Here’s my review for House of Secrets.  Enjoy!  The Walker family is in a situation.  Dr. Walker, the dad lost his job after cutting an eye shape into a patient’s chest with a knife at his hospital.  Now they live in a small apartment, and are looking for a house.  They find the huge Kristoff House, over-looking the Golden Gate Bridge, built after the San Francisco earthquake by Denver Kristoff, a well-known author.  They move in, and they are in the middle of dinner when a woman knocks on the door that claims she is their neighbor.  She then turns into a creature known as the Wind Witch, and tears the home apart.  The three kids; Brendan, Eleanor and Cordelia wake up after the hurricane-like disaster with their parents gone; and so is San Francisco.  In a fast-paced adventure story, the Walker kids are trapped in three of Denver Kristoff’s books.  With pirates, a pilot from World War I and a colossus,  the Walkers need to figure out how to defeat the Wind Witch and get back home before it is too late and they are the ones destroyed.  Will the Walkers make it home safely, or will that be the end of them?

What I thought about it:

Wow.  Two master storytellers coming together really does make an epic adventure.  I really enjoyed House of Secrets; it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.  You are pretty much drooling for more, thinking, What is going to happen next?!?!  I loved the idea of being able to live in a book.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to do that?  Well, you would be able to be killed by, say, Voldemort, or in this case a very evil gang of pirates; that would not be good.  I also love the cover illustration by Greg Call; it totally lives up to the book.  The action was spectacular in this book, as was the suspense.  I look forward to reading more adventures with the Walkers, and I want to give a shout-out to Ned Vizzini who generously sent me an ARC of this book to me in very cool promotional packaging that looks like The Book of Doom And Desire and is a gem on my bookshelf.  Ned and Chris, your writing is fabulous together and I hope you write many more books as a team.

XanderStars:

Action: 10 out of 10 XanderStars

Suspense: 9 out of 10 XanderStars

Well-Written: 10 out of 10 XanderStars

Well-Paced: 9 out of 10 XanderStars

Page-Turning: 9 out of 10 XanderStars

Overall: 9 out of 10 XanderStars

Next I will be reviewing Keeper Of The Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger.  Remember, comment and tell me what you think!

Xander