Review: Story Thieves by James Riley

Title: Story Thieves

Author: James Riley
Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Goodreads

'Life is boring when you live in the real world, instead of starring in your own book series. Owen knows that better than anyone, what with the real world’s homework and chores.But everything changes the day Owen sees the impossible happen—his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the library. It turns out Bethany’s half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character.Bethany can’t let anyone else learn her secret, so Owen makes her a deal: All she has to do is take him into a book in Owen’s favorite Kiel Gnomenfoot series, and he’ll never say a word. Besides, visiting the book might help Bethany find her father…

…Or it might just destroy the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, reveal Bethany’s secret to the entire world, and force Owen to live out Kiel Gnomenfoot’s final (very final) adventure.'

My Thoughts

Rating:  

As someone who dreams about jumping into books daily, I fell in love with this story before I even read it. 

Owen is living a normal and quite boring life until he one day sees his classmate Bethany climbing out of a book in the library. Turns out Bethany is half-fictional and is searching through the fictional worlds to find her (quite fictional) father, who went missing. Owen agrees to keep her secret a secret, but only if she takes him into his favorite books; the Kiel Gnomenfoot series. But then, everything goes horribly wrong, which results into Owen getting to play the part of Kiel Gnomenfoot. 

This was such a wonderful read! It was so funny and clever and entertaining and  magical and action packed and the characters were AMAZING and I don't know how to write this review without fangirling a lot.

Let's try again: Story Thieves was a very entertaining read from start to finish. The author is very clever and has created an amazing story line, which makes you wonder about the differences between reality and fiction, while making you laugh out loud. There's a plot within the plot, and there's so much going on but it all makes sense. I applaud the author, James Riley, because I don't know how he did it. 

The characters, Owen and Bethany, are amazing and feel very real, like they could climb out of the book at any moment. Same goes for the fictional characters (well, of course Owen and Bethany are fictional too, but the fictional people in the story. Eh, the people that are in the books in this book. HOW DO I EXPLAIN THIS?). The characters make you laugh, frustrate you and even make you feel a bit emotional (AKA everything the perfect character will do to you). 

Overall, this book was a very fun read, and I'm excited to see what'll happen to Owen and Bethany next.