Synopsis: Sarah Field lives alone with her dad, a teacher at her school. The two of them share a close bond and, unusually, both have the same birthday, which they also share with Sarah's grandfather, who died when Sarah was small. Sarah knows very little about her grandfather, and her dad insists on keeping it that way.
However, one night, Sarah finds her dad acting in a mysterious way and also hears strange noises after her dad has gone out. Sarah's friends come to the rescue to help her investigate, and they make a shocking discovery. Someone is living in the attic! And that someone is none other than Sarah's grandfather! But, this is no ordinary grandfather...
With the discovery of her grandfather comes the question as to whether Sarah has the power to give life to the amulet - the Telum Deos - that will help to fight the forces of darkness.
Publication date: 28th May 2020
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
"You will never know what you have till it is taken away."
Welcome to a world where Dracula is real, all the magical and terrifying creatures one can imagine are under his mental control, and four fifteen-year-old students have to save the world from all the creatures of the night with a broken magic amulet. The question is, will they make it? Spoiler: we don't know.
I'm not sure about it, but I hope this book is the beginning of a series, since if it's a standalone it misses at least half the book. Even so, the story has a lot of potential and the writing style is simple as well as descriptive, and altogether captivating, perfect for children.
One of the things I liked about this book is that it's full of geek references, from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Twilight #3.5) itself to Star Wars and Marvel. So from all these references I can guess that Russell Parker is a bit of a geek, which is great for a geek like me, I had so much fun finding these hidden gems in the book.
I have to say that I personally wouldn't be interested in a sequel of this book in particular, because it's a middle grade and I'm not a huge fan of these kind of books, but I surely will read another book I have by R J Parker that's not addressed to middle graders and I'll let you know what I think about it. But of course you should pick Crystal Shadows up if you enjoy reading stories for children or are looking for a quite spooky story to give to your children, that at the same time will introduce them to the world of vampires and Dracula.
Thanks to R. J. Parker for sending me an ARC of his book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: urban fantasy, fiction, middle-grade.
Content warnings: anxiety.
About the author: Russell Parker was born in Bountiful, Utah. As his father was safety manager he had to move around until his senior year of high school, when he came to Cache Valley, Utah to stay. He married the most wonderful woman in the world and they are the parents of four fantastic kids, with one crazy dog.
Russell played all kinds of sports and was an outdoorsman until an accident brought him to writing. A writer since high school, encouragement brought his stories to life.
I hope you're all fine and safe.
So much love,
