Early Review - The Fire King (Invisible Order, Book 2) by Paul Crilley (5/5 stars)

Reading level: Middle Grade

Genre: Historical Fantasy
Size: 416 pages

Publisher:  EgmontUSA
Release Date: September 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-1606840320
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in The Invisible Order series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

I absolutely loved the first book in this series, The Invisible Order, Book One: Rise of the Darklings, and was very excited to read this book.  I got an advanced reading copy of this book through NetGalley.com.  The Fire King is the second book in a planned trilogy. This was a wonderful read and you learn more about the Invisible Order's past and what will have to be done to save London.  It can be read as a stand alone, but the first book does provide good background for this book and if you skipped you might be a little confused at first.

Emily and crew are thrown back to the year 1666 and are determined to find Christopher Wren in hopes that he can save London.  Unfortunately other dangerous plans are afoot; one of the faeries is determined to overthrow Queen Titania and burn London to the ground.  This evil fae will summon The Fire King to help overthrow the city; only problem is once the Fire King is summoned he can't be stopped.  Emily must figure out a way to save London and she will need all of the human and fae help she can get.

I loved this book.  It is set in the past and has a dark Victorian feel to it.  I love how historical events, like the Great Fire of London are tied in with the story of the Fire King being set loose on the city.  It is clever and unique to have the fantasy based storyline tied into real historical events. 

All the characters are interesting, realistic, and likable.  Emily can be a bit bossy at times, but she tries hard to do her best and tries to remain as confident as she can.  This book was told both from Emily's point of view and from Will's (her younger brother) point of view.  It was fun to see Will play a bigger role in this book.  I liked how Emily and Will each took their own path to solving the problems facing London, yet in the end the two points converged and both paths were necessary to resolve the plot.

There are some wonderful new characters introduced into the story.  Puck runs a group of underground rebel humans, of which Katerina is a part of.  Katerina was a wonderful addition to the character line up.  Also we finally get to meet the elusive Merlin in person.

The description in this book is wonderful, it is very easy to picture the surroundings in your mind.  The writing in general is just very well done and this was a wondeful book to read.  The main plotline is resolved nicely.  I found it very hard to put down this book and wanted to read the whole thing straight through.

Overall just an absolutely wonderful read.  There are politics, adventure, magic, action, and rebellion.  The characters are wonderful, the description makes the story really come alive, and I love how the fantasy is entwined with real historical events.  A absolutely wonderful read.  I recommend for all readers middle grade and older who love fantasy, especially historical fantasy.  I can't wait to see what happens in the third book!

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:

- 100+ Reading Challenge
- E-book Reading Challenge
- Fantasy Reading Challenge

Review - Rise of the Darklings (The Invisible Order, Book 1) by Paul Crilley (5/5 stars)

Reading level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 352 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: September 28, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1606840313
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Invisible Order series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 5/5 stars

I got an advanced reading copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program.  The synopsis of the book sounded wonderful; a young girl in Victorian London stumbles upon another world.  I absolutely loved this book.  This is the first book in The Invisible Order series by Crilley.  The characters and story were very engaging and the atmosphere dark and mysterious.  Excellent middle grade fantasy that even adults will get into.

Emily and her brother are orphans trying to scrap buy in the Cheapside part of London.  Emily sells Watercress at market and tries to make enough money for them to eat.  One day on her way to the market she stumbles upon an epic battle happening in the streets on London; but the people fighting it are peculiar and...small.  From there Emily finds herself drawn into an adventure under the streets of London, on a quest to save her brother and possibly her parents, dealing with the horribly unpredictable fairy folk.

I loved this book.  The whole book has a dark Victorian atmosphere to it and the descriptions pull you right into your surroundings.  The plot is full of twists and turns and you never know what you are going to find with each page you turn.  Emily is a wonderful character; she is realistic, plucky, takes on a ton of responsibility for her age, has a lot of backbone, and at times is quite witty and sarcastic.

The surrounding characters are all quirky and interesting.  I enjoyed the complicated politics between the Fairy King, Fairy Queen, and the Invisible Order.  This is a middle grade book that assumes its readers are intelligent people who love a good story.  At times this story channels some dark fairy tale-like elements too.

The writing was easy to read and very well done.  The pace perfect, I never got bored and never felt overwhelmed.  This book was very hard to put down and I read it in record time.  The story is well wrapped up, but leaves some open story threads for the next book.  I am really looking forward to reading more of this series and so glad I decided to read this book.

Overall a wonderful new book in a great new series.  The setting is dark and Victorian, Emily makes a wonderful heroine with a bit of a sense of humor and a strong sense of self.  There are unexpected things happening at every page turn and I just loved it.  Fans of The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Percy and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, Cornelia Funke's Reckless, Catherin Fisher's Incarceron and the Bartimeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud will find a lot in this book to love.  Great for all ages of readers.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge