Morgan always thought the idea of her floating city of Internment falling from the sky was a metaphor for catastrophic disaster. Only recently has she discovered that it may becoming a reality. On the ground a war over resources is being fought between Havalais and Dastor. King Ingram has left his kingdom of Havalais for Internment taking the princess Celeste with him. Morgan and her friends must discover what has happened, along the way they will uncover, a secret which will change the fates of all the kingdoms...

Broken Crowns (2016. 262 pages) is the last in the Internment trilogy of dystopian fantasy books written by Lauren Destefano.

I have to admit to not having read the first two books, but that didn’t seem to be a big problem as Destefano fills in a lot of the gaps, so while it doesn’t quite work as a stand-alone novel, it is still accessible.

I’m guessing, from the writing style and the pretty uncomplex structure of the book, that this is probably aimed at ten to fourteen year olds.

The story it told from Morgan’s perspective, who is a young teenager originally from the floating city. When the third book opens the war between Havalais and Dastor is getting closer to them every day and Morgan and her friends are desperate to know what has happened to Celeste. To do this they have to get back up to Internment.

I’m guessing that much of this novel was about resolving issues set up in the first two books as the pace of the book was very slow and sad to say not particularly original. There is the requisite love triangle which gets resolved, of course the heroine saves the day, but at a great cost and everything quickly returns to normal.

I’m not really griping as this is certainly not aimed at my age group and I suspect not my gender. However that should not stop a young adult author from offering up something more original.

I can only see readers, who have read the first two books and invested some emotional time, willing to invest in the third book.

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Charles Packer