If you’re looking for a good stocking stuffer or want to encourage your teen to read over the holiday break, grab a copy of the debut novel The Cobalt Domain from new author, Darla Roselle. The first in a trilogy series, Darla has created a compelling social dimension where people are forced to use their innate aptitudes and given skills to survive as they live in and journey through the Cobalt Domain.
The main character, Casey Campbell, is a feisty inquisitive 18 year-old, and teenagers reading the book will easily relate to her emotions. The story begins when Casey sneaks out of the house after a disagreement with her parents. She comes across a door she thought was familiar until she suddenly finds herself in an unknown forest and nothing but a trail to give her guidance. She comes upon a cabin and that is when her real adventure begins. Casey is told she has crossed into another dimension, a place where no one wants to stay, but very few have figured out how to leave. She is instructed to deliver a package to someone she doesn’t know, travel on trails she has never been and meet people and creatures with unworldly powers she is instructed never to trust. Casey reluctantly sets out on the journey armed only with a magical satchel and a notebook filled with information that she manages to decipher in bits and pieces along the way.
Readers are propelled into a fast-paced journey through the Cobalt Domain. Casey finds love and tests her will and curious nature as she makes her way through the various “Darus” of the domain. Not only will teens enjoy being alongside Casey through her journey, parents will appreciate the lessons learned. Life in the domain can raise interesting points and discussion about our own world: authoritarian government and how we each contribute to society. Life in the domain challenges the characters’ decision-making process and Casey discovers qualities about herself she didn’t even realize she had. As readers, we also learn that getting to the right destination or decision takes patience and trust, and that we often need to be resourceful, look into our own selves to adapt to a situation in order to succeed.
The strength of the book comes in the author’s convincing details of the world she has created and how she successfully weaves the large number of characters together in unexpected ways–and that’s what leaves us immediately wanting more with the cliffhanger at the end of the book.
The next installment, The Cobalt Mine, is scheduled to come out in March 2015.
In the meantime, The Cobalt Domain can be purchased from Amazon.com (available in paperback and Kindle) and wherever books are sold.
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