Shadow Grail #1: Legacies

by Rosemary Edghill and Mercedes Lackey

Book Overview

Legacies, the first book in the exciting new Shadow Grail series from Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

Who--or what--is stalking the students at Oakhurst Academy?

In the wake of the accident that killed her family, Spirit White is spirited away to Oakhurst Academy, a combination school and orphanage in the middle of Montana. There she learns she is a legacy--not only to the school, which her parents also attended, but to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765317613
• ISBN13: 9780765317612
• Release Date: July 2010
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 13 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

The Magic Academy

Legacies (2010) is the first Fantasy novel in the Shadow Grail series. It is set in the contemporary era at a school outside the small town of Radial, Montana, about four hundred miles from Billings. Oakhurst Academy is an exclusive school for orphans yonger than twenty-one years old. In this novel, Spirit Victory White is an orphan. Her father, mother and younger sister were killed in an automobile accident. She was badly injured in the same accident. She seems to remember something looking at her. Lachlan Galen Spears is also an orphan. His mother had died much earlier and his father was killed recently in a hotel fire. Lock was in another room and climbed out the window. Doctor Ambrosius is the headmaster of Oakhurst Academy. His hair and beard are pure silvery white. He has a faint British accent. In this story, Spirit is feeling very depressed. Then a lawyer visits her and explains that her parents have specified that she will be sent to Oakhurst Academy until she is twenty-one. While she is still in rehabilitation, the Oakhurst foundation will provide her with funds, clothing and necessities. When she is finally ready to face the outside world, Spirit is picked up by a Rolls-Royce for the drive to the airport. Loch is also in the limousine and explains some things about the school. After a four hour flight, they take a SUV to the train station in the nearby town of Terry, Montana. They ride in a private rail car to the school station. Spirit is awed by the grandeur of the main building, a large old mansion built by a railroad tycoon over a century ago. It is surrounded by a huge estate, containing an indoor Olympic size pool, stables, gymnasium, tennis courts, and a firing range. They are met at the station and escorted to the headmaster's office. There Doctor Ambrosius tells Spirit and Loch that they are Legacies, the children of Oakhurst alumni. Furthermore, he informs them that they are magicians and will be trained in magic here at Oakhurst. Spirit and Loch strongly doubt this statement, but Ambrosius uses magic to move some things around. Then he transforms them to white mice and becomes a huge owl. After being snatched up and redeposited in their chairs, they begin to believe in magic. Then Spirit discovers that she has a slight cut down her arm, as if she had been sliced by a talon. Spirit and Loch make friends with other orphaned magicians at Oakhurst. Two girls give Spirit a quick tour of the facility and then take her to the Refectory for dinner. Everything seems normal, but magic is ever present. The next day, Spirit and Loch are taken downstairs for testing to find out about their magical talents. Loch discovers that he has three talents in two different elements. But Spirit doesn't display any talents at all. This tale confronts Spirit, Loch and their friends with a mystery. A student disappears from the school. Later another also vanishes. The group is determined to find out what is happen

Will satisfy adult and young adult readers alike

While this young adult title - first in a Shadowgrail series - is a teen pick, it's reviewed here for its engrossing and complex twists and turns of plot which will appeal into adult audiences, as well. Oakhurst Academy is a blend of school and orphanage in the middle of Montana - and someone is stalking its students. Spirit White learns she's a legacy to magic - and that students with magical powers are vanishing. A riveting, engrossing saga evolves filled with exquisite tension, strong characterization, and the complex twists that will satisfy adult and young adult readers alike.

Legacy another of authors' ongoing child in danger fantasy novels

I have always liked these authors, and I like this book, even though it leaves a little to be desired. The comments from other reviewers not withstanding, this is not a Harry Potter Ripoff. The authors in this case have written many books about kids in trouble, in magical situations, often in cult-like settings and sometimes in back-woods areas. Yes, there is a school, of sorts, actually more of an orphanage, for the magically gifted, named Oakhurst Academy. Even though the young heroine, Spirit White, is rescued to its environs, it is presented as a dangerous, and eerie place to be. It seems a bit too overly wealthy, as in how could an orphanage have so much money? The welcome, aside from providing Spirit with a wonderful room, board, computer and other essentials, involves her being turned into a mouse, attacked, injured, and told that she will learn to protect herself from mysterious others. We are also presented with Spirit's fears as she is aggressively tested to determine her magic, eventually fainting and passing out for hours and thus never succeeding in determining what magic she possesses. The plot is somewhat labored in that it seems to spend most of its time and effort setting up way to many possible story lines, or never answered questions, to continue with in future books, rather than concentrating on the book at hand. A lot of the laboring is due to the children being presented as just a bit too naive and helpless, leaving not only unanswered but unasked questions dangling for the reader. For instance, the book starts with Spirit's injury and the death of her parents after the appearance of a big dark something on the road. Surprisingly her health care is picked up by Oakhurst Academy while she is still in the hospital. Then finally on her way across the country to the school she learns that she is a "Legacy", the very title of the book, which means that one or both of her parents attended Oakhurst. Yet, she never asks anybody about what her parents had to do with Oakhurst for the entire duration of the book, even though that seems like the first question any inquisitive child would ask. From there Spirit meets several friends, who discover that children have been mysteriously disappearing from the school, with all sorts of allusion to this being somehow due to the mysterious school staff or the even more mysterious people from the nearby town. Eventually the friends face and overcome a magical danger, but all the built up mysteries are left hanging, so that we will be sure to want to read the next book. Also, of course, the friends are told to tell no one of their accomplishment, thus leaving the remainder of the children still totally in the dark as to the nature of their danger, and re-instating their enforced ignorance, which seems to be the real hallmark of the story.

Magical Boarding School yes, Harry Potter clone no

Liked it - didn't love it. I wasn't sure if I'd like this as it is geared towards younger readers, but having read the authors' collaborations before, I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm glad I did, as I found it an enjoyable read. This is actually more similar to Kelly Armstrong's Darkest Powers series than to Harry Potter, though in all three the youngsters must band together to solve problems the adults around them can't or won't handle. However, in this series the children are all orphans, are kept isolated at the school, and have no sources of information about magic - or anything else! - except what the school provides. So,can the school itself be trusted? I was very caught up in reading the book and would like to read the next one when it comes out - but I did not immediately re-read it and I haven't found myself dwelling on the characters or the world created.

fun teen fantasy

The car accident killed her entire family; only teenage Spirit White survived. She has little time to grieve and barely enough to heal as she is informed she will live at Oakhurst Academy where she will attend school. Spirit is shocked to find Oakhurst is a school for orphans with magical skills. They are being trained to fight in a war against an alleged evil. As she makes friends with Burke, Lachlan, Muirin and Adelaide, Spirit begins to question the accident that left her an orphan and the intentions of those running Oakhurst Academy when it comes to the students who have no parental protection. Putting aside the obvious comparison to Potter, the first Shadow Grail teen fantasy is an exciting thriller in which the locale, creepy Oakhurst Academy brings the freshness with its foreboding sort of gothic ambience. Spirit is a terrific lead protagonist while the rest of her inner circle of BFFs comes out of the DC Teen Titan handbook. Still with a bit of romance, a lot of suspense and a young adult investigation into missing students, teenage fans will want to attend the dances at eerie Oakhurst Academy. Harriet Klausner