What a wonderful story!

This tale has everything - a strong central character, magical creatures that are unique and original, and a fabulously crafted castle leading the reader on a journey through a magic land. The over-arching messages of the story will serve as starting points for some great discussions in the classroom. The story is accompanied throughout by Sara Soderland’s outstanding illustrations, which for me are an integral part of the book’s success.

Look out for Sophie Anderson’s usual clever details - one in particular, which I won’t spoil, made me grin with delight. Some, such as her descriptions of the different clocks which mark the passing of each hour, had me looking forward to seeing what the next one would be, and wanting to draw them for myself.

It was a privilege to be able to read this in advance of publication, and I am certain Sophie’s fans, old and new, will love this title as much as I do.

Sophie Anderson weaves a wonderful story of self-belief, magic and adventure in The Castle of Tangled Magic.

Be whisked along on Olia's adventure as she finds her inner strength, a host of amazing spirits and learns to listen to her heart.

Anderson has a wonderful way with words, whisking her readers into her Olia's journey with delicious descriptions and vivid imagery.
I loved this, can you tell?!

Reviewed by Emma Perry: Picture Book Author [I Don't Like Books. Never. Ever. The End & This Book Has Alpacas and Bears] & founder of MyBookCorner

Another superb novel from Sophie Anderson. The Castle of Tangled Magic weaves slavic folklore, magic and adventure into a wonderful story that I read in one sitting.
Olia learns all about herself, her hidden abilities, her perceived limitations and how to overcome them as well as more about her ancestors and the rest of her family.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3490732226

I really enjoyed this beautifully written adventure story from Sophie Andersen but I've come to expect nothing less from her.
Olia has grown up with her family in a huge castle although, since the revolution, the riches have gone and her family live a simple life. Olia loves to explore Castle Mila and longs to find her way into the domes whose hidden entrances have eluded her. When a magical storm leaves the castle damaged, Olia finds her way into one of these domes leading her to embark on a dangerous quest to save the castle from further destruction and protect her family. Olia proves a worthy heroine: brave, determined, kind. However, another standout character is her sidekick and protector Feliks. There is a delightful range of magical characters and, although they are based on Slavic mythology, Andersen has really made them her own. It was great to see references to charcters from her other books here too!
This is a story full of magic with family and friendship at the heart. If you enjoyed The House With Chicken Legs or The Girl Who Speaks Bear I am sure you will enjoy this too but it works just as well as a standalone book. I am looking forward to sharing this wonderful adventure story with the children at school as I know they will love it.

This book is absolutely incredible. The imagery and description were beautiful and I really could see myself in the scene. I fell in love with every single character and thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the Slavic mythology. This was such a warm cosy book to read that was also full of excitement, I will definitely be ensuring a copy makes it way into my library!

A beautiful and heart warming book. Superbly written with twists and turn, adventure, mystery and wonder. Yet, through the book are woven strands of hope, love, family and what it means to be at home.

Another stunning offering from Sophie Anderson. This book is full of beautiful description that paints the most vivid images in your mind. Our heroine, Olia, is a kind and sweet girl who I loved instantly. You feel everything she feels, the highs and the lows, the love for her family. The story is laden with magic and it’s just an absolute triumph. Read it now!

Sophie Anderson has done it again! What a fantastic book! I couldn’t put it down. She is a master storyteller and each of her books just gets better! I can’t recommend this book enough. Without giving anything away, this book is destined to become a classic!

Another amazing book from this author. She creates such colourful and creative worlds full of imagination and feeling. Once again old traditions/myths/ folklore play a part and the magic is everywhere. It is an tangled adventure that slowly but slowly, begins to unwind and lead Olia in a new direction with a new perspective.

Olia is a likeable character who has many faults and needs to listen to her new found friends as well as deciding what it truly right. She makes lots of discoveries during her adventure and not all are as she expected.. Her compassion for her new friends and her longing to get back to her family and home are often at odds and she needs to dig deep and make some hard. Hooves.

You will be swept along with this adventure and if you have read Sophie Anderson’s other books may even recognise a character or two.

Absolutely loved this! Yet another wonderful fantasy novel inspired by Russian fairy stories and legends, which starts as a straightforward adventure but soon develops into a more complex story. As Olia enters the land of tangled magic she soon finds her plan to save her home complicated by the past actions of her ancestors and this becomes a clever tale about accepting and dealing with the wrongdoing in our past and putting things right regardless of the possible cost. I found this both meaningful and magical, a hard trick to pull off. Truly wonderful writing!

Another stunning book from Sophie Anderson. Olia is a princess, living in a castle - but forget the usual fantasy tropes! There was a revolution years ago and now her family, though still living in the castle, devote themselves to keeping it maintained, and work and celebrate alongside the villagers. There was a really interesting theme of reparation and earning your place in the world in this story, which I loved - it really felt like a modern and worthwhile take on the princess/castle/ chosen one story. It fits within the universe created by Sophie Anderson in "The House with Chicken Legs", and there is even another Baba Yaga house.

The plot is thrilling, with elements of so many traditional stories from Russia and across Europe. There are water spirits and flying horses, giants, wizards and domovoi (hearth spirits) that are linked to the castle. A magical storm threatens the castle (and worse, Olia's family, including her grandma and new baby sister). Olia has to slip through into a magical realm and save the spirits she finds there, and try to save her castle. It was also a refreshing change to have a book where both parents are alive and survive to the end of the book!

In short, this is a future classic.

It was a pleasure to return to the ‘tangled’ magic of another one of Sophie Anderson’s stories. The golden threads of magic weave through each and every one of her books, casting a spell over her readers and The Castle of Tangled Magic is no exception.

Olia lives in a much-loved castle. When the winds of change threaten to destroy everything she holds dear, she must embark on a magical adventure in a quest to save the castle home of her past, her present and her future.

I loved entering Olia’s world and being immersed in another one of Anderson’s Slavic fairytales. The story feels like a modern classic, like the traditional tales and fairy stories of my childhood. The style of writing is beautiful: the descriptions are evocative and the characters become real people.

The themes of family, friendship and the power of love are all evident within this book and the reader learns some important lessons alongside the protagonist. I know it will be enjoyed by my Year 5 class. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a pre-release copy of this book to review.

The Castle of Tangled Magic
Rating *****

This is the third book from the author who wrote the house with chicken legs and the girl who speaks bear, Sophie Anderson come with the castle of tangled magic. This book follows a girl called Olia who lives in a castle from the royal family. Olia has royal blood in her but her family are no longer royalty, when a storm comes to threaten her home, Olia realises that she is the key to saving her home and her family as well as magic.

Sophie Anderson has a way of writing a variety of characters who you care about like no other the group of characters in this book made me cry and laugh and cheer. The magic comes creeping through all the words and the research that Sophie Anderson has done is so intricate that it makes me want to look more into Slavic mythology.

The cameos in the book made me feel really nostalgic for the other books and the pacing of the book made me feel the tension of how much was at stake throughout the book. I felt every emotion Olia had and the need to protect everyone who she met along her journey as well as her family and when she feels there is only one choice, she begins to look from it from other angles.

This book I could not put down and every time I got up and took a drink, I went back into it. I was ready to delve back in this makes me feel that it marks a good book and when it comes out I am sure I will be recommending this to everyone that I see including my students and my nieces.

I cannot wait for another book from Sophie Anderson because she is able to weave her own narrative into the folklore which makes it accessible and sparks interest to know more. The illustrations in the book are stunning and I cannot wait until October where I will have my hand on this physical copy of this book.

Sophie weaves a world of magic and imagination that is sure to imprint young minds with important life lessons

Olia, the hero in our story, is the chosen one to save her castle, the beloved home of her family for five hundred years, the only problem she hasn't got a clue how she's going to do it? As the story progresses, we learn how the simplistic solution suggested to save her land, helps Olia ask more important questions and see beyond her own pressing concern of saving her Castle Mila.
"You must cut off the beard of the Wizard Chernomor to save your land, says the cat." A large part of The Castle of Tangled magic reminded me of old American classic- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as Olia, our 13-year old protagonist lands in the Land of Forbidden Magic, in the midst of a storm with a fox spirit. An increasing number of curious magical spirits join the party, who travel through a series of hazards, to find the wizard who holds the answers to all their problems. This is a story that leaves the best to the last, and that's why it took me quite some time to warm up to it. But I loved how in the second half , Sophie brings it all together and Olia learns what home really is? It's not the walls or the grand rooms even if you lived in them for five hundred years, it's something more precious.
The story also brings to life the Indian belief of 'Vasudhaiv kutumbkam' - a Sanskrit phrase found in Hindu scriptures to introduce to the world a concept which means 'The World is One Family.' Imagery and visually descriptive language with similes and metaphors are used in abundance to paint the characters inspired from the Slavic folk lore. The Castle of Tangled Magic will be loved by teachers teaching students of 9-11 years of age. Teachers may explore the themes of importance of accepting change, learning from mistakes and failures, doing the best you can and remembering what's really important. The Castle of Tangled Magic, also has many beautiful quotes worth remembering and my favourite one is- ‘Belief is one the few things more powerful than magic.’
The reason the book does not get five stars from me:
First 8 chapters are dedicated to the setting and introduction of the characters, the story flows well with lots in anticipation but real action doesn’t build until Chapter 9 or even beyond. I would have very much enjoyed a prologue with a big bang edge of the seat action scene giving us a peek into the perils that were set to befall the castle or those that happened five hundred years ago, before getting into the setting and character descriptions.
The chapters move linearly with characters explaining what happened in the past. I think use of flashback chapters, going back to five hundred years before, to actually live through the events and meet the evil character of Ludmila rather than simple narration of what happened would have made for a stronger first half. It would have made the story a lot more intriguing, riveting and exciting from the beginning to the end.
I read an advance copy that I believe has not been completely edited for text and illustrations. I think once this is done it will help bring the landscapes and the characters especially those of Felix and the Land of Forbidden Magic to life.The above review is now also available on the Browzly app and blog. A self-marking multimedia quiz will also automatically pop up when the readers will mark this book as read on Browzly.
This review is written by Bhavna Mishra, founder of Browzly, a reading for pleasure focused teaching and learning technology.

I LOVED this magical, fairytale story about a young girl Olia who lives in a 500 year old castle with her family. Descended from a long line of royals, Olia loves her family and her home but on the eve of the party, things take a turn for the worse and only Olia can save everything. Travelling through a magical land beyond the castle, she meets spirits trapped here and with their help, magic, belief in herself, resolves to put right the mistakes of her ancestors. She has to make courageous decisions in order to save her family, her home, her friends and her new spirit friends. Who can she trust? How to make the right decision? How to move forward for a better future, instead of living in the past?

The story had me gripped from the start. The wonderful flowing fairytale writing intertwined with Russian folktales, the depth of the characters, combined with loads of magic creates this a wonderfully rich story of bravery, family, friendship and moving forward to live a better life. When I started reading I immediately was brought back to my childhood reading of "The Magic Faraway Tree." The brilliant link to "The House with Chicken Legs" was just a fantastic icing on the cake moment. It reminded my of Roald Dahl's links in his books too.

I would recommend this book for the cover alone! It's just stunning! Anyone who loves a bit of magic and adventure will just love this!

I joined NetGalley specifically to read this book and wasn't disappointed! Sophie Anderson is a magical storyteller who sews and joins stories as expertly as the generations of Olia's family have crafted their family quilt. The themes of Anderson's other stories feature just as strongly here and it leaves you with a powerful reminder of some of the realities of life we all forget from time to time. Wonderful. I will definitely be recommending it to all my pupils (and their families!).

Sophie Anderson has done it again! When The Castle of Tangled Magic was offered via NetGalley, I couldn't pass up the chance to read it. Having read and loved both of Sophie's previous books, I was expecting great things and wasn't disappointed.

Olia has grown up in Castle Mila with her Papa, Mama, baby sister Rosa and Babusya (grandmother). She has always been fascinated with the castle and, in particular, its domes. When she finds a way into one of the domes, Olia must find the strength and courage to save her home, her family and a land full of magical spirits.

This was a story of family and friendship, and of working out what is important. Olia is a strong but caring character and the supporting characters around her bring out the best in her.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. Will be adding to my class bookshelf and school library once it is published.

Thank you to Usborne and Net Galley for this advance copy.

Sophie Anderson has shown yet again what a majestically clever storyteller she is. The Castle of Tangled Magic follows Olia on a journey to discover what really matters. She meets surprising new friends along the way and friends new and old work together to try and save her family home. Slavic folklore is woven within the story. It has the feel of a traditional tale. Definitely a modern classic.

I always come away from Sophie's books feeling hungry. Her descriptions of the food throughout are sublime.

Would recommend to anyone who has enjoyed The House with Chicken Legs and the Girl who speaks Bear.

The Castle of Tangled Magic is a book full of the anticipation of something truly special. The wisdom of the elderly, ancient magic and Russian folklore flows off the page in language full of wonder and enchantment. Sophie Anderson is a master storyteller with a richness unparalleled and an ability to draw readers into gloriously magical worlds, making them feel as if they are the ones on a great adventure.

Castle Mila is full of secrets: hidden doorways, secret passageways and long-forgotten chambers. Olio’s once-royal ancestors built this unique family home long ago. Now, as they approach its five hundredth anniversary, a fierce storm is brewing and the magic of the castle seems unsettled – somehow tangled. With the help of her grandmother, Olio believes magic is everywhere and is determined to find it. Sensing the winds of change, Olio must set off on a dangerous quest to free the magic and try to save her family, her heritage and her home.

Along the way, Olio must rely on her friends, both old and new. She questions whether or not she can trust them and, through this, learns that above all else, she must trust her own instincts and believe in herself. Her bravery, intelligence, sense of justice and kindness serve her well as she battles against mystical spirits in an unknown land. When tempted to give up or go another way, the love of her family spurs her onwards.

This is a story of selflessness and sacrifice. The winds of change are hard to cope with but sometimes so necessary to move on to the next stage of life. Olio is a wonderful example of someone who reflects on the past, makes amends, and strives to move forward in loyalty, friendship and love.

“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.”
A.A. Milne

Thank you to Usborne Publishing and NetGalley for this beautiful book!

Olia is technically a princess. Although it's been many hundreds of years since her royal ancestors ruled, she still lives in their castle. It is a castle with history. Five hundred years of history to be exact.
Olia loves her home. It is a castle of domed roofs, endless corridors, hidden passageways. She loves her grandmother, her Babusya, who believes in the old ways and sees the magic in their home. And she loves her baby sister Rosa and she cannot wait to show her all of the castle's secrets and discover new ones together. She loves exploring and adventuring and she can't wait to add her patch to her family's blanket at the Harvest Moon celebration in the 500 year tradition of her family.

When a strange wind begins to blow through Castle Mila, Olia investigates with the help of Feliks and his Mary Poppins pockets, a magic hat and a lots of magical friends that she meets along the way.