My Second Read from my Shelf Control pile!

It’s great knowing what’s next to be read. You know when you finish a book and you think “now what do I read”? And then you troll through all the books on your Kobo and Kindle trying to remember what each title is about, and more often than not having to look up the summaries again. Having a list makes things so much easier. Who knew?

See my Shelf Control post for the summary.

Why I recommend it:

This book is presented as a Middle Grades read (ie. 9-12). I’ve starting searching through this section of the bookstore more and more as I find the teen reads have been taken over by the must-have romance. Even with a good premise, there always got to be a romance. Granted, I loved romance in a book when I was a teen but now I find it more than annoying, especially if it takes over the plot or makes the main character act like an idiot. But I digress.

With York Laura Ruby creates wonderful characters in Tess, Theo and Jaime. I found them very relatable and was never jarred from the story with a stilted or out-of-character comment. I was surprised by how much I liked Tess. I don’t usually like female leads but she was age appropriate and sufficiently “feisty”. I’m wondering if the fact that she was part of a brother/sister team made her more likable. That sibling dynamic often keeps the characters real. I found Land of Stories to be similar in that respect.

The plot moved quickly and it was fascinating to see this new version of New York. I loved the idea of having to solve a puzzle. I’m a sucker for a good puzzle. I also liked the idea of the puzzle being passed down through the years, going unsolved, much like Ready Player One. Yes, definitely some parallels to other novels but effective and without being blatant.

York is the first in the The Shadow Cipher series and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next one!

Suitable for ages 8 and above. This is firmly a 9-12 novel, written to that level, but as I said, I’ve been finding recently that many great stories (without the annoying romance) can be found here. You may want to read it with your kids, but I guarantee you’ll be reading ahead when they’re not looking