This is such a wonderful premise for a story! Great, creative read - thank you so much for the advance copy!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I appreciate what this book was trying to undertake, but I think the message was lost in translation. I had a hard time following the story and since the book is based so heavily on language nuance it was a slog to get through. I really appreciate the opportunity to read this and I would be interested in seeing a physical copy because the other native language reviewers said the words in the page of the book were formatted in a really interesting way, that I think I would have benefitted from experiencing! Once I got into the meat of the murder mystery I had a better time, but the beginning was quite a slog.

I wanted to like this book. The premise was so intriguing. However the prose takes itself to seriously and attempts to be too clever. In the end, that totally took away from the story.

I feel like I read this book in the wrong format. It seems like this book is necessary to read in print based on how the words were going to be cleverly arranged on certain pages. It was understandable overall, but I feel like I missed a lot because of that. However, I love the concept of grammar towns, and the whole story was really clever overall.

This book was absolutely ADORABLE and I loved every second of it! It truly is a dedication to anyone who loves grammar and appreciates the written word. I really enjoyed how the author played with grammar terms and the plot was just so inventive and original. If you love a cozy mystery with some quirky, almost magical elements — this is the book for you! 5 stars!

It took me a long while to finish this book. I feel like this book is great for lovers of literature, quirky and unique stories, light murder mysteries, historical fiction, etc. The romantic subplot was sweet; the world was so interesting and unique; and the use of lettering as well as words themselves to tell the story was very original. I enjoyed this book. Very fun, quirky book.

I received this ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

I seriously am so sad that this does not have a physical copy, because after reading this I was already looking to buy a copy for myself. This was so cute and intriguing, the plot itself already is so nicely done and the world-building was fascinating. I think for what the plot did and what the author was trying to achieve with this story, it was really well done. The overall moral of stories all being valuable regardless of by who or how it's written really did show. I love love loved it please make a physical copy!!

I have to admit, I thought from reading the blurb for this title when I requested it that it would be fun and rollicking with a bit of satire and lots of humor. It doesn't disappoint. "Saving Ellipsis" presents a story about people that live within the pages of all books and manuscripts, even those never published. They form towns and cities within the Text and maintain the letters and words so that they always appear as good as they did when they were first written. These people are ruled by a President from a large city called "The Capital" (where everyone speaks in an 'accent' of all-capital letters), and they have laws, the biggest of which is the Code of Secrecy - they can never reveal to ordinary humans and Authors that they exist.

In a short abandoned manuscript written by a teenage girl, there exists a town called Ellipsis. There an eccentric girl called Prosperina Dash is about to make a horrifying discovery - a dead body on the floor of the shop where she sells plants and flowers. When she brings the murder to the attention of the police, she finds the investigation a brief and almost, dare one say, a hushed up affair. Something strange is going on, and Prosperina is going to get to the bottom of it. With the unwilling help of the son of a town politician, Honorius Hyphen, she's going to travel to the Capital and find out why this murder took place, and if there is a grander, wicked scheme afoot.

This book is absolute fun from beginning to end. It's mostly a funny, almost satirical story. The word puns abound, right down to the names of the characters and the Latin motto of one of them (which translates to something like "The customer is happy"). Prosperina and Honorius have lively adventures attempting to solve the mystery of the story, with plenty of twists and turns. There is adventure everywhere, a smattering of real peril, and even a hint of romance.

Up until recently, when I re-read the publisher's statement, I didn't realize that their aim was to translate and bring European fiction over here to the US. If this story is translated from another language to English, it is beautifully done. I could find very few grammatical errors, and nothing appears to be lost anywhere in the telling. There's no point where I was confused or felt like I missed something as I was reading. In fact, I think this story will appeal to bookish teens, especially those who enjoy wordplay and puns, and even some slightly younger readers and adults. A fun read for more than just teens that it would be my pleasure to recommend to my own bookish friends. Thanks very much to Netgalley, Rivka Publishing, and Laure Dargelos for providing the advanced reader copy for me to honestly review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, so first let me start out by saying that this book shouldn’t be read as an ebook. After looking at some of the other reviews, I see that the text is actually supposed to create images and pictures which you can’t see when you read the ebook. I think the ebook really looses a lot because of this.

I found the story to be somewhat interesting, but it didn’t suck me in like I was hoping it would, although again, that may be due to the fact that I was reading the ebook version.

As an English teacher, I did enjoy all the grammar jokes.

This book definitely has an interesting concept, but if you’re going to read it, do yourself a favor and get the physical book.

Behind every written work is a town that maintains it. Prosperina Dash runs a flower shop in one of those very towns - Ellipsis. But her entire world turns upside down when the Text, and Ellipsis along with it, begins to collapse. Prosperina finds herself in the middle of a mystery that may explain why all of this is happening, but can she save her precious town before it's too late?

What tropes, vibes, and themes does this book include?
This book is extremely quirky and whimsical, as far as vibes go. Think Osmosis Jones or Inside Out but with books. It is mystery with tropes such as hidden villain, mockspiracy, professional killer, and, of course, meddling kids. There a themes of greed and corruption, even seemingly unimportant things have worth, and if you want something done, do it yourself.

Who should read this?
If you like mystery, whimsical world and literary stuff, you will probably enjoy it.

What ages are appropriate?
Even though this book is marketed as YA, I believe it leans more toward MG because the world is so drastically fictional. I'm going to say it is safe for 12 and older (parents can check the triggers to be sure).

Trigger Warnings: Implied cursing, smoking, guns, dead bodies, murder, and death of a parent.

Overall:★★★☆☆
Writing:★★★★☆
Plot:★★★★☆
Characters:★★★☆☆
World Building:★★★★☆

Review:
I have to give the author credit where credit is due - this book is one the most unique I have read. If you're not accustom to literary jargon, this book may get very tedious very quickly; however, I am used to it and found the writing clever and charming. My only qualm is that the story felt chopped up because of the constant switching of POV. Too many heads!

As far as mysteries go, this was a fine one. Nothing special beside the unique in-world problems attached to it. I saw the twists coming and didn't fall for any red herrings, which is somewhat disappointing.

Where the story fell flat for me was with the characters. I didn't love them, didn't hate them. They were very gray (and not in the morally gray way). Sometimes their actions confused me, especially that of the male MC, Honorius; with a little more insight into what he was thinking/feeling, his actions and attitude would have made more sense.

And, of course, I must mention the world building: the world that the author created was rich with detail and more unique than many high fantasy books I've read. But it was evident the author wanted to show off her world, because this book suffers from lots of info dumping that doesn't really provide anything to push the plot forward. I don't mind info dumping, but I know a lot of people do. Take that as you will.

It was a fun ride, I admit, if only for its whimsical and cleverly created world. I recommend it for either younger teens or those who are young at heart but still love a good mystery!

*I had no idea this was a translated book when I read it. Absolute bang up job on the translation!
**After looking at some other reviews, I've also discovered I was missing out on a whole other level of this story that plays with formatting and creating pictures with the text. If you are interested in the book, please purchase the physical copy to experience it correctly; the ebook does not accommodate for that.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Rivka Publishing for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Came for the unique premise, stayed for the adorable and loveable characters (including the plants!)

Saving Ellipsis by Laura Dargelos is a YA fantasy novel that takes place in the small and quaint town of Ellipsis, which resides in the literal lines of a manuscript. Which have both been heavily edited, and ultimately abandoned by the author. Main protagonist Prosperina Dash has embraced the lifestyle of florist. But one day finds a dead body at her door, and the very town suddenly collapsing in itself. She ventures to the capital to get to the bottom of it. Together with a Text-diving champion, a snobbish man who Capitalizes Every Word, and a cufflink-eating flower, Prosperina finds herself entangled in a web of long-held secrets with an unknown killer in the center of it.

I really loved the concept of this book. Though I did find the worldbuilding to be a bit confusing at times. Given the cover was giving regency vibes, while the pages mentioned the likes of cars and other modern technologies. I did really like Prosperina. Though I kind of wish this book leaned a bit more on the romance instead of the mystery (I know, shocker). I just wish it gave more Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia to Faeries instead of Sherlock.

But with this novel originally being written in French and then translated into English, I commend it for all that it tried to do.

This book is the literary lovers version of the Phantom Tollbooth. Similar in style and humor to The Phantom Tollbooth...only the jokes are about punctuation and grammar. There was much to enjoy in this book...when Prosperina looses her tittle (gasp!), when our MMC returns from the Capitol Speaking Like This! While reading, you will want to look up the meaning of pretty much every name in the book...all of them mean something. And hold on to your seat as the drama unfolds between the rival Dash and Hyphen family!

Truth told, I did not LOVE this book. It felt shallow, a bit silly, and I felt zero emotional connection to the characters or story, (Again: like the Phantom Tollbooth.) But it WAS clever in the realm of word play! But feeling that emotional connection to characters and stories is something that is really important to me as I decide how to rate a book. This was a three star book for me...but I feel certain it would be a 5 star book for others!

I recieved a free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I gave up around 50% of the way through, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying again with a physical copy, hence why "set aside" and not DNF.

I think some bad editing/formatting and the curse of many translated books were what killed it for me. Truly, some of the (unintentional) formatting was painful to try to read, and the addition of the awful 4th grader Microsoft Paint illustrations that were scattered throughout just left me confused and bothered as to why they were included. I know this isn't the Book's fault, so I would be interested to see what the physical book reads like.

It has a whimsical and fun vibe, and some clever plays on words/grammar (Everyone From The Capital Speaks In Capital Letters, And It Can Be Heard In Your Accent). The world building was unique one minute and mind-bendingly confusing the next.

I have such bad luck with translated books. I think it's fabulous that they are being translated!! But all too often there is something lacking with the writing. It varies from book to book, either lacking a sense of whatever emotion is supposed to be conveyed in the scene or something in the writing is subtly off or different and I can't place what until I realize it's been translated. Aha moment for me. That's what it is.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=3 | 😘=1 | 🤬=2 | ⚔️=3 | 12+

summary: so they’re like stuck inside a book and have to solve a murder??

thoughts: confusing world building that made some stuff hard to read—Like Literally Stressful To My Eyeballs—but occasionally funny?????

tl;dr
A fun book for lovers of books that plays with layouts, grammar, and a unique world to build a fun mystery.

Thoughts
I didn't know what to expect when going into this book, and I found myself surprised to find the illustrations drop a corpse literally into the text. Turns out, the book plays with layout a lot - not just illustrations, but text as well. As a book about books, it has a very meta playful self-awareness, and I especially liked all the interesting ways the layout and formatting were used to tell the story. A series of grammatical jokes and a few friendly jabs at every writer's first (iffy) attempts cap this off as a book definitely aimed at fans of books. The two leads are fun enough, but the standout character winds up being an enthusiastic and hungry flower named Eloise, who I adored in every scene. World building is unique and fairly vast, and can run a little long at times just to get all the names and places in. The first part of the book moves a little slowly because of this, but it picks up in the second half, and all the lore drops fit together really well for the solution to the mystery.

This book was originally written in French, and this review covers the English translation by Rivka publishing. Serious props to the translation team. Translating a book made up of grammar jokes into a different language cannot be easy! Names of people and places have been altered slightly (sometimes for pronunciation, other times to adjust the meaning to make sense in English), and there were a few times where the world building in particular got a little hard to wade through, but the overall experience was a very smooth read. They've noted that this book is the first in their line of French-to-English releases, and I wish them well, because I enjoyed this one.

Very enjoyable read. Will be easy to recommend to many different kinds of readers. I’d like to read more from this author.

This is a challenging one to review for me. The premise is interesting and the story is fun, but the world building kind of overwhelmed me and made it hard for me to really focus on the characters and the story. I get that this is a world that exists within or adjacent to literature and books, but I found it confusing that, on the one hand we're talking about modern inventions like cars and Internet even though I got the impression that it was set more in a Regency space. And maybe that's the beauty of this world where books blend and the people living around the edges of the text are able to take from the learnings what they will. Or maybe it's the rural versus urban.

So, what I liked. I liked the mystery element, despite not loving mysteries. I liked the characters, mainly Prosperina and Ernest. I liked the plants, especially Eloise who did not figure as much in the latter part which was a bit disappointing. I liked some of the concepts like book jumping and the inter text.

I did not really like the world building at the start because I found it confusing, almost like Dargelos was trying too hard to describe what was in her head but not getting it across. And anytime the book tried to describe the world around the characters in any detail, I got lost. I also didn't love the way the Hector story wrapped up because it felt very much like he abandoned the heroine.

I think that if you can get through the first 100+ pages, you'll be satisfied with the way the book progresses and how the story evolves. A few things may also surprise you. Definitely not a romance though. More a mystery for sure.

Side note: I only realized about 50 pages in that this is a book that was originally written in French. Maybe that also accounted for some of my challenges, because I probably would have preferred to read it in the original language instead of in translation.

Arc Copy...Obviously I would recommend this for book, writing, and comedy readers as the word puns of the written kind are strong here and curious to see how a town of words works out with the bonus of a murder afoot!

This was so good!! I quickly read through this and it was an absolute delight! I loved the original story line. Amazing book!
I just reviewed Saving Ellipsis by Laure Dargelos. #savingellipsis #NetGalley
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