The Tree of Mindala - Elle Jacklee This review was first posted on Music, Books and TeaI love reading fun books. Make them fantasy books, and you’ve got me hooked, because there is nothing more fun than a good fantasy adventure. And when it’s fantasy as fun and action-filled as The Tree of Mindala, you’re guaranteed to have a brilliant book on your hands.At first, I struggled to like Miranda and her younger brother Marcus. If you’d have combined the two, they would have been the perfect person, but instead, you had Miranda, the over-imaginative girl with a knack for letting her story-telling get her into trouble, and Marcus, the straight-laced boy who really needed to just relax and live a little bit. As the story progressed, there was a ton of character development with the two characters, especially when their magical talents came into play. On the whole though, I loved Miranda as a main character, and she was the perfect heroine for the book, despite me not getting on with her at first. She knew that she would do absolutely everything she possibly could to save Wunderwood and its inhabitants, even though she wasn’t aware the world even existed a week previous. Plus, I loved the fact that she had to face her biggest fear, which was water, to come any where near being able to save Wunderwood. And did Miranda face her fear? Damn straight she did! (Which is much better than I would have been able to do!)Thornton Crow, the villain of the story was most definitely the stereotypical bad-guy, and he was simply evil. I really disliked his character, and the way he treated other people and creatures. The way Elle Jacklee wrote him was great, and he was such an easy character to hate, which makes him a fantastic villain. In my eyes, he had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and I was backing Miranda and her quest to try and stop his terrifying actions. I loved the world of Wunderwood, and all the details Elle Jacklee included within the world building, like the idea that only creatures with pure intentions were able to fly. (So it was easy to tell who was evil and who wasn’t.) And the location of the Tree of Mindala was really well hidden, although it became obvious once Miranda received her Prophecy. And I have to give huge props to Elle Jacklee for being able to write so many clever poems and riddles throughout the book, it is something I would have definitely struggled with, but they were all clever and unique and there was no risk of them sounding twee or childish which was great. I’m going to have to stop myself from gushing about this book (which I could so, so easily do) and just sum it up by saying that this is a great fantasy book for tweens and teens, full of clever twists, turns and secrets. I don’t know what else to say other than I really, really enjoyed reading this book and could have read about Wunderwood, its characteristics and inhabitants for days.I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review