Valerie has been living at Lightning Falls nearly all her life. She’s perfectly happy helping Meg and the rest of the family to haunt the guests who come to stay there - it is the Ghost House after all. One night, she sees a strange boy, Joe, up on the viaduct . Here she discovers that beneath the river is a bridge – one that will take her to the world of Orbis, which Joe claims is her real home.
A world that is under threat.
Their magical anchors are being stolen causing the power to seep out of their world, and Joe has journeyed to Lightning falls to win them back. Plunged into a dangerous adventure as the link between the two worlds begins to crumble into star showers, Valerie is forced to confront the truth about herself.
Ok, I'll admit it. Sometimes I have to rethink one of my usual metrics. You may have noticed, in certain reviews, me mentioning how I'm not very fond of stories that start in the middle without explaining anything to the main character, so that neither we nor they know what's going on, and people are having conversations we don't understand and doing things we don't understand and nothing makes sense. Right? Well, I still don't like that kind of story. BUT - this, despite appearances, is not that kind of story.
It has some traces. There are a few scenes where Joe, or Flo, or someone else clearly knows things they aren't telling Valerie - Joe is especially bad at it - but for the most part, nobody's hiding anything particular. Valerie's mystery unfolds at just the right pace, and the ending leaves me very hopeful for more stories set in or around the Ghost Hotel. I like these characters - Meg may be my favourite! - and I'd love to read more about them all.
This is a great read, hopefully the start of a wonderful series but certainly the start of a great career. I can't wait to read the next one.
Lightning Falls publishes on the 19th of August, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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