DNF at 20% - I could not connect with the writing and the characters. The premise was really interesting and I enjoyed the world but something just did not click for me. I'm sure it will be great for others to read because of the themes introduced in this book.

Andrew Peterson is an amazing writer. His musical abilities and lyric genius are fantastic.
It is very difficult to place an age on this book. My 10 year read the entire series and loved it. My 12, 15, and 17 year olds all read the series. Then I picked it up. I am a fan of Tolkien (Two of my children are named after characters from LOTR), I read the MacDonalds, Lewis', Lawheads and many more when I was growing up and fell in love with those who create realistic worlds.
I grew up and began to see new talents and stories of space by Asimov, or stories of Gunslingers from King.
Peterson writes a story that is engaging to every age group. He writes with such brilliance that you are captured from the introduction. His created world is amazing, breath taking and also captures you instantly.
This is a work of art on par with Lewis, Tolkien and Asimov. Don't call it only a children's book.
I not only read it, but found the audio book to hear it read!

This has been one of my favorite books besides Lewis and Tolkien! I love the adventure, whimsy, and even the little humor intermingled in the writing. I was immediately drawn into the story and the life of Janner. I will recommend this to everyone I know and will likely blog about it in the future! Excellent! I don’t want to give away the story at all so you can feast upon the delicious morsel or I would go on and on!

Andrew Peterson is an EXCELLENT writer, and I fell quickly into his imaginary world. This is an excellent book for kids, and will stimulate their imaginations and keep them engaged until the last line. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to review this book. I look forward to reading all of Peterson's works.

I should begin honestly with the fact that fantasy is not my favorite genre. I do enjoy it greatly, but I’m a little picky about my world building. I felt like Peterson’s world building was slow and too deliberate. I found myself dragging through parts of this book looking for the action. That being said, when it was time for action Peterson delivered! The first few chapters start off rather slowly, but I think they are worth it for the ride that comes after. Where this book really excels is character building. Janner, Tink, and Leeli are the type of characters that keep you turning pages to follow their adventures. Peterson weaves childlike humor into a story full of adult topics, and executes strong moral and faith elements too. Overall, I think this is a great story for any intrigued reader to pick up. While written for kids, it can be enjoyed by all ages. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as my friend’s said I would, but I will definitely keep it on the shelf for a few years until my son is ready for a Wingfeather adventure!

3.5 rounded up to 4 because I enjoyed enough that I want to continue the series and find out what happens. Plus, I love what happens with Nugget and want to see more of him and Leeli in the next book!

This was a pretty enjoyable fantasy adventure with the usual elements of good guys, bad guys, mysterious origins, and so on. Without giving anything away, the story heads in the direction you're expecting, and the second half of the book moves much more quickly than the first. In fact, I spent longer reading the first 50 pages than the rest of the book (which was mostly done in one sitting). However, the second half is also bloodier, and it's definitely written for an audience who doesn't mind some violence, gore, and plenty of gross stuff (snot-wax candle, maggotloaf, and whatever else a 9 year old boy can dream up, lol). Overall, I enjoyed it, but there were times when I just got frustrated because it felt like the author was trying to draw out the "mystery" which you could probably figure out, but made the other characters (mostly the kids) in the book feel frustrated. And while I enjoyed the rescues that occurred in the book, it did seem like a lot of them happened at the last moment and came out of nowhere just in time to save the moment. Now that I know who the different characters really are, it kind of makes sense to the story, but at the time, it feels too coincidental/contrived. But they were also well written and full of excitement, so I didn't mind it so much.

My favorite characters were Leeli (how can you not love her), Nugget, and Peet, and I empathized with Janner as he tried to keep Tink out of trouble over and over and over, lol.

Thanks to #NetGalley, Andrew Peterson, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.