Review--A Book of Spirits and Thieves by Morgan Rhodes

Modern-day sisters discover deadly ancient magic in book 1 of this Falling Kingdoms spin-off series!

Worlds collide in this suspenseful, page-turning Falling Kingdoms spin-off series, which explores a whole new side of Mytica—and an even darker version of its magic.

Crystal Hatcher, Modern-day Toronto: It’s a normal afternoon in her mother’s antique bookshop when Crys witnesses the unthinkable: her little sister Becca collapses into a coma after becoming mesmerized by a mysterious book written in an unrecognizable language.

Maddox Corso, Ancient Mytica: Maddox Corso doesn’t think much of it when he spots an unfamiliar girl in his small village. Until, that is, he realizes that she is a spirit, and he is the only one who can see or hear her. Her name is Becca Hatcher, and she needs Maddox to help get her home.

Farrell Grayson, Modern-day Toronto: Rich and aimless Farrell Grayson is thrilled when the mysterious leader of the ultra-secret Hawkspear Society invites him into the fold. But when he learns exactly what he has to do to prove himself, Farrell starts to question everything he thought he knew about family, loyalty, and himself….

Fate has brought these young people together, but ancient magic threatens to rip them apart.

Morgan Rhodes’ hit series, Falling Kingdoms breaks new ground with the Spirits and Thieves series’ debut, A Book of Spirits and Thieves! It was an astonishing read and I was gripping the pages the entire time while reading because it was incredible and filled to the brim with awesomeness!

Crystal and Becca are two sisters who couldn’t be more different from one another, they work in their family bookstore and Crys actually prefers spending her time snapping pictures around town, while Becca could easily lose herself in a good book. Then one day, their eccentric aunt sends a book to their mother that they open up out of curiosity and immediately something powerful happens to Becca that leaves her in a cationic state.

True to Rhodes’ fashion, we get different points of view in this book, this time only three, so the multiple stories felt better controlled, though it was still a little while until we could see how everything gets connected back to one another. Our second narrator is Farrell, who is basically your ultimate bad boy/rich boy. Though there were times when you could really sympathize for the guy, but he has yet to truly win me over! He’s still stung with dealing with his older brother’s death a year ago and spends most of the time partying it up every night, taking care of his younger brother who seems to follow his dangerous path…and is a standing member of a secret society!

Yes! Secret society!

Our final character/narrator is a young boy, Maddox—fifteen or so—who lives in Mytica and has his own brand of special powers that he is struggling to learn to control. He has a rather evil and vile mentor who makes him work cons in helping people get rid of “ghosts” that they have. Really, there are no ghosts, yet Maddox does have the power to see them. That’s when he starts to see the ghost of a peculiar looking girl, who is none other than Becca!

I’m always amazed at how Morgan can intertwine these characters’ lives together! Especially considering one of them lives in a completely different world and time. And their goals all seem to coincide with one another too. Crys is desperate to save her sister, Farrell is told by his society leader to befriend Crys and see what she knows about magic and a very specific book, and naturally, Maddox is trying to help the beautiful Becca and her quest to get back home. And we learn of more connections of this society and its mysterious leader with connections to Mytica as well! It’s all about the connections! LOL!

As far as romance goes, it’s a bit of a pickle! From the getgo, you figure something might happen between Crys and Farrell, though Farrell is a little more nefarious in instigating a relationship, naturally. And then there’s poor Becca and Maddox who have the whole from different worlds thing going on, plus Becca is incorporeal the entire time she’s with him. But I am definitely interested to see where things might or might not go with these possible love connections!

The pacing was awesome! I love all the secrets and twists and the secrets within secrets! There were some pretty astonishing jawdroppers thrown about in this one! I wasn’t expecting that from the first book in the series, but just wow! And the ending! Eep! It’s the kind of ending that resolves things nicely, to a point, but still leaves you wondering where these characters will go next! I will basically be on pins and needles waiting for word of the next book, because just like the Falling Kingdoms series, I have been completely swept away by everything I just read! The characters, the plot, the pacing, the world-building were all beyond exceptional! It’s the perfect blend of fantasy and modern world settings as well! And like its predecessor series, the fantasy elements are never overly complex with intricate laws and rules of the land! It’s simply magical!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars