Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure

 Fireborn by Aisling Fowler 

This had action, adventure, betrayal, and friendship. The twists were shocking. The growth was earned. I really enjoyed this book. Children show up at the Hunting Lodge for a variety of reasons, but when they get there they give up their names and their history and dedicate themselves to the cause of protection. They get numbers and are put through rigorous training so that they may one day become Hunters themselves. Well, nobody likes Twelve; she's weird and an outcast. Nobody, that is but Seven, who is undersized and not very good at any of the drills. Twelve and Five get into another altercation which gets them sent to the dungeons right before goblins attack and Seven is kidnapped. Twelve decides she is going to rescue her since the Hunters won't and the Guardian, a huge stone dog, refuses. Except, the Guardian, aka Dog, does end up showing up and they team up. They are followed by Five and Six and the four of them go on a quest to find Seven. They encounter cavedwellers that bite Five; their bit is poison and Five is in a bad way until they save a creature from a giant spiderweb. That creature has way more magic than their beast book says and they save Five then take them to a magic tree that sends them back to Seven. Well, that ends up being back to the Lodge because the goblins have taken over, but they don't realize that right away. Twelve gets taken to the dungeon, again, and she thinks she's getting rescued by the weapons master but it turns out Victory (weapon's master) has been working with the goblins this whole time! Twelve and crew manage to rescue the other Hunters and they put up a good fight, but not good enough, until the fire sprites show up and ask Twelve why she's not using her powers. Turns out Twelve is a fire elemental; this was hinted at throughout the book and if you saw the foreshadowing then you already knew. So Twelve learns how to harness her fire and attacks the goblins and saves the day, but Victory gets away. They are saved. The Hunters say that Five, Six, and Twelve are the youngest to have ever become full Hunters, so they get names, but they still have to go to classes because they still have lots to learn. Twelve picks Phoenix, as suggested by Seven, because of her fire powers. Other things that happened during the story: Five has a crush on Six, but it's not reciprocates; Six and Seven are siblings but they had to pretend not to know each other because of the whole give up your past thing; Seven can see the future. This was a good adventure story that I would recommend to my nephew and niece. I will read the next book in the series.