e-ARC, 400 pages
Release Date: January 20, 2015Published by: AladdinStory Thieves, #1Source: EdelweissFor fans of: Adventure, Middle Grade, Sparkly Covers, FantasyLife is boring when you live in the real world, instead of starring in your own book series. Owen knows that better than anyone, what with the real world’s homework and chores.
But everything changes the day Owen sees the impossible happen—his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the library. It turns out Bethany’s half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character.
Bethany can’t let anyone else learn her secret, so Owen makes her a deal: All she has to do is take him into a book in Owen’s favorite Kiel Gnomenfoot series, and he’ll never say a word. Besides, visiting the book might help Bethany find her father…
…Or it might just destroy the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, reveal Bethany’s secret to the entire world, and force Owen to live out Kiel Gnomenfoot’s final (very final) adventure.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I read this synopsis I was like “YESSSSSS” an MG that sounds amazing! I just knew this was something that would spark my interest and have me immersed in this book until the end. But unfortunately it didn’t do that.
Bethany can jump in and out of storybooks. One day her classmate sees that she can do this and basically blackmails her into letting him tag along. She lets him go and everything goes awry. This is exactly what Bethany was worried about!
The premise was great. But the characters were annoying. I had to remind myself that this was an MG story, but even that didn’t help. One of them was very grown up and knew the consequences of her gift, but the other one didn’t care. He was getting her into trouble and all kinds of things. But the reason I wasn’t a fan, was because it wasn’t even funny. I like when characters do things like this when they are funny, not when they’re just causing trouble for no reason.
Adding on to that, I wasn’t a fan of the actual story they “hopped” into. It was very weird and all over the place. I think they were going for a Harry Potter angle, but adding in the robots and Science vs Magic kind of angle was just like “Wait, what?” I just think maybe they could have went another route.
I think I may be analyzing this as a YA novel and not an MG, but this one just wasn’t for me. I still want to try and read more from this author, maybe from this series as well. Just because this one book wasn’t for me, I will not give up on him or the series completely!
Bethany can jump in and out of storybooks. One day her classmate sees that she can do this and basically blackmails her into letting him tag along. She lets him go and everything goes awry. This is exactly what Bethany was worried about!
The premise was great. But the characters were annoying. I had to remind myself that this was an MG story, but even that didn’t help. One of them was very grown up and knew the consequences of her gift, but the other one didn’t care. He was getting her into trouble and all kinds of things. But the reason I wasn’t a fan, was because it wasn’t even funny. I like when characters do things like this when they are funny, not when they’re just causing trouble for no reason.
Adding on to that, I wasn’t a fan of the actual story they “hopped” into. It was very weird and all over the place. I think they were going for a Harry Potter angle, but adding in the robots and Science vs Magic kind of angle was just like “Wait, what?” I just think maybe they could have went another route.
I think I may be analyzing this as a YA novel and not an MG, but this one just wasn’t for me. I still want to try and read more from this author, maybe from this series as well. Just because this one book wasn’t for me, I will not give up on him or the series completely!
Overall, I give this