July British Book Challenge 2011: The Blackhope Enigma

Title: The Blackhope Enigma
Author: Teresa Flavin
Published: Templar publishing, 2010

Synopsis: When Sunni Forrest’s stepbrother accidentally transports himself into a Renaissance painting, she and her friend Blaise set out to bring him back. They find themselves in a strange world of labyrinths, monsters and pirates.

Can they evade their greedy pursuers? And will they ever find their way home?
 
Star parts:  So after saying that I wasn't really into YA, here's another. Someone once made a flippant comment about illustrators 'having no idea how to write'. From what I've read of Flavin's blog I would say that she considers herself an artist and the words on the page paint such vivid pictures. From the Tower to the inside of the painting and the different layers of it, everything was so vivid. I was constantly amazed by Flavin's imagination. She has created a world full of intrigue and wonder and it kept me turning the pages again and again. The characters are put through the mill again and again and again. Each of the characters change in some ways along the way, and the ending forces Sunni to make some tough choices.

Black clouds: We were plunged straight into the action (which I like), but I think I'd liked to have known who Sunni and Blaise were before the life changing experience, but that's more a little wonder rather than anything significantly annoying.

Do I recommend it: Oh absolutely. I loved it. I loved all the characters, good and bad. The little hint of possible future 'lurve' action was intriguing, but didn't detract from the story. I just really, really loved it and The Crimson Shard is out in October, so I'm quite excited about that too.

This is the eighth book I've reviewed for the British Book Challenge.  Still got two more reviews to do before I'm all caught up, although I may have finished THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST by then. I'm not sure what I'm thinking about that book at the moment, but I'll save my views for the review. 

Also, just in case you aren't paying attention to the Twitterverse or Blogosphere, we're in the middle of ABBA's first ever online literary festival. If you didn't get a chance to catch anything today, don't worry because it will always be there. I think my highlight of today was Mary Hoffman and Anne Rooney's conversation. I hope they don't mind me saying this, but I loved the fact that the camera was off centre and that it was so 'not' professional and yet they really put across their passion.