Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite

Laela and the Moonline by Lisa Perskie Rodriguez is a transformative coming-of-age adventure of a young girl against a world of inequality. The story welcomes you to the world of Aerizon, a place that is home to four united tribes. Laela is a Treedle who is about to transition from girlhood to womanhood. This change represents a beginning and an end, a force of nature over which she won’t have any control as the Pyuva clan to which she belongs are specific with gender roles. But free-spirited Laela doesn’t want to be constrained by such roles as she is passionate about venturing out and exploring. Complicating matters are her feelings for Vito, a Pyuva classmate, whom she sees courting another girl. She goes on a journey after her friends and neighbors want her to settle down with Leon. She feels that the business of finding a match is showing her the wrong path. But outside Aerizon lies the dangerous hill tribe of the Mergons.

Lisa Perskie Rodriguez gives you a lucid narrative where both characters and the fantastic world they inhabit come alive. Laela is no old-school cookie-cutter heroine. She has a spark that pushes her to create her own destiny—something that she finds outside her tribe and away from its stringent conformity to age-old practices. While Laela is armed with being reared in philosophical wisdom and closeness to nature, she also has the heart of an adventurer like a huge bonfire that cannot be extinguished. Rodriguez is a master of world-building. Anyone can see the level of meticulousness that went through the details of the history of the Four Tribes, their culture, and their ancestry. All of the elements of an engaging YA fantasy fall right into place in this story. The dialogues are meaty and there is so much energy in its young protagonist as well as her interactions with those around her, especially Prince Mateo. Indeed, Laela and the Moonline is a must-read.