The thing about self publishing is that it’s entirely possible to write and publish a book without any reference to anyone else, before sending it off to a blogger/reviewer for review. With this method there are no checks and balances, no editing or proofreading other than that provided by the author and it’s entirely possible to produce a book that’s a load of codswallop and very poorly written. That’s not the case here.

I don’t know where Blythe got my details from to email me and ask me to read and review her book but I’m grateful she did as it’s a very promising first book. It looks to be the first in a series of children’s chapter books and I can see boys and girls enjoying it. There’s no potty humour like some Andy Griffiths books but there are some solid fantasy tropes and the writing shows promise.

Here’s the description:

When Jake Finnegan accidentally creates a powerful spell, he and his sister Milly are transported to the Fae Kingdom, a mystical realm where clockwork creatures roam the sky and leprechauns make flying shoes. Caught up in a conspiracy threatening the realm’s Immortal Rulers, the children join forces with a popular magical newspaper to solve the mystery before the Fae Kingdom is destroyed.

Jake and Milly are dealing with the death of their mother during this first Christmas and all the shenanigans of the Fae Kingdom help. Jake finds that actually talking to his Dad and saying what he wanted to do to remember his Mum gets results, and he finds he can have fun again. But all of this is actually a side issue to the problems they’ve having with the Fae Kingdom and the spell Jake accidentally creates.

You can buy it here which gets me a small amount of cents, it is only available on ePub so your child will need access to an ereader. It’d make a good Christmas/Chanukah/Hogswatch present and would keep them out of trouble for a bit.