Firstly, I’d like to congratulate Ross on his nomination for The Costa Book Awards for his fantastical World War 2 adventure ‘The Midnight Guardians’ – it’s quite unlike anything I’ve read before!

So now that you know the calibre of the writer we’re dealing with here, I know you’ll be excited to hear about his newest novel: ‘The Chime Seekers.’

‘Step into a world of faerie tricks and hidden danger…

When an evil faerie steals Yanni’s baby sister and swaps her for a changeling, Yanni is swept into a dangerous race against time to get her back. 

For faeries delight in tricks and rescuing her won’t be easy. With the help of his cousin, Amy, and the reluctant changeling, Yanni must travel to goblin palaces and battle-swept oceans, discovering ancient treasures and secrets along the way. 

Yanni will need every drop of courage and even a few tricks of his own, if he’s to outwit the faerie and save his sister…’

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Well this was an utterly compelling read full of faerie magic at its darkest and most malevolent. Definitely not the twinkly, kind-hearted type of fairies you often see in children’s books. Lorde Renwin is possibly the most bitter, hatred-filled, trickster I’ve ever read about and makes a fittingly frightening villain for this piece.

The idea that there’s a whole faerie kingdom with its own rules and battles hiding just a heartbeat away from ours makes an excellent premise for a story. I love that the landmarks there are familiar but very different to those in the human world. Everyday items brought to life and given personalities – an idea borne out of Montgomery naming the inanimate objects he saw on his boring daily walks during lockdown.

Yanni himself is a complex and sometimes not very likeable character. His very ambivalent feelings for his new baby sister and his anger at his parents for the upheaval (physical and emotional) this change has caused make him very bitter at the start of his story. And he is thoroughly unpleasant to his second cousin Amy when all she wants to do is help. However, as Yanni progresses on his quest to rescue his sister from the evil Lorde Renwin, we start to see a different side of him.

A fantastic read for anyone who likes their books a little on the dark side, glimmering with magic, and packed with breath-taking action! 9+

Library Girl.

*Many thanks to Walker Books for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour*