Carla Reighard MG & YA Fantasy Author

Book Review – The Rivenlea Sphere Series

by | May 15, 2026 | Books & Entertainment | 0 comments

The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine

If you like…

  1. Book worlds gone haywire
  2. Portal fantasy time travel
  3. Sassy banter
  4. Cute magical creatures (Frank is the best.)
  5. References to other classic stories

Then you’ll like The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine.

The imagination in this book is kindred spirits to the one used in The Aerowyn Tales. It has it’s own unique plot even while it visits familar stories such as The Wizard of Oz.

In this book, Oz has become a dystopian mess. The reader gets to discover what caused the mess in Oz and also in all the other stories. You’ll meet a ful cast of Rivenlea characters and Emlyn DuLaine, a lover of books, who may be the solution or problem to everything.

Emlyn, a girl from Earth’s sphere is sucked into Rivenlea. She discovers all the things she wrote about in her stories are in Rivenlea. While Emlyn adapts to her new situation, she seems too caught up in YA trope detection. She treats Laramie Shayle unfairly to avoid imitating negative tropes she hates in young adult novels, but she is attracted to him.

At first the villain isn’t obvious. The reader is led to believe the only problem to solve is the spheres’ upheavals. The next book in the duology corrects that assumption.

The Restitching of Camille DuLaine

In book two, the excitement never ends. The story spheres Rivenlea is supposed to control and keep in order have run amok even more.
Robin Hood is the villain. Dorothy Gale is the dystopian warrior. Alice is a greedy CEO of a marmalade empire in Wonderland. The knights of the round-table are forced to fight Jabberwocks to the death as they multiple and cross over from Wonderland. King Arthur, Zeus, and Mr. Darcy fight for Elizabeth’s affection

Hold on to the wild ride!

It’s discovered that Emlyn’s actions can break or fix the mess. Is she a girl, a dragon, or something else?
Sometimes this story gives a reader whiplash with all the jumping through famous fictional worlds. The characters dodge danger and dash quickly between book spheres so quickly the reader can’t easily take in the setting before falling into a new one.
Laramie and Frank, the adorable wyvern are separated from their Rivenlea friends. The friends race to reunite by jumping through story portals that have been bridged together in error.
When the villain and his backstory is revealed, the solution to the problem gradually comes to light. To fix all the messes will cost some or many a high price. Emlyn is the key to it all. Will she do the right thing?

 

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