"A Book of Spirits and Thieves" by Morgan Rhodes

This is another first book in a new YA fantasy series that just came out at the end of June. Morgan Rhodes is the author of the widely popular Falling Kingdoms series, which I have not read yet. A Book of Spirits and Thieves is a Falling Kingdoms spin-off but features completely new characters and is set in a different time period. 

Now to the plot. The book is written from 3 perspectives. The first one is Crystal, a modern-day seventeen-year-old, who one day opens a package addressed to her mother, which arrived at a Toronto bookstore that her family owns. Her younger sister Becca touches the book and falls into a coma. This sets Crystal on the path of learning about the mysterious book and discovering quite a few deeply buried family secrets. 

The second point of view is that of Farrell, a nineteen-year-old heir to the Grayson fortune, a wealthy modern day Canadian family. The Graysons are all members of a secret society that aims to save the world from evil. Farrell does not attend any school or has job, he spends a lot of time partying and is generally a disappointment to his parents. When the leader of the secret society invites Farrell to join his inner circle, Farrell finally sees an opportunity to make something worthwhile of his life.

Finally, we get the perspective of Maddox, a sixteen-year old wizard living in a parallel fantasy world of Ancient Mytica. He one day meets a spirit that looks like a young girl from a completely different world, who is of course Becca. Her spirit gets transported to Mytica while her body is in a coma back in Canada. Maddox vows to help Becca return home.

In the beginning we follow three seemingly unconnected perspectives as each of the three characters sets out on their individual paths. As the story progresses their paths start to cross and intertwine until everything comes together at the very end. 

Parts of this book were kind of slow especially in the beginning and I started to lose interest. But then in the last 100 pages or so things finally started to come together. I also wish we could learn a bit more about Becca since she is bound to play a bigger role in the series going forward. But we only see her through the eyes of Crystal and Maddox. I therefore did not feel any special connection to her character. My favorite by far is Farrell. I like complex and morally gray characters. Farrell fits squarely into that category and I can't wait to see how things will go for him in the next installment. Overall, a very enjoyable book, I rated it 4 out of 5 stars and will definitely be reading the sequel.