Starts out well but it seems about 2/3 of the way through the book the author must have gotten anxious that the book was getting too long, so he had the main character do a quick 180 degree reversal (plot holes be damned) and slapped together a quick ending which frankly doesn't do much to encourage me to read the sequel. ( )

http://keriansthoughts.blogspot.com/2... ( )

Solid fantasy ( )

a good book which gets started into the next 2 books. an amazing plot, characters, and overview. it may be a little boring in the beginning but an un-believable ending and books ahead of it. it all comes together in the end..... ( )

Alexa had me pinned by the collar until she returned to Bridewell after her foray into the forest. At this point, she was well-armed with crucial information, information she was instructed to tell no one. And how could she? The story she would have to tell in order to relay this information was too fantastical for adults to believe.

But she told them anyway and they believed her.

I suppose this may seem to some as a bonus, but I was horribly disappointed. I was ready to fight with Alexa, to follow her on her journey to save Bridewell with her trusty librarian sidekick and a chattering squirrel. Ah well.

Crumbling plot and character aside, Carmen knows his language and uses it fully. He relies on verbs to pop his writing instead of weighing the sentence down with unnecessary modifiers. Also, he does not write down to children. Thank you, Mr. Carmen.

Oh, and the book may look exquisitely bound, but it's just a bunch of faux deckle edged pages pasted to a hardcover. Disappointing.

Rating: 1 star for excellent writing, even if it couldn't keep the story afloat. Half a star for Alexa's HQ being the library. Half a star because I'm a sucker for talking squirrels. ( )