Review: combines mystery and adventure
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 21, 2013
An engaging and imaginative story that captured my interest immediately, the tale combines mystery and adventure as a young girl journeys unexpectedly to another dimension in a relentless search for her younger brother.  Fast paced, this novel pulsates with eerie, gothic overtones that kept me greedily eating up the pages to find out what calamity would next befall the spunky Sophina and her small party of would-be rescuers.I felt a profound empathy, also, for Sophina's mother; her pain became mine as she searched during the horrific, unnatural storm for her missing children. Traipsing through the mud, drenched by the unrelenting rain, and barely escaping several harrowing close shaves from  flying debris and falling trees;  she struggles to maintain her sanity in this dire emergency.If I have a gripe, and it's relatively minor, it is with the constant and consistent formality when addressing or speaking of others that is prevalent throughout. Certainly, a twelve-year-old girl would be expected to be respectful of her teachers and other elders; however, I expect shared adversity would cause most relationships to become closer and those sharing the experience would naturally address each other with less formality. The characters depend on each other in order to survive, but only rarely did the social boundaries of propriety and good manners get breached.This novel sent my imagination gallivanting into overdrive.  It is a wholesome book that will appeal to readers regardless of age.  The ending was satisfying, but there are still plenty of unresolved issues to be explored in the following installments.This book was given to me by the author in exchange for my honest review.Reviewed by Laurie-J