Lynette Noni

The first of the five-part MEDORAN CHRONICLES offers a new slant on magical parallel worlds – it’s Harry Potter meets X-Men, with a twist of Narnia. With just one step, 16-year-old Alex Jennings's world changes - literally. Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only Professor Marselle can help her... but he's missing. While waiting for him to reappear, Alex attends Akarnae Academy, Medora's boarding school for teenagers with extraordinary gifts. She soon starts to enjoy her bizarre new world and the friends who embrace her as one of there own, but strange things are happening at Akarnae, and Alex can't ignore her fear that something unexpected... something sinister... is looming. An unwilling pawn in a deadly game, Alex's shoulders bear the crushing weight of an entire race's survival. Only she can save the Medorans, but what if doing so prevents her from ever returning home? Will Alex risk her entire world... and maybe even her life - to save Medora?

Akarnae

With just one step, sixteen-year-old Alexandra Jennings’ world changes—literally. Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only a man named Professor Marselle can help her… but he’s missing. While waiting for him to reappear, Alex attends Akarnae Academy, Medora’s boarding school for teenagers with extraordinary gifts. She soon starts to enjoy her bizarre new world and the friends who embrace her as one of their own, but strange things are happening at Akarnae, and Alex can’t ignore her fear that something unexpected… something sinister… is looming. An unwilling pawn in a deadly game, Alex’s shoulders bear the crushing weight of an entire race’s survival. Only she can save the Medorans, but what if doing so prevents her from ever returning home? Will Alex risk her entire world—and maybe even her life—to save Medora?

Hana Thwaites

I read this book for the first time a few years ago and recently decided to relive that childhood nostalgia in honour of the new epilogue being released. While I forgot how childish and cliche it sounded and how the first book was quite plotless, it was a lovely reminder of why I do actually love fantasy

ariah 

Nessa Luna

ayani

Akarnae has absolutely amazing world-building and I love how we are learning about this crazy new world page by page with Alex. The newfound friendships in 
this novel are adorable, well written and relatable. It has a very compelling plot line and many exciting adventures :) !!

Ley Stanton

There was a lot of wasted potential here for me, too many things were left unexplained in the worldbuilding which made the book harder for me to enjoy. I still intend to read the next book in the series because I'm curious about a few things there left unanswered by the end of the book. 
Full review (it's a long one): https://leychaton.wordpress.com/2020/...

i absolutely adore this series and this is an incredible start to it 

jemima

Elizabeth Bentler

This is a great young adult beginner Novel. The world building is great and the Magic system is different.

Kelly Macquire

Josie McQueen

It took me a while to pick up and read this book because it seemed like a cliche but once I started to read it got progressively better and I absolutely loved the characters and their dialogue, all aspects of the book were good and I liked that the book barely focused on romance but I hope that it expands on relationships later on.

2nd Re-read: 4.5/5 
I wanted to pick this book up to recover from a reading slump and it has reminded me why I rated it so highly in the first place. While I wasn't as committed to reading it as I was initially, I still enjoyed the plot and characters. Noni does very well with her character development. Personally, I enjoyed all the nitty-gritty of Alex's school life, that may be just because I am in school and her narration makes even the most bizarre classes sound relatable. I know many reviewers found the book's plot slow and I disagree but can see what they mean. It would be very hard to like this book if you were in it for fast-paced action and mystery solving. A lot of the book is world-building, character development and setting the story up but I really liked that.

Luna

this is the most wholesome book i have ever read. the friendships are so amazing (fingers crossed no one turns out to be a dirty traitor) but there was one huge plot point that they never mentioned again and i’m just like ??? how did you forget about something that big?? but i have a feeling i’m just going to enjoy this series more as it progresses and as i (hopefully) get some answers.

Taylor Roth 

This is the type of book I'd recommend in getting out of a reading slump. I loved the introduction to the story and if I found this book back when I was in middle school I'd be absolutely in love with it. But there are some things that I did notice are very similar if not knock-offs of Harry Potter such as the trope where Alex has to attend a magical school in a world she has no knowledge of, and one of the characters name be Barnold Ronnigan. (I'm saying this 'cause it's similar to Ron's name in Harry Potter). Also the fact that Bear's family is very much like the Weasley's. Other than the Harry Potter similarities I did enjoy this book that brought me out of a reading slump. Can't wait for the next one!

Sally Salinas

This was a lovely story. Alex the main character falls thru a door to another world and has the worst & greatest experiences. Love the cast of characters from the teachers, the school & her friends--Bear, Jordan and D.C. Cant wait to read the next book!

Lily Munro

*Re-read August 2021.

I first read this book during the new year of 2019. I loved it from the first chapter and ended up rereading the entire series three times within the month. 

Two years later, and I still love to read this series. Lynette Noni has fleshed out an entire world from her imagination and incorporated loveable characters. The plotline for this series is also well thought-out, however, in this review I'll focus on the first book.
I like to keep my reviews spoiler free, so if you're deciding whether to read the book, this is for you. Especially if you are age 12+.

Akarnae begins with the main character, Alexandra Jennings, transporting worlds after being sent to a dreary boarding school whilst her parents are away for work. Readers learn from the beginning that Alex has eight months without contact to her family, which allows for the transportation to Medora. Once she reaches Medora, Alex learns that a portion of the humans have the ability to use a certain 'gift'. The gift depends on the person, but Alex learns that she will discover her gift. 
This is basically the plotline, (this bit is hard to explain without spoilers) as a man called Aven begins to try use Alex's gift for himself due to past events. (You'll discover what I mean at the end of the book. It's action-packed, filled with lore and absolutely outstanding to read.)

Alex faces the prospect of new relationships. Noni has influenced my outlook on true friendships and I think that is one of the most important things about this story. There are so many scenes featuring Alex's developing relationships with others that make me keep this book so close to my heart. There are so many beautiful quotes in this book as well - I highly recommend you read the scene that Alex meets Gammy. 

Overall this book has such amazing description and character development, that without the plot would still create a book. Along with the plotline, this book is amazing and I would like to note that this is my favourite series. Ever.

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

3.5-4 stars.
Despite how long it took me to read, I really enjoyed this one. Easy to read, cute friendships, some of the adults were a bit shit, but I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Claudia 

book review 💫 
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Akarnae by Lynette Noni 
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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I adore this book so much! I loved our main character [Alex] and all of our supporting cast! Alex is made of tough stuff [like literally taking everything in stride] and I loved how she never gave up no matter what. I absolutely loved the friendship between Alex, Jordan and Bear; it felt real and their banter had me laughing out loud! It felt like I was apart of the gang 😂. Also, Alex’s little tiny crush on Kaiden is so cute [so fingers crossed that it will be explored more in later books🤞]. Medora and the Akarnae Academy is soooo imaginative and fantastical [seriously a place I would love to visit but probably never attend because some of those teachers are a bit nuts 😬]. Also love that the library had its own personality! This is an extremely character driven book which I’ve loved reading!

Akarnae

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