“The lives of Toronto teens Crystal and Becca Hatcher revolve around helping their mother out at the family’s used bookstore, The Speckled Muse. It’s a relatively uneventful after-school job, until an package arrives addressed to her mother, Julia. Thinking it’s nothing more than run-of-the-mill inventory, Becca opens it and removes the book inside, unwittingly triggering an ancient magic and intertwining their fates with the powers that flow from the mysterious leather-bound book. Two parallel worlds collide and Becca is left in a catatonic state after her spirit is snatched from modern-day Toronto back to the ancient world of Mytica. Crys is guilt-ridden, having witnessed the entire event, and vows to do whatever is necessary to save her… but from what? Nothing has prepared them for what’s in store.
Written in alternating perspectives that shift between modern-day Toronto and the ancient kingdoms of Mytica, Rhodes delivers a rich and suspensful series opener that will leave readers breathless.”
This book was a really clever idea: take an established fictional world and cross it over into our own world. For me, it was even more fun to read because I didn’t know initially that this was the novel’s premise. I just saw the author’s name and thought “Oh cool, new series by someone I like to read!” Finding that it was both a new storyline and a familiar setting was a delight.
I actually liked the modern-day sections a bit more than the ones set in Mytica, although both were good. What drew me to that portion was the secret society in Toronto that has its roots in the fantasy kingdom, because I found myself wanting to know how that began. There’s obviously a lot of backstory that will (hopefully) be revealed in future books, and it seems intriguing enough to keep me hanging on for the answers.
It also seems that the Mytica of this book has changed from the one in the Falling Kingdoms books. There are hints of similarities, familiar names that crop up and artifacts that hearken to the previous books, but Rhodes didn’t let out too much info on that yet. Again, this is something that intrigues me and keeps me wanting to find out more.
This is a neat summer-popcorn-flick of a novel, full of action and peril and mysteries to chew over. I’m going to be keeping an eye out for the next in this series, because I’m eager to see what happens next.
This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
(Description nicked from B&N.com.)