A review by yapha
The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson

4.0

Lina is an apprentice to the archivists of Ortana. The archivists live in a series of tunnels and chambers in the mountain strongholds of Solace and analyze the items that fall from other worlds into the meteor fields. She is an outsider among the apprentices, preferring to spend her time working on secret projects in an abandoned workshop that she discovered or crawling through forgotten tunnels to learn what she can. The archivists are staying out of the Iron War, not siding with either the Merrow Kingdom or the Dragonfly Territories. They have taken in a huge influx of refugees from both sides. In her wanderings, Lina learns that one of the refugees is not who he seems. To gain his trust, she shares her secrets and the two begin a friendship that could ultimately change the course of the war. Though this takes place in the same world as [b:The Mark of the Dragonfly|18077836|The Mark of the Dragonfly|Jaleigh Johnson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381287167s/18077836.jpg|25384237], it is not necessary to have read it first. It was a bit slow at the beginning, but the action-packed ending makes up for it. Recommended for grades 4 & up.