This book is just plain old fun to read and I was honored to be provided an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. It's adventurous, mysterious, and well written. The author did a great job with it and I was surprised to learn it was a first novel! Now I hope that got your attention a little bit, at least enough to get you to read on. Hey, it's early as I couldn't sleep so I'm not so much eye catching and witty yet. Just be glad you can't see me and I'm only trying to get your attention to the review via font, otherwise I'm quite sure my far too early morning appearance would resemble Medusa closely enough I really could turn the living into stone and I'm not so sure I want to test the theory. Anyway, on with the review.

This story is about a 12 year old inventor named Jack Boomershine. He finds a stone that happens to be called Fyrelocke. This stone, however, turns out to be far more than it appears and leads to a great many adventures, mysteries, and mayhem. As per my usual, I refuse to give the book away because you need to go read it but I don't think any of that gave anything away. I'll give you just a little bit more, but not much! You need to get it! There is a really cool fortune teller in the book called Madam Puffin who may or may not be, I'm not telling, more than she appears and I love her. She is awesome. This book also had a great best friend angle between Jack and his pal Chase. Every 12 year old should have a best friend so it was a great thing to read about. You'll also meet a handful of creatures that are so much fun to read about. The book is fast paced from the very beginning, it is filled with twists and turns you just don't see coming at all until they are smacking you right in the face, and the action just keeps right on coming!

The author writes extremely well and it really doesn't matter if you are 12 or 79, this book was fun to read (and technically I'm not 12 or 79 so I should really have typed "if you are between the ages of 12 and 79" but that's still incorrect because you might like it if you are 11 or 80 so um, I guess it's best said that it's fun to read at every age). There are illustrations throughout the book which are a really splendid touch. They are really well done and it's so nice to get a glimpse at what the characters might look like. I really love the writing style of the author and I think that if you are still reading this right now and haven't read the book, you should do so right now! It's really very good and it's so much fun to read. In many ways it takes you back to being a kid again and there is nothing wrong with that!

(I actually reviewed this book years ago but forgot to add it here! It's been on Amazon and Goodreads for a very long time. Whoops!)

I think I may be a little too old to get lost in the wonder of this book, but my inner 13 year old loved it,
full of mystery, magic and mayhem!
The protagonist is strong and gives younger readers the hope that they too can be brave in times of trial and adversity.