Spellsinger

Avalon: Web of Magic #5

by Rachel Roberts

The first benefit concert for the Ravenswood Wildlife Preserve is on! Everyone is depending on the event to ensure the survival of Ravenswood. It's got to be a success. And Kara's on the case. She's booked two mega rock acts, a fabulous girl band and hot pop idol Johnny Conrad. But Conrad may be hiding a dangerous secret that threatens the animals, Ravenswood, and the girls themselves. Spellsinger is the fifth book in Web of Magic , a twelve book fantasy series by Rachel Roberts for middle grade readers. Through their magical journey, the teenage heroines discover who they really are . . . and run into plenty of good guys, bad guys, and cute guys. Out of print for two years, Seven Seas is pleased to return the Avalon series to print in editions targeted for today's manga-readers, with new manga-style covers and interior illustrations.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Magic, Adventure, Young Adult

216 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Rachel Roberts adores magic, adventure, animals, and music. Rachel is an devoted campaigner with animal rights and protection of wild places organizations. Rachel’s has been reading ever since she could first carry a book and enjoys getting lost in a fantastic story. Rachel has been a writer as well as a editor her entire career. Rachel says the majority of concepts for her stories and characters appear on lengthy hikes. She brings a little notepad, just for jotting down thoughts. Afterward at her house Rachel builds on the ideas together with feline friends, Attila and Raider. She also is in love with music, playing the piano, flute, as well as learning to play guitar.

Avalon: Web of Magic is Rachel’s very first series of novels.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the fifth book of the series the girls learn the art of spell singing, casting spells through songs. The Ravenswood Wildlife Preserve is holding a benefit concert with a very popular band arriving. Kara gets star struck by Johnny Conrad, the lead singer who’d not all he appears to be. This book was never my favourite even when I read the series years ago. It focuses too much on singing, and I just feel as though there wasn’t a whole lot of action magic wise. At least the third book you get to see the magical world of Aldenmor and learn about Zach and the Ruby dragon. But this book isn’t just about spell singing, according to the Fairimentals, the three mages must “Spell sing as three” obviously the girls have no idea what this means at first. Fairimentals are made of fairy magic, very pure and good magic. They take shapes on earth in forms like wind, earth, water, fire. They always seem to give the mages mysterious messages that they don’t end up figuring out until it’s almost too late, sometimes anyways. Anyways, the dark sorceress is trying to find the home of all magic, Avalon, and she very nearly succeeds in this book. She’s built four giant power crystals, I’m guessing to drain Avalon dry of all it’s magic. I don’t remember Avalon even though I read the series years ago. It seems like a very mysterious place that everyone has heard of, but no one seems to know where it is, figures right? Apparently the unicorns do though as Avalon is their home. Time to read book six.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly think this was the best book out of the original series, which was the first 6 books.

[Sundra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chokehold this book series had on me as a kid! When I was like 11, the latest book had to be ordered since my Borders (yup, I'm old) didn't have it in stock and I must have called them every other day to see if it had come in. The staff was very, very patient with me.

When I was 12 all I wanted for my birthday was a crystal necklace. Bless my parent's hearts, they bought me a crystal necklace, but it was not shaped like a crystal. Sigh, the misery of the misunderstood.

I wanted to see if the writing stood up to the test of time being over a decade older now and while I am certainty not enjoying it in the same way (I cannot relate to these tweens as a near 30-year-old), I do believe that it's a well written story that young girls today would still eat up.

The characters are each unique (if a bit cliched) so young girls can choose the one they identify most with (as a former wolf girl/punk rocker, I was w/ Adriane all day!), the magic is cute and lighthearted with animals that talk and form unbreakable bonds with their human friend.

I think girls also enjoy the lessons without feeling moralized to. It's the usual, honesty, friendship, and trying your best that is always pandered to kids, but because we see the characters come to terms with their internal struggles, it feels a bit more authentic.

[Lire-une-passion · Rating 2 out of 5]

"​En résumé, un tome 5 qui m'a quelque peu déçue par la tournure que ça prend. On découvre une Kara méchante et hautaine, alors qu'on l'a connue adorable et compréhensive. Alors, ça fait partie de l'intrigue, mais j'ai trouvé ça mal amené, trop bourrin. Néanmoins, je lirais la suite, parce que c'est une série que j'aime énormément. En espérant que la suite ne soit pas dans la lignée de ce tome 5..."

http://lire-une-passion.weebly.com/fa...

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kara and the rest of the town are ecstatic to hear that the Johnny Conrad is coming to play at the Ravenswood benefit concert - but something dark is lurking, seeking powerful magic, and it has its eyes set of the Blazing Star, who finds her need for stardom suddenly overwhelming...Roberts will keep fans engrossed with another entertaining entry; dramatic, exciting, and just the right amount of eerie foreshadowing! Can Kara remember to put her friends and Avalon first, or has she fallen prey to the limelight of fame?

[Arsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

my friend gave me this book as my birthday gift when im turning seven yo. funny thing is, i havent read the previous version of this book. i mean, she only gave me the this book, and a few years later i just realized that i should have read the first to fourth books before reading this book (this book is the fifth book).......

regardless of that, i can still understand the story very good lol. a very good fiction book for teenage girls.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread. The only Kara-centric book I like, actually. I’m in love with the concept of music as magic, and this book is centered on that. Kara learns a valuable lesson about fame and her place in the prophecy, and the friends battle a monster in an EPIC musical fight scene! Writing isn’t great, but whatever. The cover and included art are BEAUTIFUL.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kara is still mean, but I like her much better in this book than in All That Glitters. Still don’t like her much, though. Spell singing is cool magic even if I’ve seen it done much better in other places. I found Johnny Conrad completely insufferable as a kid, although that might have been the point. This book is okay, just a middle book in a middling series.

[Samantha Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this series when I was young and it’s one that changed my life for the better! This series got me hooked into reading and holds such a special place in my heart. I’m currently re-listening to the audio book version and it’s just as magical and fun as I remembered. This series will always be one that I come back to.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, Kara was testing me in this one.

[Dots]

Read these when I was a kid and looooveeeed them. :D
Glad I found them again.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

The spotlight is now back on Kara as she prepares for a benefit concert for Ravenswood that she's proposed.

This is the book that really highlights Kara's character flaws: she is selfish, greedy, and lies to all her friends for the sake of winning a singing contest that is apparently more important than helping the Fairmentals. Also, she's a thief who cuts class.

I'm sorry, but I just kind of thought that by now she would have improved instead of gotten worse as a person. I know she's only known Emily and Adriane for a short while, but her actions almost negate whatever she may have learned in previous books since they seem so immature.

Kara was always my least favorite, and this book helps me to remember why - regardless of the 'fact' that she learns from her mistakes by the end.

Also, as far as the main storyline goes, only ONE thing happens - at the end of the book - to actually further the plot. In effect, this was a lot like the last book in that little happened that was important to the story while a lot happened that was important to teaching morals.

Of the original six books, this would be my second-to-least favorite after All That Glitters.

[eena · Rating 3 out of 5]

i couldn't take this book seriously at first because it involved a lot of spellsinging which, by the way, i DID not know how to read. there was a lot of singing, obviously, there were concerts too, and i didn't know how to read the lyrics with no music in my head but i still rolled with this one i guess LOL. my hope for that kara adriane love line is down the drains because 1) johnny just had to come into the picture and i have to admit him and kara does look cute and 2) kara and adriane's dynamic is literally just fighting. we're 5 books in and i kinda hoped for a team character development but there was none; you'd think they're close enough to not fight anymore lol. also, i had me swooning for johnny only to find out he was a bad guy lmfao but that grand reveal and ending was epic anyway! i think for a low fantasy book, every scene is anticlimactic, but i'll take this one.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok. I read it because my 7 year old wanted to read it, so I pre-read to make sure it was ok. If you're looking for advice on a age group for this book I'd say it is more for a 11-12 year old age group.

It shared many similarities to Fablehaven, and though I preferred Fablehaven, I have only read book 5 of this 12 book series. It may be a good series, but I probably won't take the time to read the others unless my daughter picks those up as well. Needless to say, she'll be waiting a few years before she reads this one. Too much swooning over boys for age 7.

[Dyah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this, my discontentment for Kara Davies grows. She already has a lot, intact family, best friends... yet, she still wants more and is envious of others? How greedy! What's worse, she's covering it up by acting arrogant and flaunting her beauty. Throughout SPELLSINGER, we are shown various conflicts Kara has to deal with, but truly, I can't feel sorry for her. She deserves what is coming for her.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like the other Web of Magic books and has a moreal to learn. The assortment of strange animals, and the other world continue to hold my interest somewhat. It is kind of a goody-goody book like the rest of the series that younger female readers may like.

[sage (semi-hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I love this series, this has to be my least favorite book so far. It was a little too here and there for my like, the ending was ok. I feel like I could have loved this book, there was such a great idea behind it, but I couldn't get into it. Not Rachel's best work

[Adriane Charday]

i loved it!!!!!!!!!

[Eris]

this seris roks

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these when I was younger but I would still read them now. They have enough magic in them to entertain anybody.

[Ayano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, and I loved it!

[Aida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spellsinger was weird and I had no clue what was going on. It still had interesting chapters, and I could still read it without dropping the book and walking off.

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this was a great book. It was action packed, funny, scary, I thought somebody was going to seriously get hurt, it left me in shock when I finished it, just, so beautiful.

[Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely one of my favorites.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

776 - 2014

[Alexa]

What have you learned about life from what you're reading?
I have learned that friends are important and that sticking together will always help when problems arise.

[Toveli Johnson]

This is one of my favourites from this series.

[Marchel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kara... abg labil ini ternyata dikerjai mahluk fairy gelap, semacam pengubah bentuk.

Menarik. tapi kayaknya bakalan sedih karena serial ini tidak dilanjutkan terjemahannya

[Isabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sooooo weird

[boots mama · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok i think the covers are getting increasingly more retarded