https://lynns-books.com/2017/04/20/game-of-shadows-by-erika-lewis/
Game of Shadows is a tale of adventure, a coming of age story that focuses on a teenage boy called Ethan Makkai. The abridged version of this review is that whilst I don’t think this book worked for me personally, I can certainly see the appeal for the target audience. This is undoubtedly a fun and fast paced read, maybe a little too young for my tastes but still very easy to read and with plenty of imagination.

As the story begins we make the acquaintance of Ethan. He lives in Los Angeles in a cramped apartment with his mother. We immediately learn that his mother is very protective – a tad over protective really, in fact it becomes apparent that Ethan very rarely has a moment of freedom, he is literally shepherded from A to B and back again and whilst he handles this with a good deal more grace than I would be able to muster he’s beginning to push at the boundaries. On the morning of his birthday he finally makes a bold dash to escape his mother’s clutches and scarpers off to school by himself whilst her back is turned. His little moment of liberation however is going to cost him a lot more than he ever expected and within minutes of leaving home it seems that everything goes to hell in a handcart.

Ethan sees dead people – okay, he sees spirits of dead people. They’re drawn to him and maybe this is the source of his mother’s paranoia concerning his safety. On top of this Ethan seems to have attracted the attention of the school bully who seems to take great delight in singling him out for special attention. Ethan’s life may not sound ideal but as he heads to school that morning, accompanied by his friend Skylar, who he secretly harbours a crush on, he really has no idea how lucky he’s been up to this point. Pretty soon he finds himself accosted by the local bully, a number of ghosts and an old sea faring fellow claiming to be his grandfather. He discovers his mother has been kidnapped and in order to find her he must sail the seas and cross over into a completely different world. From hereon in the rules are completely different, the impossible is probable and Ethan begins to discover that his mother has been keeping secrets from him.

I’ll start out with the parts of the book that I liked. I thought the story got off to a very good start, I was intrigued about Ethan, why was his mother so protective, what was the low down with his ability to see spirits. The author really did intrigue me with her suggestion of mystery, ravens that seemed to spy on the small family and a general sense that something was lurking just ready to pounce. I thought the pacing was great – I mean there’s no shortage of action, the author has tried to inject a good dose of humour and frankly I found this a very quick read.

However, my niggles. And these are the areas that I think single me out as not being the target audience. These are just the little things that don’t sit well for me, where once I’ve thought them I can’t leave them alone and they eventually just annoy the hell out of me. Now, I understand that tropes are only tropes because we enjoy them when all is said and done. However, there is a slight feeling that the tropes here are a little too much in abundance (which is another reason why I think a younger reader might enjoy this more, somebody just stepping onto the fantasy ladder where everything feels fresh). For example, Ethan and his mum. Many cliches right here. A mother who, having run away and gone into hiding, completely hides her son’s heritage. Tells him nothing thereby leaving him a good deal more vulnerable than needs be. A young boy who it turns out is not only the heir to the throne but on top of that it seems he has some sort of magical ability (hence the ghosts above).

If we take a closer look at Ethan. I actually started out really quite liking him but that changed a little when he reached the magical continent of Tara. For me, his character seemed in conflict with itself, sometimes he seemed to be downright broody and sulky, petulant almost, and yet at the same time he managed to calmly accept everything that was thrown at him from this strange new world. So, you can sulk because your newly found father shows somebody else more attention than you but a monster chasing you through the woods is nothing to get excited about. Maybe that’s just his terrible teens kicking in.

Then we have the adventure. There’s plenty going on and the author encompasses lots of ideas here as our little band of travellers go on their way. Basically, Ethan has run away from the relative safety of the castle to go in search of his mother. Along the way he manages to acquire the help of his cousin Christian and a young woman, the daughter of one of the generals – who turns out to be a sorceress. The three of them set off to find Ethan’s father, a man who he believed to be dead – and who it seems is something of a rough and ready character who lives a fairly wild existence and will be just the sort that you need on this sort of quest – if you want to know which direction to go in that is. Again, I quite like the idea of the whole adventure and there’s plenty that takes place along the way, but, I had a number of occasions where events were far too easily resolved or where assistance was offered from the strangest quarter. For me, it felt like the plot became a little bit too much of a certainty. Somehow it just drained the story of the tension that should have existed and made me second guess everything along the way.

Overall, yes, I admit that this book wasn’t really for me. I didn’t dislike it by any means, it was a quick read and the pages flew by but I think it’s an adventure story for a younger audience.

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Game of Shadows, by Erika Lewis, begins brilliantly. Ethan, a sympathetic adolescent hero who can see ghosts, stands up to a school bully. It’s the first time he’s escaped from his mother’s close supervision, something he’s struggled against for as long as he can remember. When he returns, triumphant from his school yard encounter, he finds she’s been kidnapped. Not only that, but a mysterious, dramatic wild-eyed man rails at him that the two of them should never be separated, that the mysterious Ravens have taken her, and then sweeps our hero off on a sailing ship into waters and lands unknown. I very much enjoyed this opening. And then they arrive at aforementioned Lands Unknown and the story descended into the pedestrian. What started out as initiative and spunk quickly became smart-mouthed, sullen rebellion in the face of reason, a refusal to recognize his own ignorance or limitations, and generally puerile behavior toward the people who could be his guides and mentors. This unrelenting attitude spoiled what could have been an exciting coming-of-age adventure for me. I found myself so impatient and critical that I gave up on the book halfway through. I hope other readers have a more positive experience because there's a lot to like in this book.

I found this book slow starting, but really enjoyed the whole narrative and how the characters developed.

So this really isn't my typical read, when I picked this to review it was because the young man sees ghost and that had me leaning more towards paranormal not fantasy. Although I must admit that I think I really needed a read that was not my norm because I really enjoyed it.

Ethan is feeling suffocated by his mother because he can't go anywhere without her, she walks him to school which gets him laughed at. It's his birthday and he wants to be able to just walk to school on his own and she refuses he takes off when she was in the bathroom.

This starts the turn of events in Ethan's life that will change him forever as he finds out that there was a reason she kept him so close to her, now his mother has been kidnapped and he has ravens chasing after him. Capt. Barlett who has been watching out for him grabs him and takes him with him on a ship where they go through a storm of sorts and end up in Tara, the land of his mothers.

Here he finds out that his mother was a princess and he is their heir because he possesses the ability to see a ghost. It is how they know he is the heir but everyone thinks that Landover has no heir and there is an evil sorcerer who is trying to get his hands on the land but doesn't know about him.

Ethan is a bit of a hot head at first and it's easy to see why, he is tossed into this weird situation, his mother is kidnapped by a horrible villain and he is determined to get her back. Sneaks out with a couple of other teens and a search to find the father he didn't know he had. I like Ethan but sometimes I wanted to smack him as well and I felt bad for General Niles who really wanted to smack him too.

This was a fun adventure story with unicorns, brownies, sprites and some other weird creatures. Since it's a fantasy I will overlook the fact that Ethan became quite good with a sword after only a few lessons. :) My only real complaint is the fact that it left me hanging on that cliff. :( I thought it was going to end with all is good and then bam. ERRRR. :( :)

It will go live on my blog http://booksmoviesreviewsohmy.com on Feb. 28th.

Sadly this didn't quite work for me, there are several reasons for this and to be honest I think I might like this as a movie. In fact this did remind me of some beloved childhood favorites...
Alas I ain't no child for a long time now so maybe I am just too old for this one? Who knows.

The storyline is the best and only redeeming part of this book in my opinion. It's fast paced, though some things are very predictable, it's never dull and has many entertaining twists and turns.

Now the writing style is simply put not exactly to my taste.
The dialogues were cliche to the point, that they are corny. And I actually thought that maybe it was done by purpose, you know the craptastic kinda vibes, but no matter how hard I tried, they still were just corny.
Then there were inconsistencies- they small mind you- but they annoyed me. As example Ethan's reaction in the beginning? Well, actually there was no reaction. It was like someone told him, you just thought the sun would shine today, it's going to rain. So he thought to himself, yeah that makes sense... No shock, no fear, no fury, no .. well there was nothing zip, zero. There are quite a few more actually. But I won't list them all. Let's just leave it at the inconsistencies annoyed the hell out of me. And yes I know I am being picky and all that, but they just did.
I think this was enhanced by the character building. Don't misunderstand me, I quite like the cast, all of them. But the problem was that they were all a bit flat. There is no real substance to them. And I think that's why I found their action/ reactions at times totally inconsistent, out of character and basically made no sense- even if they were cliche deluxe.

Maybe this is meant for a different reader? I would however go watch this in movies, cause it does promise a whole lot of corny fun

Over the years, fantasy has splintered into various sub-genres, urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, paranormal, and medieval. Stories involving magically enabled American who enters a magical fantasy world to save the day are abundant, some very good, others less so. Game of Shadows by Erika Lewis is a fun read that hits all of the high notes, while maintaining some restraint in the young hero's use of magic and showing a learning curve with respect to other medieval skills While we as readers want to see magic, it can overwhelm a story. Indeed, immediate super powers in all things medieval also detracts. Unless a god endows a character with super powers, it can be hard to believe that a teen from California ends up in magical land and immediately can kill with a sword against trained warriors. Thankfully Lewis has a refined pen. Despite horse riding lessons in Los Angeles, Ethan is not automatically a great horseman. Her young hero wins the day with courage, smarts and using his nascent magical skills of talking to ghosts. He also gets help from others. It's a winning combination.

Ethan Makkai lives in California, a freshman in high school, believes his mother Caitrionai is overprotective. He knows that his ability to talk to ghosts is unusual but wants to be his own person. On his birthday, he escapes his tight apartment only to be attacked by the school bully, who he bests, but his triumph is short-lived, as magical invaders from Tara, Caitrionai homeland, attack him on the streets and kidnap her His savior, a Captain Bartlett takes him back to Tara.

Lewis shows a deft hand with world building. Tara is composed of eight lands and multiple different inhabitants. When Ethan arrives in Landover, his ancestral realm, he is eager to go after his mother, but General Niles, the war leader is reluctant to let him go. Ethan is the heir and must present himself to the other kings to prove his power.

Ethan cannot wait and escapes with Lily Niles and his cousin Christian to find his mother, who is being held by the Ravens, shape shifters, who have aligned with the evil imprisoned sorcerer Sawney Bean. It seems that Bean believes he can use Caitrionai to free himself from his prison and to power a spell of potent evil. Ethan later teams up with Runyun Cooper, his unknown father, who knows the way to Sawney Bean's prison.

But on the way the questers have to escape the Glatisant, a huge monstrous beast, convince some bothersome wood sprites to let them go, escape from the muscular Fomorian king and elude the wild milcai. There is little down time in this engaging novel. As the story progresses, we see Lily form a bond with Ethan that makes her magic grow more powerful, and Ethan learns to use his ability to talk to ghosts.

Sawney Bean has powerful magic at his call, an army of the undead to fight for him. There will be a confrontation with Sawney Bean, a traitor will be revealed and Ethan will have to put on the line his ability to talk to ghosts to prove he is the rightful heir. This young adult action packed adventure and quest novel is worth it. Join the quest.

4 stars (Release date Feb. 28, 2017)

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is a fast-paced, fun fantasy read. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next book in the series. The story begins in modern day L.A. Ethan, a 14 year old boy, has an over protective mother, girl troubles and a bully problem. Ethan also has a big secret that further complicates his life; he can see and communicate with ghosts. When he slips away from his mother to walk to school for the first time ever, he is suddenly attacked by a flock of ravens. A mysterious man named Bartlett helps him escape but when Ethan returns home, he finds his home ransacked and his mother gone.

Bartlett tells Ethan that his mother has been kidnapped and taken back to Tara, his homeland. Tara is a hidden continent that can only be reached by ship. Bartlett and Ethan arrive on Tara where Ethan discovers a medieval world similar to Ireland. Tara is in chaos. The King has been murdered and Ethan discovers that he is the heir to the throne. Ethan realizes that his mother has been keeping some very big secrets. He is told that his mother has been kidnapped by an evil sorcerer intent on escaping captivity and conquering Tara.

As Ethan comes to grips with his new circumstances, he sets out on a quest to save his mother and thwart the evil sorcerer's plan. Ethan is aided by a young girl, Lily, who has magical powers of her own and his cousin, Christian, son to the murdered King. Ethan is also surprised to learn that his father, Runyon Cooper, is alive and holds the key to finding his mother. Ethan and company encounter several people and creatures along the way, some that help and others that hinder. As with all quests, not all is as it seems.

The story is a little frantic at times, but overall, is a very entertaining read. The worldbuilding isn't extensive, but is sufficient to allow the reader to understand Tara and its inhabitants. There are plenty of characters to like and hate, as well as interesting new creatures to discover. While Ethan seems to miraculously have courage, fighting skills, and cunning at the most opportune times, this is easy to overlook if you want to just enjoy the story.

I recommend you read this book.

I did not know about the novel before reading it but the synopsis, mixed with a touch of urban fantasy and fantasy, seemed quite promising. And did you see that cover? Really appealing!

Ethan is an overprotected boy, he can not step outside without his mother accompanying him… Even if he understands that his gift that allows him to see ghosts can attract trouble, he still wants to be free and go out at will. It is also what he finally does on his birthday, in secret, to go to school. Unfortunately he does not expect such consequences … Indeed, in his absence, his mother is kidnapped and he is saved from a fight by a man who claims to be his grandfather when he knows he has no family. Discovering the truth about his existence, Ethan travels to a hidden continent called Tara, which seems to have come straight out of a dream. Indeed, if technology is not wise in this place, there are magicians, sorcerers, unicorns and other creatures. And it would seem that Ethan is the heir to the throne.

Even if everyone tries to keep his identity secret and to protect him, our hero is determined to save his mother whatever happens. This quest will allow us to discover a little more about his true identity and his gifts and this will give us the opportunity to learn a little more about this world of which we know nothing about.

This adventure will not be easy for Ethan and everyone seems to expect something from him. Adapting to his new life, we will discover the main characters of the story be it the nice or the bad ones like Christian, Lily or Bean. I had a good time with the story and I was curious to know the rest of the events. The characters evolve and we discover their true nature. In any case, the end of the story opens new perspectives and I am curious to discover what will happen thereafter.