January 27th's Book Beginnings and Friday 56

It's Friday!  That means it is time for this week's Book Beginnings and Friday 56.

I'm switching things up a bit from my usual cozy mystery and featuring a middle grade fantasy novel - Secret Origins, the third Story Thieves book by James Riley.

                                                               


This series features characters who can jump into and out of books and seriously messes with the line between fiction and reality, but in a very fun way.

You can see that from how the book begins:

The evil King of All Stories held his enormous eraser to Bethany's head as she tried to escape.
"It's too late, heroes!" the king told Owen, Kiel, and Charm.  "There's nothing you can do!  Now I'll erase the parts of Bethany's life story that make her a good person, thereby turning her into my evil minion.  The, together, we'll invade the nonfictional world and rule everything!"

Yes, that really is the opening paragraphs.  Jumps you right into things, doesn't it?

Speaking of jumping, let's jump ahead to page 56, where we find this:

As they left the room, the lights of the blue-fire portal began to flicker, causing the shadows to dance.
Then the shadows pulled away from the portal to follow Bethany and Owen.

Told you it was something different.

As I mentioned, this is the third in a series, and you really need to start at the beginning to understand all of them, but they are so delightful!

If you are intrigued, I'll be posting my review of the book on Sunday.  I hope to see you then.