Fourteen-year-old Goff, having faced off against a dark wizard, is ready to enjoy his days at a boarding school. Elsewhere, his \u201cmagical friends from past adventures,\u201d Bones and Maxim, find and inadvertently activate a Time Lock. Around the campus, Goff, his romantic interest, and his best friends all vanish with a \u201cpop.\u201d The story then moves to a past era\u2014the kingdom of Slaathwick, in which Goffren works in the Royal Kitchen. When he delivers food to a royal, the result is unexpectedly lethal, and reputed murderer Goffren lands in the dungeon. Luckily, his friends, from performer assistant Lydianna to potions apprentice Halstrohm, help him escape and prove his innocence. That entails making their way to an eerie castle on an even spookier island. They also stumble on someone\u2019s diabolical plan to overthrow the kingdom, which they can thwart by warning the royal family\u2014preferably without getting tossed in the dungeon, or worse. Gracely practically sprints through the present-day opening, and readers unfamiliar with the earlier installments will likely get confused. But once in Slaathwick, the similarly named characters (for example, Lydia becomes Lydianna) are essentially brand new, with their own backstories. This lengthy (over 370 pages) but well-written adventure is consistently thrilling. Goffren, Lydianna, and Halstrohm pass through a dark forest, deal with gargoyles and various other creatures, and experience heaps of magic. The magic even involves Goffren. He\u2019s secretly a magic-capable Verlokken\u2014a being who, according to a minstrel\u2019s song, should be feared. In addition, recurring scenes with Bones, who\u2019s an actual skeleton, and Maxim, a cat, are fun. The two watch everything unfold via the Time Lock, and Maxim must insist that Bones not help their friends in peril. The benevolent action could \u201ccause a breach in the time continuum that turns everything on its head.\u201d While the final act offers some resolution, it\u2019s aimed more at setting up another installment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourteen-year-old Goff, having faced off against a dark wizard, is ready to enjoy his days at a boarding school. Elsewhere, his \u201cmagical friends from past adventures,\u201d Bones and Maxim, find and inadvertently activate a Time Lock. Around the campus, Goff, his romantic interest, and his best friends all vanish with a \u201cpop.\u201d The story then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}