I received a digital copy of this middle grade fantasy novel from the author through Pump Up Your Book.
BLURB: It’s New Year’s Eve in Graysland, but when the final second fails to come Rupert Starbright finds his entire town frozen in time. Rupert and his school crush Rainn Evertree must travel to the Land of Annum to retrieve the stolen second from the nasty and evil Epoch. They will explore a wild, imaginative, and musical world where all the characters of the Zodiac join Rainn in helping Rupert in his most colorful and challenging adventure yet!
COVER: I love the cover art for this novel. It is so fun and colorful. I totally understand what genre I am reading by just looking at it, which always makes me happy because I want the cover to match the genre.
FIRST CHAPTER: Rupert is with his family and the entire town as they wait for the giant metal bellberry leaf to drop. Then everything stopped.
KEEP READING: I am definitely intrigued by this imaginative first chapter. From the very beginning, DiCerto constructs his characters’ world. Now, this is the fourth book in the series, so readers of previous novels will be familiar with Graysland, but for a first time reader, he used descriptions to paint a nice picture.
My only niggle is that I had no idea what the main character looked like or what he was. For all the descriptions, there was none of Rupert. Even though Rupert spoke of what Rainn looked like, I could only assume she was human, which doesn’t match the cover. This didn’t take much away from everything wonderful about the story, and I would definitely continue reading thanks to that neat cliffhanger ending to chapter 1, but I kept waiting to see if I would learn who or what Rupert is.
- Publisher : Zumaya Thresholds (August 16, 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 306 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1612710999
- ISBN-13 : 978-1612710990
Purchase your copy from Amazon!
This First Chapter Review contains my honest opinions, which I was not compensated for in any way.
Visit the author’s website at www.ruperstarbright.com or connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.
The Children's and Teens' Book Connection 