The Captivating Lady Charlotte by Carolyn Miller, 2017

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Lady Charlotte Featherington is destined for great things on the marriage market. After all, as the beautiful daughter of a marquess, she should have her pick of the eligible nobility hen she debuts. She, however, has love at the top of her list of marriageable attributes. And her romantic heart falls hard for one particularly dashing, attentive suitor. Sadly for Charlotte, her noble father intends her betrothed to be someone far more dull.

William Hartwell may be a duke, but he knows he was Charlotte's father's pick, not the young lady's own choice. And the captivating Lady Charlotte does not strike him as a woman who will be wooed by his wealth or title. While she has captured his heart, he has no idea how to win hers in return--and the betrayal and scandal his first wife put him through makes it difficult for him to believe that love can ever be trusted. His only hope is that Charlotte's sense of responsibility will win out over her romantic notions.

Can a widowed duke and a romantically inclined lady negotiate a future and discover love beyond duty? Will they be able to find healing and hope from the legacy of grace? Poignant and charming, this is another beautifully written, clean and wholesome Regency romance from Carolyn Miller.

(310 pages)

First, a word of warning: The Captivating Lady Charlotte is the second book in the Regency Brides: A Legacy of Grace series so there may be some accidental spoilers for its prequel, The Elusive Miss Ellison (my review). There's a fairly strong connection between the two, since Charlotte is the younger cousin of Lavinia Ellison from the first book. Lavinia and her–ahem–personal life actually wind up taking a pretty big role in the story, but I'll try to steer around the biggest spoilers.

I went back to read my review of Miss Ellison after reading Lady Charlotte, and I was reminded of the strengths and weaknesses of the former. It's funny, because I think this second book is directly opposite its prequel–better where Miss Ellison was weak, and weak in areas it was strong. What do I mean? Well, the religion in Miss Ellison was so cheesy and pushy (perhaps because Lavinia's father was a pastor) that I found it almost hard to read; discussions of faith and religious duty in Lady Charlotte, on the other hand, are sparse and focused mainly on a duty to help those who fall through society's cracks (as well as a few mentions among fellow believers of the importance of prayer during hard times). On the other hand, I actually really loved the romance in Miss Ellison–it was entertaining and realistic, if unrealistically enabled by the plot at times, and everything was just really sweet. In Charlotte's case, however, I never really get the vibe that she and William had enough of a connection or a shared passion for anything that would tie them together. William basically decides he needs a new wife and that Charlotte is pretty enough (and, you know, probably has enough substance) to take on the role. She never shows any interest in him until very late in the book, and I honestly feel like she just managed to convince herself that she was in love with the older man so she could comfortably resign herself to the situation dictated by her parents and society.

I know. That's not exactly the most romantic storyline, is it? The whole premise of the book (basically, "Charlotte is eighteen now so she must be married off to the highest bidder!") becomes more sexist the longer I think about it. I don't entirely hold that against Miller, since I'm pretty sure that's just how things were back then and she does try to create realistic loving relationships amidst the arranged marriages, but it still just rubs me the wrong way. As an eighteen-year-old young woman myself, I can't really stomach the way Charlotte's entire life revolves around getting married, loving her future husband, and bearing an heir and a spare for his family. Ick.

I really did enjoy reading The Captivating Lady Charlotte, even if it sounds like I didn't. While I didn't love the main characters quite so much this time, and the plot was a little more murky/rambling than that of Miss Ellison, I actually enjoyed it just as much. I look forward to also enjoying the third book in the series, The Dishonorable Miss DeLancey, when it comes out in a few months.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to participate in a Kregel blog tour.

Dive! by Deborah Hopkinson, 2016

Welcome to the eleventh stop on the Dive! blog tour! My task today is to review Dive!, so let's jump straight into it.

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Dive! World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific tells the incredible story of America's little known "war within a war" -- US submarine warfare during World War II.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US entered World War II in December 1941 with only 44 Naval submarines -- many of them dating from the 1920s. With the Pacific battleship fleet decimated after Pearl Harbor, it was up to the feisty and heroic sailors aboard the US submarines to stop the Japanese invasion across the Pacific.
Using first-person accounts, archival materials, official Naval documents, and photographs, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson brings the voices and exploits of these brave men to life.
(384 pages)

This is a really hard book to review.

I can't analyze the characters, or question the plot, or take note of the writing style. I can't do any of that because this isn't a fictional novel. Everything in Dive! is true, which makes it a thousand times harder for me to critique.

Did I enjoy reading it? Sort of. It is a book about submariners in WWII, you know. So many people died in the war–and the casualty rates for men serving aboard submarines was way higher than for those in any other service. It's really depressing to read about all these men on board the ships, living their strange claustrophobic lives deep under water and fighting to protect the country they loved. About half of the book is actual firsthand quotes from submariners; the tragedy is that the book features accounts from so few men. There were several times when I went "ooh, why don't we have a firsthand account from XYZ's point of view?" But then a chapter or two later Hopkinson would say "on its next patrol, his submarine was sunk and everyone aboard died." That really put a downer on, well, everything.

Dive! was a very good book, though. Amazing, really, from a historical perspective. As I said before, the text is about half made up of direct quotes from men who actually served in the submarines and lived through the events that made history. The other half of the text, then, is Hopkinson's own descriptions of people and events that couldn't be described firsthand. Interspersed throughout the regular narrative are also inserts ranging in length from a single paragraph to two-page entries, discussing everything from the way attack strategies changed after Pearl Harbor to opportunities for African American submariners during the war to a detailed description of the logistics involved in having an ice cream maker installed aboard the USS Trigger. There's also a plethora of black-and-white pictures, which are absolutely breathtaking to look at. The images are both fascinating and horrible, full of grinning captains, relaxing submariners, sinking ships, and slim metal ships. Fascinating, because we get such an intimate look at what life was like for the submariners; horrible, because we find out over the course of the book that oh-so-many of those grinning young men died in the very metal ships in which they were photographed.

The narrative focuses on military tactics, but it also dives (pun intended!) into all the various other ways submarines were used during the war. My favorite side topics were refugees (there's a fascinating chapter about Lucy Wilson, a nurse evacuated from Corregidor) and pets (so many adorable dogs were adopted by the crews of the different ships!).  Scattered throughout the book are tips for researching deeper into specific topics, links to sites and museums connected to submarines, etc. The end of each "part"–a part being one year of the war–there's a handy timeline that lists out all the main events that happened in the year that has just been covered. In the end section there's also a plethora of resources that includes a list of all the submarines lost throughout the war, a "Facts and Figures" sheet, a roster of all the people (and animals) discussed throughout the book, a diagram of a submarine, a list of the most successful submarines, a glossary, extra resource links . . . yikes, my fingers are getting tired just listing these all out! Let's see, almost done: a (very robust) bibliography, about eighteen pages of source notes (like I said, there were a lot of firsthand quotes in this book!), and an index.

Whew. As you can probably tell, this book is designed to be the perfect starting point for studying all things submarine. And as you can probably also tell, it succeeds with flying colors. Dive! is an amazing resource, full of everything I could have ever wanted to know about submarines during WWII and then some. For those who want more, it's also packed full of advice and resources for doing so. In my book, that earns it an extra gold star. This is a serious research book, but it's still completely approachable as a middle grade read–and, in the midst of some pretty horrible stuff, it still managed to be downright hilarious from time to time. All in all, it's an amazing read and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it. If you're interested at all in WWII submarines, then you absolutely need to check it out!

About the Author:

Deborah Hopkinson is as award-winning of picture books, fiction, and nonfiction for young readers. In 2013 she received a Robert F. Sibert Honor and YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award honor for Titanic: Voices from the Disaster.
She has won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text twice, for A Band of Angels and Apples to Oregon. Sky Boys, How They Built the Empire State Building, was a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor awardee. She lives near Portland, Oregon.
The Great Trouble, A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel won the OCTE Oregon Spirit Award and was named a Best Book of 2013 by School Library Journal and an Oregon Book Award finalist.
Visit her on the web at www.deborahhopkinson.com and follow her on Twitter at @deborahopkinson.

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Thanks again to Deborah Hopkinson for appearing! For other stops on the Dive Blog Tour, please check DeborahHopkinson.com.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel so I could participate in the blog tour.

Chasing at the Surface by Sharon Mentyka, 2016

Welcome to the fourth stop on the Chasing at the Surface blog tour! My task today is to review Chasing at the Surface, so let's jump straight into it.

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Sometimes finding your way home takes more than courage. It takes a leap of faith.
After her mother unexpectedly leaves home, twelve-year old Marisa struggles with her feelings of loss and abandonment just as a pod of nineteen orca whales - mothers with their new calves following a run of chum salmon - become trapped in the enclosed inlet near her Northwest home. Marisa's journey to help the whales find their way home brings her to a new understanding of the assaults humans have had on nature, and the complicated meaning of family and home.
228 pages)

I actually wound up loving this book way more than I thought I would.

It's not like I expected to hate Chasing the Surface, of course. If I didn't think it was any good, I wouldn't have agreed to join the blog tour for its release in the first place. But while I was interested in reading Chasing at the Surface (hey, I'll read practically anything you hand me if it has a sea mammal on the cover!), I wasn't sure whether there would be a hippy-ish vibe to the whole "relationship between humans and nature" aspect advertised in the description.

Well, that definitely didn't happen. Chasing at the Surface is a really good book, full of deep storylines about family, relationships, loyalty, and what it means to truly dive beneath the surface of a situation. Many things Marisa (and the reader, for that matter) takes for granted at the beginning of the book wind up being turned on their heads by the end. I was especially surprised by the reason Marisa's mother left, because I hadn't seen that coming at all. In a slightly different vein, I also really enjoyed seeing how Mentyka incorporated Native American culture into the story. I don't know anything about west-coast Native American presence (considering the fact that I've only even been to California for three days in my entire life), but it seems from Chasing at the Surface that they're pretty active in Washington state. It adds a really meaningful dimension when they begin trying to help the whales get out of the inlet–for, as Marisa observes, "The Suquamish people have lived here . . . for thousands of years. . . . If the Tribe is worried enough about the whales to schedule a blessing ceremony, maybe we should all start paying closer attention."

Oh, and speaking of the whales: I really loved reading about them. I know next to nothing about the sea mammals, but they seem truly amazing. Reading about Marisa's close encounters with them makes me pretty jealous, actually. When I went whale-watching, I spent a full half-day huddled up on a boat (in freezing Maine!) and saw nothing more than the edge of a tail flitting out of the water in that entire time. Marisa got to see the orcas swimming, and breaching, and eating, and communicating!

Okay, wait, I just remembered that the whole reason Marisa had the opportunity to get that close in the first place was because the wales were trapped in the inlet. So yeah, that wasn't so great. And it was really despicable, actually, reading about how horribly the tourists took advantage of the whales just so they could satisfy their own curiosity. I can understand wanting to get close to the whales, but not being willing to sacrifice the animals' health in pursuit of that dream.

I sense that if I keep going in this vein I'll wind up on an animal rights rant (how could I not after googling the real-life Penn Cove orca capture Marisa learns about in the book?!), but I'm going to purposefully divert that conversation for another time and focus on talking about Chasing at the Surface itself. I mentioned many of the positives–deep storyline, intriguing themes, a fascinating storyline about trapped orcas–but  I should probably talk briefly about the negatives as well. The only main one I really have has to do with Marisa's mom. I get that she had to go, that she needed to straighten certain things out, but I am definitely not okay with the way she dumped her own husband and daughter to do that. It just about broke Marisa's heart, struggling to cope with her mother's inexplicable abandonment. That wasn't fair. A mother is meant to be there for her children. She doesn't get to just decide she's going to up and leave, that her own secret problems are more important than the emotional wellbeing of her adolescent daughter. There's a certain bond of trust that's been broken between them, and I doubt–no matter what she does next–that it will be restored any.

My issues with Marisa's mom aside, though, I really loved reading Chasing at the Surface. The rest of the characters are all drawn realistically (even the relatively minor ones!), and the plot is very gripping. I was rooting so hard for the orcas to make it out of the inlet, and . . . well, I think you'll have to read it for yourself if you want to know what happens. Suffice it to say, though, that I really enjoyed Chasing at the Surface. I hope you will, too!

About the Author:
Sharon Mentyka is a children's writer and teacher with an MFA from the Whidbey Writers Workshop. Her stories and essays for both children and adults have appeared in numerous literary magazines. "B in the World," an illustrated chapter book for children ages four to seven about a gender nonconforming child, was published in 2014. "Chasing at the Surface," her debut novel for middle grade readers, was inspired by an actual event that occurred in Dyes Inlet, Washington. SharonMentyka.com




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Thanks again to Sharon Mentyka for appearing! For other stops on the Chasing Blog Tour, please check SharonMentyka.com.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the author so I could participate in this blog tour.

Eden's Escape Blog Tour (+ Giveaway!)

Edit 10/4/16: the giveaway is over and I have emailed the winner.

All right, guys, it's time for my blog tour post for Eden's Escape! I've got several goodies for you today: an excerpt from the book, a Top Ten list by M. Tara Crowl herself, a giveaway for signed copies of both Eden of the Lamp books, and (slightly less exciting, I know) my own review of Eden's Escape. Read on for the first three items I just mentioned; to read my review, click here (and here for my review of Eden's Wish). Before we get going, though, let's learn about the books themselves:

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on Goodreads

All twelve years of Eden's life have been spent in an antique oil lamp. She lives like a princess inside her tiny, luxurious home; but to Eden, the lamp is nothing but a prison. She hates being a genie. All she wants, more than anything, is freedom.

When Eden finds a gateway to Earth within the lamp, she takes her chance and enters the world she loves. And this time, she won't be sent back after three wishes.

Posing as the new kid at a California middle school, Eden revels in all of Earth's pleasures-- but quickly learns that this world isn't as perfect as she always thought it was. Eden soon finds herself in the middle of a centuries-old conflict between powerful immortals. A ruthless organization run by a former genie will stop at nothing to acquire the lamp and its power-- even hurt Tyler and Sasha, the new mortal friends who have given Eden a home. To save her friends and protect the lamp's magic, Eden must decide once and for all where she belongs.

(272 pages)

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on Goodreads 

Eden's new life on earth begins in New York City under the guidance of her new guardian: Pepper, a petite, bubbly genie alum who's also a Broadway actress. Before she has a chance to settle in, though, Eden is whisked away for a granting-- only to find herself trapped in a laboratory. David Brightly, owner of the world's leading tech company, cares more about tapping into the lamp's power than making a wish and starts performing tests on Eden. With Brightly's plasma shield around the lamp, Eden has no way home. Left without a choice, she escapes the lab and goes on the run. After her daring exit, Eden finds herself on the streets of Paris-- home to Electra's headquarters. Left in a strange city with a price on her head (courtesy of scheming Brightly), Eden has to keep her wits about her. She dons a chic disguise and flits around Paris incognito, investigating Brightly Tech. Assisted by Pepper and her old adversary Bola, as well as some new friends, Eden embarks on a quest to retrieve the lamp and protect the secrets of the genie legacy.

(320 pages)

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About the Author:

M. Tara Crowl grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She studied Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, then received an MA in Creative Writing at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She lives in New York City.

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Okay, now here's an excerpt from Eden's Escape itself. It's from Chapter 12; Eden's friend Melodie is helping her try to avoid Brightly by going incognito.

“Wow,” Eden said. “You do love clothes." 

“I told you.” Melodie started to sift through the racks. “Now, what we’ve got to do is find something that looks like the opposite of anything you’d ever wear." 

“Isn’t the point for me to go unnoticed?” In Eden’s line of sight were an orange jumpsuit that looked like a prison uniform, a shiny green skirt like a mermaid’s tail, and a feathered Native American headdress. “I don’t think I’d blend in wearing most of this stuff." 

“We’ll put you in something subtle.” 

Taking it all in, Eden wondered where exactly Melodie planned to find that. 

Though Melodie’s wardrobe seemed chaotically disorganized from an outsider’s perspective, she seemed to know precisely where everything was. After careful consideration, she pulled out a white collared shirt, a navy blazer, a pleated green-and- navy skirt, shiny black shoes, and a navy beret to top it all off. Eden put all of it on as instructed. 

“See?” Melodie said delightedly. “You’re just a regular student in Paris!”

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And now it's time for my personal favorite part of this tour: the Top Ten list by M. Tara Crowl herself!

M. Tara Crowl

My top ten places to write and/or be inspired in NYC

So much has been written, sung, and said about New York. One person can never experience everything it has to offer, and no two people will experience it in the same way. And that’s one of the things I love most about it. It’s a city so vast that you’ll never tackle it all, but you can still make it feel like your own.

August 30 marked my five-year anniversary of living in NYC. I’ve been elated, frustrated, heartbroken, and rejuvenated in this city. When I set out to write my new novel, Eden’s Escape, I knew there was nowhere else in the world that I’d want to be the first home on Earth for my protagonist, a twelve-year-old genie named Eden.

Eden has the rare privilege of being shown around the city by someone who’s lived there for hundreds of years: her new guardian, a genie alum named Pepper. In Eden’s Escape, they explore some of these locations together. Others, she’ll have to discover later. But here they are: my top ten places in NYC to write and/or be inspired.

1.     Central Park. It’s world-famous, and for good reason. I live downtown, but I try to take a trip up here at least once a season. It’s beautiful any time of year, but it’s downright magical in the snow.

2.     New York Public Library. This big, gorgeous library is right in the center of town, at Fifth Avenue and 42^nd Street. In a city where everything aims to wow, it stands out as majestic and timeless.

3.     MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art). NYC is known for its many museums, but this is probably my favorite. Thought-provoking art, and a beautiful courtyard to sit and ponder it.

4.     Top of the Empire State Building. When Eden arrives in New York City, she’s instructed to go here to meet her new guardian. When she overlooks the city from the top, she feels like its queen. When I’m here, that’s how I feel too.

5.     The Village Vanguard. This iconic West Village jazz club opened in 1935. Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and John Coltrane have played here, along with so many other jazz greats. You go downstairs, sit at a table, and soak in the music—no talking or phones allowed. When you’re here, it could be 2016 or 1967. The one thing you’re sure of is that you’re in New York—and when you’re here, that’s all that matters.

6.     Raoul’s. Another classic NYC establishment that transports me to another era. This Soho bistro opened in 1975. It has a colorful history and delicious food.

7.     Books of Wonder. A mecca of children’s books! Not only is this store chock full of children’s, MG, and YA treasures; its owners, huge supporters and champions of authors, host tons of amazing events. (I met Ann M. Martin here!)

8.     Nitehawk Cinema. I love going to the movies, and this is my favorite theater. Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it’s small and hospitable, with comfy seats, indie movies, and table service. During the movie, you write your order on a slip of paper with a little pencil, and—voila!—a server appears with your order. For me, it doesn’t get much better.

9.     Two Hands Restaurant & Bar. I’m biased on this one. My husband owns this restaurant, and my “day job” is as the office manager. But the food and coffee(!) are sublime, and the bright, airy interior and friendly staff make it a dreamy place to think and write.

10.  My living room. Ideas flow when I wander the city, but when it’s time to get real writing done, I have to hole up in silence and get to work. There’s nowhere I’m more productive than in my apartment, by myself. Books don’t write themselves!

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I've only visited New York once, but now I'm itching to go back and explore the places on M. Tara Crowl's list–they all sound amazing. Especially Books of Wonder, which honestly sounds like my dream bookstore.

Anyway, it's time to move on to the final part of today's post. I'm sure many of you avid fans of the Eden of the Lamp series are simply dying to get your hands on signed copies of both books. If so, you're in luck, because that's what I get to give away today! Enter in the Rafflecopter form below (US and Canada only), and once the giveaway's over at the end of the month I'll announce the winner on here and send their contact info to M. Tara Crowl. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And that's all I have for today. Have you read either Eden of the Lamp book? If you have, share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Disclaimer: I received complimentary copies of both books so I could participate in this blog tour; I'm also being entered into a $50 giftcard giveaway as a thank you for posting this tour post in the month of September.

Eden's Escape by M. Tara Crowl, 2016 (+ Giveaway!)

This is my review of the second Eden of the Lamp book. Don't read on unless you've read Eden's Wish (my review–which includes a giveaway for both books).

Click to view
on Goodreads 

Eden's new life on earth begins in New York City under the guidance of her new guardian: Pepper, a petite, bubbly genie alum who's also a Broadway actress. Before she has a chance to settle in, though, Eden is whisked away for a granting--only to find herself trapped in a laboratory. David Brightly, owner of the world's leading tech company, cares more about tapping into the lamp's power than making a wish and starts performing tests on Eden. With Brightly's plasma shield around the lamp, Eden has no way home. Left without a choice, she escapes the lab and goes on the run. After her daring exit, Eden finds herself on the streets of Paris--home to Electra's headquarters. Left in a strange city with a price on her head (courtesy of scheming Brightly), Eden has to keep her wits about her. She dons a chic disguise and flits around Paris incognito, investigating Brightly Tech. Assisted by Pepper and her old adversary Bola, as well as some new friends, Eden embarks on a quest to retrieve the lamp and protect the secrets of the genie legacy.

(320 pages)

Okay, well it's time for my review of Eden's Escape. It just came out earlier this month, and I got copies of both books from the author so I could participate in the blog tour. I'm posting my tour stop with all its goodies today too, so click here to check it out–I've got an excerpt from Eden's Escape on there, plus an exclusive Top Ten list written by Ms. Crowl herself just for Read Till Dawn.

Now for the review itself. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect after the ending of Eden's Wish with the announcement that Eden would be going to live on earth. I thought Eden would probably be struggling to fit in, going to school, making friends, doing all the things she did in the first book but on a much grander scale. Instead, Eden spends most of the book in hiding after a granting goes horribly wrong: a scientist named David Brightly has tracked her lamp down and rubbed it, for the express purpose of performing experiments on Edem until he can figure out how to get unlimited wishes. She makes a desperate escape, but has to leave the lamp behind; the rest of the book covers Eden's attempts to avoid being found by Brightly (a feat made a thousand times harder by the fact that his company made all the phones, and he's not at all shy about tapping phones to get the information he needs), find allies, get the lamp back, and generally set everything to rights. It seems like a pretty hopeless mess at some points, and it was interesting to watch the magic of the lamp collide with all the advantages of cutting-edge technology.

It was also fun watching Eden try to interact with modern technology for the very first time. Xavier completely neglected to teach her anything about it, because he thought it was a waste of time, so she's stuck figuring things out on her own. One of my favorite scenes is when she sits down at a computer to get on the internet. She stares at the screen for a minute, clicks the Word icon on the bottom because she thinks the "w" stands for "web," and then proceeds to type in what she needs and wait for the results to pop up. It was funny, and really realistic! It may have been slightly less realistic to see how quickly she caught on to the internet after that–I've spent some solid time teaching my grandmother how to navigate the web, and it definitely wasn't as intuitive for her. I guess being a genie makes Eden better at figuring things out than my human grandmother, though. That's one of the perks of being, you know, a magical immortal being with supernatural powers.

I don't want to talk too much about the story itself, for fear of spoilers. I would like to just touch on the interpersonal relationships, though, because I think they're both the main weakness and the greatest strength of Eden's Escape.

My only real complaint is Eden's relationship with Pepper. Now, don't get me wrong: I love Pepper. She seems like a fascinating character, and a very kind one. I would happily spend a whole book just learning about her backstory or watching her move forward in the present. My trouble, though, is that she and Eden develop a strong bond too quickly. They're together in New York for just two weeks, yet when they're separated and then reunited both act as though they were in a legitimate mother-daughter relationship. I love that Eden adores Pepper–because I do, too–but I was just a little turned off by the way she saw her as a mother figure so soon after leaving Xavier and Goldie (the couple who actually raised her, and who she recognized as her true family in Eden's Wish). You'd think there'd be a little more homesickness for her masters, but Eden barely thinks of them throughout the novel except in relation to her attempts to rescue the lamp.

The relationships are also a huge strength to the book, though, simply because they're so compelling. Whether it's Eden's relationships with the main characters from Eden's Wish, or with her new friend Melodie, or even with some of the members of Electra, there's always an interesting dynamic to watch. This goes to the character-building, too: Crowl builds dynamic characters, so that–for the most part, anyway–there are no stock characters. This is a huge plus, and it really makes the entire novel for me.

Overall, I'd say that Eden's Escape is a very strong MG fantasy novel (that's perhaps not quite as strong as its prequel). I really enjoyed reading both books, and I look forward to finding out whether there will be a third installment in the series. There's certainly room for one!

And now it's time for the giveaway. Enter below in the Rafflecopter form (the same one that's on the main blog tour post). Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I received complimentary copies of both Eden of the Lamp books so I could participate in the blog tour for Eden's Escape. I'm also being entered into a random $50 giftcard giveaway for posting my review and the blog tour stop during the month of September.