Review-Keeper of the Lost Cities

I'm pretty sure I first stumbled upon Shannon when she was still writing her novels, and they had yet to be sold, so when they were I was so happy for her.  Her first novel, this one, is a middle grade novel but because I love to support authors (and come on, the book sounded good anyways) I decided that I had to read it.  For some reason it took me FOREVER to get to this one, but now that I've finished I am SO glad I decided to read it.  You know that feeling when you finish a really good book and you realize you have to wait about a year to read the next one?  I finished Keeper and I immediately had that feeling.  Now, when I read a book something I generally enjoy reading about is romance (and that may be because I have no romantic aspects to my life at all) but seeing as this is a middle grade book the only real romance you get is a few butterflies in character's tummies and the blush.  But you want to know something? I didn't care!  I loved this book so much I completely forgot that there was almost no romance at all.  A few of the other things I loved were the plot and the characters.  The plot was SO fresh and SO new.  Literally, I don't think I've read another book that has this plot line, well, I guess a lot of books have the same basic underlying plot, but the details were totally new.  The other thing I loved were the characters. Yes, in the book Sophie is 12-almost-13, but I really connected with her.  No, I'm not 12 or 13 any more, but she was so mature I kept forgetting how old she was!  There were those dorky characters and the attractive ones, the lovable ones and the rather blunt and abrasive ones we can't help but love.  There was also the resident small fuzzy thing to snuggle/coo over, which I think is something every book should have.  I really feel that this is the start of a series that could turn into something AMAZING (don't get me wrong, it is totally amazing already, but I talked to the author and she said she would love to take it past three books, and I would LOVE that too!) but because it's middle grade I'm afraid it might not get enough attention.  So here's what I suggest. You want something you can read to your younger kid? This is that book.  You want something your elementary/middle school kid can read? This is that book.  You want a book high schoolers and adults will enjoy? THIS IS THAT BOOK!  It has SO much potential and could turn into an epic series that might even rival Harry Potter, but only if it gets out there. So GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW!  I promise you won't regret it!

5/5 dust spirits