting read. I have not read any of the author’s books before but will be now. The plot is wonderful and fast paced. All the characters are very well portrayed thought out. When you are finished you wish you weren't.

[Barb Eck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of an adventure series by Tom Colley. It's a great children's book where each chapter is just long enough to keep their interest and wanting to hear more.

Two sisters are sent on an adventure to the middle of Shadow Forest to fight the over whelming evil there and the Evil Prince. The sisters in no way want to be there but are given no choice in the matter. Will they be able to conquer all the evil and make their way back home.

I won this book from a contest on Goodreads. This is a great book for any age but especially the younger ages.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son really enjoyed this book and was stoked it was signed.
We read this every night before bed and it was great bonding time.
A few nights I caugt him reading it alone because he said he wanted to know what was going to happen next.

We are awaiting your new book!!!

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good adventure story for elementary age children. No death or horror involved to scare youngsters and the storyline is done with a moral in mind plus the imagination of playing games with made-up personalities.

[Lenaya Andriulli · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter loved this book! This was a great quick read. The chapters were not too long for her to lose interest. Looking forward to the next one!

[Jossie Solheim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this one. I hate it when children's books treat kids like their gullible idiots and that's exactly what happens here. The two main characters of the book are unbelievable. They wake from a nap to find themselves in a strange new world a situation that any adult, never mind child would find confusing and no doubt frightening and yet they just shrug it off like it's nothing. They go up against all kinds of beings and creatures, excluding a powerful sorceress and defeat them as if they are nothing,
The story doesn't flow and feels rushed and a little repetitive. Kids aren't stupid. Like adults they need to really believe what is happening. With this book that is impossible. Everything just comes way to easy to the girls. And they don't have really distinguishable characters either, making it difficult to really care what happens to them anyway. To me this book felt like more of a first rough draft than a finished book. I feel the author needs to go back to the drawing board and ask himself "how can I make this more believable? How can I make my characters more realistic and distinguishable from each other? And why could all of this be happening anyway?" I'm going to be handing this over to my son to read to see what he makes of it, but I don't think he'll be that impressed either, he gets very annoyed when books don't make sense. I wish I had something positive to say on this one but I really don't, the world building wasn't there, they could have been wandering around in the countryside anywhere in the real world and none of the characters really caught my interest. And the layout of the book was quite strange too. I gave this two stars plainly on the basis that not every book is for everyone one and perhaps others might like it. That and I hate to just give 1 star, because anyone having a go at writing a book deserves some praise. It's a tough thing to do. But this one really wasn't for me.

[Jaime K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.
Let me preface this by saying that the book has the absolute potential to be a 4/5 stars. However, there were a lot of issues I had with it - and NOT because it's a Junior Reader's book (and not a Middle Grade like I thought). If the reader knows the audience for whom the book is, then they need to reassess their thinking.

Which I did, quite easily. Some things are properly cheesy, given that the two main characters, Ella and Kaelyn, are young sisters. The two are transported in the middle of an afternoon nap to a fantasy world, armed with a wand (Ella) and sword (Kaelyn). They learn they're supposed to stop the evil prince from destroying more of the world.

Great premise and again, great potential. I really found it neat to see how Ella learns to use her wand.
And I had to laugh at the fact that both girls thought burping was gross. They have three brothers! I grew up with one and didn't find burping to be gross.
It makes a lot of sense that many of the characters in the other world look like their family members.

The execution of the story, though, is poor. There are a lot of editing issues that I made note of that were distracting and worked against the book.

[Bussola Vespucci · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read.
It felt a bit... juvenile to me, but of course it's for kids so its supposed to.
I'm going to find a child to read it and tell me what they think (and I can update my review), because I got hung up on silly things. Like that "pickle" and "bicycle" don't really rhyme well.
But maybe for the age group that is the point.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute story of two sister who took a nap and woke up in another world! They did not know why, or how, or what to do. This was a great first fantasy novel for my daughter. Together the sisters had to learn about their new roles and capabilities, and most importantly how to work together.

[LL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it. Nice quick story. Easy to read.