Short and Sweet:
I really loved the world of this story, but the action fell kind of flat by the end.
To Elaborate...
The monks and unicorns have an ongoing battle over the special golden apples. After countless causalities, they are at a standoff, with the monks trying to find heroes to battle the unicorns. When young future duke, James, is sent to the abbey, he thinks he may just have a solution.

For the first part of this book, I was slowly falling in love. I loved the unique premise, the fairy-tale esque writing, and the way the world sucked you in. Plus, the illustrations are incredibly pretty. However, the story had moments where it kind of dragged. James doesn't actually come in until a good way into the story. Then after he does and he gets sent to the abbey, it felt like the action kept building to something awesome, and then it just fizzled out. It made it feel kind of flat when it started out so well.

I think what I wanted most from this book was more details about the characters. James's sister was really awesome, but we didn't learn much about her. Even with the unicorns, there were hints of an interesting history there, but most of the history with them was focused on their past with the monks.

Overall, I still really enjoyed reading this. I've been wanting to read a Jane Yolen book for a long time, and I will definitely be reading more of her. This one just wasn't a favorite.

* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from BookLook Bloggers*

Originally posted at I Heart YA Fiction: http://iheartyafiction.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-plague-of-unicorns-by-jane-yolen.html