20 Books of Summer: Book 4

What a wondrously exhilarating, heart-warming adventure!  Sparkling with excitement, exploration, danger and discoveries, Echo’s action-packed adventures completely enthralled me, and I can’t wait to go adventuring with her again. 

Echo doesn’t feel that she belongs in Lockfort City and yearns for a life of adventure which is a problem as she has been told that nothing exists beyond the City walls … until the night the rather eccentric Professor Mangrove Daggerwing sails his airship into her life and shares a map … and so begins the adventure she has been waiting for, an adventure to find her mother with nothing more than a hairpin with a wolf’s head and a belief that her mother did not abandon her as a baby.

Echo finds herself sailing to Port Tourbillon with her best friend, Gilbert (who happens to be THE most adorable lizard), the rather timid Prince Horace who sneaks aboard the sky-ship and the Professor.  Tracking down her one connection to her mother, Echo soon finds herself on the run from the Queen’s Guards, making new friends and in search of the infamous Black Sky Wolves sky-pirates.  Her search leads to danger, incredible discoveries and new beginnings … and I just have to mention the carnivorous plants!

The world-building is absolutely superb from the uniformity of Lockfort and its people to the riot of colour and rich diversity that is Port Tourbillon to the old-fashioned and delightful sky-ship which really made me want to join the adventure … even if I am afraid of heights.  I’d love to have tea on a hammock, but I might have to say no to the squibnuts!

I absolutely adored Echo.  She has an adventurer’s soul:  determined, curious and courageous with a sense of justice and a kind heart.  Gilbert, her lizard, is a loyal, helpful and intuitive companion who she has an almost telepathic connection with.  I never thought I’d say this, but I want a Gilbert! I also really liked Horace who adores books and is fascinated by butterflies.  He may not be a typical hero, and is a rather reluctant adventurer, but, when it matters most, he proves himself to be a loyal friend who is braver than he believes and shows that words can be just as important as actions when it comes to courage.  The friendship between Echo and Horace is brilliant:   they may bicker and argue but, when it matters, they always look out for each other.

This is an unmissable, action-packed adventure into an exciting immersive world that kept me entranced throughout. I have been seeing some of the wonderful illustrations by Mark Chambers which will be in the final version of the book, so am keen to purchase a copy when it is published.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.