A book that promises magic and a unique story of siblinghood. A book to add to your TBR when you finish with other middle-grade and want to try something different.

A unique story that drags you through a shitstorm and spits you back out again. This story is a whirlwind--in the best possible way! If you're after a read that will propel you along every step of the way and you have to battle with every sense of self-will to put down the book, then I really recommend this one!

I only managed to get around 50% through this book and I just couldn't find it in myself to push though. This book read more like a young middle-grade book, I believe that may have truly been it's target audience. The story seemed very interesting, but the writing was a bit too juvenile for me to continue.

I got to about the 50% point in this book and just sadly couldn't push myself to continue it. This read more like a middle-grade book, I think that's what it actually was, and I just don't really enjoy middle-grade books. The story seemed very interesting but the writing was a bit too juvenile for me.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

I did feel like the book was something that I'd read before, but nevertheless it was a fun read. I did have a little trouble with the characters in the beginning, since there were so many, and honestly I feel like that was unnecessary.

I picked this up again after being in a weird slump when first requesting it and I it definitely is not a favorite book of mine. I like the world building and thought that most of the book was spent on doing so. I found there to be not much going on in this book it seemed more like we were just watching a bunch of kids walk around a strange new world. I found almost all the kids to be annoying and this book just did not do it for me. I will say though that the cover is really nice!

A beautiful cover for a beautiful book. It was whimsical and fun to read. Full review coming soon on my blog.

Five siblings investigate a strange, blue window that appears in their home and fall through time and space to a strange world, landing in the middle of a power struggle between a power-crazed dictator and the scholars and exiled magic weavers who push back against him. Susan, Max, Nell, Kate, and Jean discover that they have powers of their own, which puts them right into The Genius' sights. He wants their power, and he will stop at nothing to get at it. The siblings escape and find themselves among a group of scholars who reveal that the family is part of an ancient prophecy, and separate Max from his sisters, who find another group of exiles who works with them to use hone their magic gifts.

Narrated in the third person, the book is split into five parts, each from a main character's perspective. There's a lot of worldbuilding here, but it doesn't always hold a reader's interest. There's a lot of time spent on the siblings' wandering, with little to no action, and the characters just don't do all that much. Subsequent books in the series will benefit from stronger, more fleshed-out characters and tighter action sequences. Devoted fantasy fans may give this one a shot if you booktalk it with readalikes: Narnia, Earthsea, and A Wrinkle in Time.

DNFed 25 percent through. I just couldn’t get invested in this story. There were far too many characters to keep track of in such a short period of time. For me, if I struggle to want to pick up a book, especially this far into the book, it’s time to move on and that was the case with this one. I would pick it up because I knew I should, but would immediately find an excuse to do something else.

Five children - Susan, Max, Nell, Kate, and Jean - fall through a blue window (hence the title) into a strange world. The siblings are just trying to find their way home but instead are hunted down, captured and forced into a battle. They have no one they can really trust in this strange place and they seem to be developing some strange powers.

Each child takes a turn at narrating the story and this was the first thing I did not like about the book. The ages and personalities of the five children are all different, so there was no consistency in storytelling. I also did not like any of these characters. Susan and Max are thirteen but flick between seeming older and acting childish. The younger siblings were the same, with the youngest made out to be a toddler but also seeming older - at least six if not older - with her speech and actions.

The strange world the children fell into seemed like a city with 'slum' areas surrounded by farmland. While the appearance of the world is not so strange (at least the way I was picturing it), what was happening in the world seemed crazy. There are soldiers (I think) everywhere ready to take people away and there are different types of people that get different levels of respect (hello inequality).

However, the bulk of my issue with this story is the actual reading experience. I reread chapters and scenes trying to figure out what was going on and why the people there looked funny and even what that funny looked like, but I just could not get an image in my head. Why were these leader people trying to kidnap the children? Why did the children start developing powers? Perhaps these questions may have been answered in the second half of the book, but I was finding it painful to read so I decided to DNF it.

This is a permanent DNF for me. I did not enjoy the half of the book I forced myself to read and I will not subject myself to the other half. Perhaps I just clashed with this book's plot, characters and layout, but it is not one I would personally recommend.

DNF at 35%

While I did like the characters and appreciate that the siblings in the book are so close to each other and loving, I started losing track of what was going on at around 25% and could not get myself to read the rest.

Good solid fantasy debut. Would recommend to teens and up.

DNF at 10%

This was very similar to The Chronicles of Narnia, and even had it's very own Susan and Lucy (though the two are not related in this book). Blue Window is about a group of children (siblings) that fall into another world via a window. This new place is scary, unexpected, and filled with... I don't know what, because I didn't get that far.

I know I didn't read much of this book, but I had a lot of trouble separating the different characters. I also kept getting confused and had to re-read certain parts to figure out what was going on. One minute they're at the kitchen table eating breakfast (there were a few things going on), and someone mentions going to school. The next sentence everyone is already home from school and doing various activities.

Where are their parents?? They're mentioned a few times, and the mom shows up with orange juice once, but then just disappears. I feel like there should have been more interaction with the children, since the oldest is only 13. It wasn't just the parents that vanished in the middle of a paragraph. The other characters seemed to flutter around without a purpose, too.

I really loved the synopsis for this one, but I just could not get into it. The random additions from an exile, or the exiles, were odd and didn't seem to fit with everything else. I'm sure that perspective would have tied in later, but I was already confused without trying to decipher their cryptic words.

The flow of the story was weird, the way the information was presented was confusing, and I didn't connect with any of the characters. I did like Susan's fondness for words, but their application to the story seemed forced. I might look for this book once it's published, because maybe these kinks were ironed out after I received this review copy. It just had such a promising, interesting concept. I'm still a little curious about where they landed, and what's going to happen to them, but not enough to read it as it is.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. It started slow, but the build was good. However, somewhere in there the author buried the lead. There was too much world building in the middle of the novel and not enough character development and story advancement. I could see how this book would appeal to mid grade readers, but it didn't translate well to adult readers.

The story is told in interchanging points of view about five siblings discovering a new world where nothing is what it seems. A magical book with relatable characters. I found the book a little vague around the building of the world. The concept of magic was unique and there were times I found it hard to put the book down. It did have an enjoyable ending. I found it very much like the stories I read in my teens, and it is like the kind of books that are very popular these days.

This one got added to my DNF list. I read 50 percent (according to my Kindle,) and the kids still hadn't gotten any information whatsoever about what they were doing in the new world where they found themselves or what even brought them there in the first place. The pace on this was dragged too much, and after reading half the book and the kids getting absolutely no answers at all (and me feeling like they were walking in literal circles) I had to stop.

When five siblings find a strange window in their home, they fall through into another world. This new world is filled with terrifyingly deformed humans, aggressive dictators, and mysterious prophecies. Each one of them brings a new perspective to the story and new complications. As the children learn more about this new place and the abilities they have within it, they find themselves deeper within and further away from their home. 

I picked up this book because the cover was beautiful and original. I haven't seen any others like this so far this season! Additionally, the summary reminded me of many of the books I read and loved when I was younger. I don't typically read or review middle-grade books, but with the nostalgia and intriguing cover design, I agreed to take a look. 

The world of Loam, where the majority of the story takes place, is familiar to our own. It was comforting during some of the more stressful aspects of the story, to analyze the world I was in and see that it was familiar even if everything else seemed chaotic. It also helped me follow the plot easier that I would have if I was trying to understand what was going on and where I was at the same time. The author does a great job of describing of describing the strange and creepy citizens of this world and show the reader some other abnormalities, such as the children's new powers. 

There are five children and main characters in the book. The book alternates perspectives, moving from the oldest kid to the youngest. Each perspective brings a unique voice to the book, without being stereotypical and flat, which I worry about with middle-grade books in particular. While I was more interested and connected to some characters than others, I was relieved that the author truly invested in her characters and understood each voice. The more rare and odd perspective that shows up throughout the story is that of the exile. His voice adds some additional mystery but also confusing to the story. I was pulled forward by wanting to see where his story connected with the main story, but I also probably invested too much time in trying to figure everything out beforehand. 

My main complaint about this book is with the pacing. It's a long and somewhat slow moving book, which usually allows for a pretty leisurely read. However, combined with the high intensity of the conflicts the children find themselves in, it was more exhausting than anything. It seems everywhere they turn, they find enemies and terror and even the friends they find don't feel entirely trustworthy. It was nice to have a few quiet and sweet moments the children have comforting each other, but they were so few and far between that they didn't help as much as I'm sure the author intended. Each time I set the book down, I was less desperate to pick it back up and more worn out and ready to do something new. 

Lovers of A Wrinkle In Time and Chronicles of Narnia will enjoy this middle-grade portal fantasy novel! There are several fun and diverse characters to get to know and the mysteries of the world of Loam will keep you reading. The plot is slow moving and long. There are many dark and somewhat disturbing moments I was surprised to find in this genre, but for the motivated reader, it won't be a problem.

This is a very creepy adventure story of 5 siblings who are inadvertently sucked through a window and into an alternate reality. They discover that they have super powers and are being chased by an evil villain. It's definitely too scary for upper elementary. But it's very well written and has some really interesting poetic elements to it. It's also a very compelling story so even though there were places where the story dragged, I still wanted to finish it.

"Soon, an ancient prophecy leads them into battle..." Um...soon being a relative term here, because I got a third of the way in and nothing had happened. Good god. I tried so hard to finish this book, but reading for pleasure should not take this much effort. The five siblings fall through the window pretty early on in the book, and then.........nada. No plot development, no answers to wtf is going on, hell, not even really any character development. I couldn't do it. I hate not finishing books, but good lord. There are too many fantastic books in the world to slog through one that drags as much as this one did.