Water Falling, the third book in H.A. Pruitt’s Anelthalien series, ups the stakes as the four teens continue their journey to find and destroy the evil throne.

First off, I must say that while I might’ve described the first two books as suitable for middle-grade, this third book takes a step more firmly into young adult territory, as the dangers become a little more real, and much more serious. One character is the victim of an attempted sexual assault and another is beaten; Pruitt isn’t graphic and doesn’t linger on the descriptions of these events, but they may be triggering to some readers.

Aside from that, the dynamics continue much the same in this next installment of the Anelthalien series, with the four teens understanding a little better the importance of working together and listening for the makers’ instructions, but still struggling with actually doing so. I do enjoy the characters in this series; they’re written pretty realistically, so they’re easy to love even when you want to give them a good shake.

Tad has the most compelling character arc thus far, and while his rebellious nature still makes him a little prickly with the group sometimes, Pruitt makes it clear he is taking his role as their protector more and more seriously. He’s trying very hard to do the right thing, though he sometimes struggles to communicate what he thinks that means, especially when the others aren’t as receptive. And now I’m interested to see where she takes Andrew’s arc in the coming books, as we finally got just a hint of his struggle between pure logic and blind faith in this one.