HALE The Rise of the Griffins by J.K. Noble

 This review will be about HALE The Rise of the Griffins by J.K. Noble. It was published on November 2, 2021 with 3 so far after. The second book, HALE The Prophets Journal was published November 21, 2023 and the third book, HALE The Staff of Time does not have a listed release date. This series is listed as a Children’s Fantasy. 

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About the book:

Hale, a sixteen-year-old, makes a daring escape from his kidnapper only to find himself in a brutal world full of magic that his sister, Carly, had tried to protect him from. 

Hale finds himself in the violent Land of Griffins where he learns he’s not a normal kid. In fact, he’s actually a griffin and has extraordinary talents. As he learns how to be a griffin, he becomes close with Bayo, the Griffin Leader, and Hale can’t deny that there is a connection between them. Bayo has secrets though, he has dark plans in store for Hale as well as who they really are to each other. 

Review:

I received this book through a giveaway on Goodreads, all ARC’s that I receive, I give my honest review. 

In this book, there’s a diverse fantasy world with four unique nations and cultures, their magic different from one another and unique in different ways. This book addresses loss, manipulation, good and bad family relationships, finding one’s path, and dealing with mistakes made. 

Starting the book, I did have a bit of a hard time reading and kept putting it down, but this is no fault of the author as it’s a children’s book and I always have a hard time reading them as it isn’t as mature as I would like them. Now, saying all that, later in the book I ended up not being able to put down the book as it just transported me into the world, with a few exceptions.

Characters:

We’ll start with the main character Hale. I definitely felt for him in the beginning of the book but as the story progressed, I felt like I missed out on a lot of development that had to do with him and he didn’t feel like the main character anymore. One chapter, he’s a kind friend who’s trying to help his friends out and the next, he’s completely ignoring them and treating them like scum and even fighting them.. How did his feelings get to that point? 

All I can say about Carly without spoilers is I felt bad for her, she was just trying to protect Hale. 

Greon, the one who kidnaps Hale and Carly for Bayo in the beginning of the book, was written very well. He doesn’t want to do these things but with Bayo looking over his shoulder and threatening his family, he has no choice. I really felt for him because technically, he isn’t a bad guy but he’s done bad things for Bayo. 

Bayo confused me throughout this whole book, that’s all I’ll say about him.

I think I would have preferred if the P.O.V’s stayed with Hale, Bayo, Greon,  and Carly. I felt like there were so many character viewpoints that I missed out on a lot of Hale’s developments and it didn’t seem to blend very well. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the point of view from the characters who aren’t really connected to Hale as it gave insight for who will be in the next book. The other characters that have viewpoints that are sorta connected felt more like filler to me but it gives you more information on why they're doing what they’re doing and how they handle Bayo. 

Overall, a very good children's fantasy book that touches on topics that are hard to talk about. I recommend this book if you enjoy reading fantasy with different cultures, unique magic, big world building, and finding one’s path.