Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. I can totally appreciate and understand why children and other adults might enjoy it, but I really struggled to get into the story. I really pushed and persevered, but ultimately had to DNF.

This book has a very interesting concept and I was excited to check it out. I love the idea of the main character and her powers. However, I didn't like the characters and that is where the story fell flat for me. I didn't feel invested enough to enjoy the book unfortunately!

I had heard some many great things about this book but I was Very disappointed.
I have nothing good to say at all about this book

I'd heard everyone talking about this and I was intrigued to get to it, however, this wasn't for me. It fell really flat throughout the whole book.

4 stars!

This was a fun and delightful start to a middle grade fantasy series with lots of magic and secrets and twists.

Sophie Foster has been a Telepath since she was 5 years old and has been able to keep it a secret. However, when she meets Fitz, a Telepath like her, everything in her life changes and she is whisked away to a whole new world full of magic and secrets that she has never heard of.

Sophie has to learn how to live in this new world and discovers the secrets of her own past and why she seems to be so powerfully advanced for someone her age.

I believe it is really hard to find a good common ground for middle grade but Shannon Messenger created an immersive world full of fun stories and adventures that will keep you glued to the page.

This book sets up the series nicely and I have no doubt that this story will only get better.

An enjoyable start to a chunky series full of fun magic, fantastical settings and interesting lore.

Though these series of books came out in 2020 for UK and Irish audiences, it still feels like a product of its time in 2012 when the chosen one trope was at its peak in books.

Sophie is a good character but we are hit with the most common stereotypes one after the other, she is special one of a kind, all the boys have crushes and all the girls are jealous, she is in a whole new world yet is able to pick things up easy enough and because of the change in writing in 8 years, these seem so pronounced in this series as there is no subtlety to it.

The plot is interesting and the part that I gravitated to more instead of the characters. Though a lot of the clues left to Sophie pushed the plot on more than felt really natural I was still hooked into what was happening and the mystery of her past and the secrets the nobility kept from the rest of the elves.

All in all I would say this book is a great start to a series that I assume improves with each publication and gets over its use of overused tropes to become more fleshed out and real.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the early eArc of the book.

I lost interest for now but I might try to read this at a later time because the synopsis still does sound interesting.

While I found this book slow to start, as the book progressed I found myself getting more and more engaged in the story. The world was enjoyable and the worldbuilding was given a solid foundation which I am sure will be build on in future books. Some of the characters were not very fleshed out but again, I assume they will be further developed in future books and I look forward to learning more about them and their motivations.
In all, I found this a strong first book in a series and I look forward to continuing on with this series.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I didn't like the writing style and I also couldn't connect to any of the characters.

These this combined lead to me putting this book down and not picking it back up again at around 35%

This was reasonably entertaining but not a series I will be carrying on with. It was written fine but I never felt connected to the characters and ended up being fairly neutral about what happened to them.

This book didn't blow my mind but tickled it & kept me interested enough to keep on reading it. Sophie is a girl with unbelievable talents & hidden powers. I liked the friendship dynamic in the story.

It's an excellent middle grade book with the right amount of emotions, angst etc sprinkled throughout the book. The story was fabulous & the characters memorable.

Somebody had mentioned that this was like Harry Potter in the beginning and I went in expecting a similar sort of British humor. I was disappointed by the lack of humor, but that's more due to my faulty expectations than because of any fault of the author.

I am interested in continuing with the series though I must accept I am not obsessed with it as I hoped I would be.

Typical middle grade fun read. Go for it if you want to get lost in the new fantasy world that will distract you from the incessant problems plaguing our world right now.

#NetGalley #TheKeeperofLostCities #ShannonMessenger #MiddleGradeSeries #4StarReads #InvestGrade

I've been after reading this title for a while now after if was fondly recommended to me by a dear friend.
I'm so happy I got into this series. It gave a way of escapism in a time when we all need it the most. And I LOVED every second.
A mixture of science and magic, involving a super cool girl with telepathic powers. What's not to like? Sold, no need for more.
I couldn't put it down and I urge you all to discover it by yourselves, it won't disappoint.

So very excited that this series is now getting published over in the UK.

I do think it feels its age a little and isn’t quite as current as other MG series I’ve enjoyed but nonetheless absolutely loved it. Can’t wait for more of the series!

Keeper of the Lost Cities introduces us to Sophie who discovers that her telepathic abilities mean she is not actually human as she has assumed for the first 12 years of her life. This leads Sophie to a whole new land and life, including a new school with new friends.

This book very much pulls on the chosen one trope but if you like a fantasy school setting then you will probably enjoy this one. I personally did enjoy it but it felt very much an introductory novel. However I have a feeling that the series is just going to get better as it progresses so I will definitely be trying out the next book.

One thing I did very much appreciate in this book was that Sophie quite often did confide in an adult when something happened that was unusual. This felt quite refreshing to all the MG or YA novels where the kids just do everything on their own.

I enjoy diving into some MG fantasy, on occasion, and had been anticipating this one for a while. Unfortunately I found the narrative both too slow to develop and too quick to gloss over what did occur. Events were breezed over, at break-neck speed, which disallowed me the time to form a connection with the characters or feel much for what was occurring. This also suffered from the trope of a few of the mysteries simply being a case of some characters not divulging information when they could have.

My response is perhaps is due to me not belonging to the target age range for this series and, for that reason, this is probably not the most accurate review. As the numerous other glowing reviews can attest to, this is clearly a well-beloved series for readers of all ages, even if, unfortunately, it didn't quite work for me.

Loved this adventurous book. Written in a fun style, good plot and characters to follow. Looking forward to the next one in the series.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Twelve year old Sophie Foster has a secret. As a twelve year old I’m sure I wouldn’t take that secret lightly.

This book is great for its target audience. It’s well written and full of imagery that would be loved. Any one would love to discover they have powers and can be taken to different worlds, never mind anyone younger.

It’s hard to rate a book that wouldn’t meant for my age range but from an adult point of view the writing is simple and there’s plot holes that of course aren’t needed to be explained but for an adult it’s noticed.

I enjoyed this read. It’s a great middle grade.

Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messengers starts with a good premise: a tween who's not like everyone else. Sophie knows this for a fact - it's not a belief or a guestimate - because she's telepathic. Hearing the thoughts of others makes her differences more evident. It raises the question, if not here, then where does she belong?
 
Quote: She’d lived every day since she was five in constant fear of discovery. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it up. The headaches from her telepathy were almost unbearable— and if they were going to get stronger . . . Not to mention the loneliness. She’d never felt right with her family. She’d never had any friends. She didn’t belong in the human world, and she was tired of pretending
 
This is a generalisation or more accurately a truism, that most people want to feel necessary, be important and it's set up from the beginning of the novel that Sophie is all that and more. Academically gifted, conventionally pretty and with this added extra gift - that is currently a curse but who knows, maybe in the future could be a blessing. We - Sophie and the reader - are taken on a journey to a new world of fantasy, where we hope these, and other questions will be answered.
 
It's a slow bumpy ride to finding out more about Sophie's history and importance why was she spirited away as a baby from this land of Elves to modern day Earth. Why slow and bumpy? Mainly as a big section of this book is essentially about her day to day activities getting used to her new home and going to school. I'm not a fan of high school dynamics.
 
We see Sophie trying to embrace this new world as finally, there is some commonality between others. She tries to make friends and does. But it now appears an unfortunate fact of life, that regardless of where in the multiverse you are, there are still high school cliques. So not all the young people are waiting with outstretched arms to embrace the lost and now found politically significant Sophie.
 
Sophie is a mystery to herself and this new world and at times I wished the story would hurry up and get past the big reveal and get to the heart of the matter - the political factions machinations. Whilst I understood the purpose of the mundane activities - as a way to world building and getting deeper into these stereotypical characters - it doesn’t negate, that at times the pace crawled.
 
What I liked
· we avoided the dreaded love triangle, though there was interest of varying levels from almost every boy she came in contact with. How fortuitous.
· It was good to raise the issue and see some effects on a child being in all, but name manipulated to a destiny or path.
· The novel ended in a place that is set up for a swift start to the next instalment
 
What I wasn't so keen on
· The lengthy time spent regaling school activities. Great to see the different lessons and cultural customs but not to this level of detail, in this format and at this stage.
· Science versus magic and all things human being inferior. Why is 'other' always rubbish, why can't it just be different and that's okay. But that isn't the case here as Sophie has to unlearn scientific laws to progress, otherwise she is hampered by her human constraints. However, science was an important part of Elf society and a key theme throughout the book - all quite messy and didn't tally up well.
· The frustration of everyone knowing more about going on (odd given this was all hush hush) and not sharing with the protagonist. This is one of the things that annoys me, particularly if no valid reason is given for not sharing or worse yet the character allows themselves to be fobbed off.
· The whole destiny thing, hiding as a baby and discovered abilities gave me twinges of Harry Potter and Divergent.
 
What I will take from this book
An insight into being the outsider in different environments even when you're trying your best to fit in. And that home isn't home immediately, it does take time to belong.
 
Quote:Grady and Edaline weren’t like her parents, and Havenfield wasn’t like her old house— but maybe that was better. Maybe it was easier if they were different. And maybe, with time, it would really feel like home.
 
I wished that Keeper of the Lost Cities was a rollercoaster ride on the hunt for answers, instead, it was more like sedate spinning teacups. Luckily not too fast or too slow to give me a headache, equally not thrilling enough to make me want to queue for another go. Not unpleasant, more so unsatisfying given the great themes at play.I'm sure there are those who will enjoy, and appreciate better this gentle saga.
 
2 Stars - It Was Okay

My thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Children's for a digital ARC in return for a candid review.

Although it took me a little while to get into this one, I ended up enjoying it. The beginning felt quite cliched to me but after a few chapters I settled into the flow of the story. If you struggle with the start then stick with it - it does get better. I thought the story was good and the characters well written. Overall I liked this one and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys middle grade books.

Really fun book to read that has left me intrigued to read the rest of the series. Even though the target audience of this book may be middle-grade it definitely is fun for all ages, encompassing a full cast of interesting and fun characters that you cannot help but cheer for. Though the book is promoted as being for fans of Harry potter I would say that the magical element is about as much as this is relivent, as well as a younger cast of characters driving the story. The book by no means needs to carry the burden of comparing itself to the Harry potter series as it is an amazing book in its own right and I cannot wait to carry on reading.