Maverick's Endeavors: Journey to the Alumia, Book One by Christine Finch and Janay McTigue is a remarkable young adult fantasy novel about a young boy sent on a dangerous mission. Maverick is sixteen and not yet a warrior. When his father sends him to Deep Haven Village to collect medicine to cure his sick grandfather, he fails. Maverick gets caught and blamed for destroying the Alumia Tree, which provides the medicine that cures any illness and disease for both races: the Bubbalyon and the Feroarian. Now that the Feroarian King Treant has Maverick prisoner, he forces him to venture to the Forbidden Mountains to find another Alumia, or he will face execution and his tribe another war. Thus, Maverick, his father, Dran, Vonya, a highly respected warrior, and two soldiers embark on the riskiest quest of their lives.

Maverick's Endeavors: Journey to the Alumia by Christine Finch and Janay McTigue highly impressed me. I loved it so much that I couldn't stop reading until I finished it. It's quite seductive, gorgeously written, and a memorable page-turner. The plot managed to seduce me with its thrilling confrontations, complex characters, never-ending action, and superb world-building. This novel is filled with plenty of action, intrigue, and conflicted characters that face many difficult challenges. This book will definitely inspire young readers to build the courage to follow their dreams and to think for themselves. I would like to recommend this thrilling young adult fantasy novel to teenagers as they will enjoy it and relate to the protagonist, Maverick.

Maverick's Endeavors is the first novel in the Journey to the Alumia series by authors Christine Finch and Janay McTigue. Maverick is a 16-year-old young man who hasn’t set foot outside Merrowa Kingdom. While most boys his age are warriors, his father has kept him away from any quests. However, that changed when his grandfather fell ill, and his father decided to send Maverick to retrieve leaves from the sacred Alumia tree. The only issue: the tree is deep within enemy territory, and Maverick has to be extra cautious. However, Maverick is caught, and the furious King Treant has just the perfect punishment for Maverick. All he needs to do is get to the Forbidden Mountains and fetch some more Alumia leaves. Maverick is joined by his father and three other people from the Deep Haven Woods to find that tree and hope to make it out alive.

I love Maverick, and I love Vonya. They are the perfect contrast to each other and complement each other well. Maverick's Endeavors opens with a bang, and readers experience the intensity of the action from the very first chapter. Poor Maverick becomes a pawn between two kings, but he deals with the situation very well. I didn’t really like Dran, but I loved Shellie’s curiosity. Vonya is a feisty character with a lot of rage and aggression in her bones. She understands what is right and what isn’t, but her hands are tied. Maverick, on the other hand, knows the situation is tough, but he utilizes it to prove his worth to his warrior father. The world-building is fantastic, the concept of the Alumia tree is fascinating, and authors Christine Finch and Janay McTigue did a great job of executing it perfectly. The mystery behind the light and the cliffhanger ending is enough to make me wait for the next novel!