Holly is a regular girl who discovers an amazing new world through her grandfathers painting. She then attends a school that teaches her how to use art magic and discovers some wicked plots in the mean time.

I love books that involve paintings or drawings coming to life and also books with unique magic systems. This one has some really well done imaginations that took common tropes but added life freshness to them. I love the concept of the Unfinished and even more so that Holly got to know one personally.

Would recommend to those who love diving into unique worlds other than our own.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately I have been unable to get into it. DNF @ 15%.

A wonderful children's tale. Loads of magic, mystery, fantasy and for sure adventure. It's a great story with a griping plot. It works really well as a stand alone but we all know that I am going to read the entire series.

What a great start to a series The Gallery of Wonders is a great story that I will be reading again I really loved Holly and her friends. I'll be on the lookout for the paperbacks so I can have these on my shelf

Magical story I am sure kids 5th grade and up will find captivating! Love these tales! I think fans of Harry Potter will enjoy this story. As it is a series, too, there will be more to look forward to I hope!

This was an interesting book to read, and I had mixed feelings throughout. The cover looked fun and the premise intrigued me. Though when I first began, I was a bit leery on how similar Holly’s situation was to Harry, in the Harry Potter series – an eleven-year-old who lost both parents and living with people who really dislike and mistreat her. However, I decided to continue reading, and I found the similarities to be fairly unoriginal and bothersome to read.

In general, the children in the book are likable, but aren’t very developed. For the most part, the characters are one-dimensional and hold one purpose. The “smart one” always has an answer usually coming from a book, the “unkind one” has superficial things to say (she changes a bit toward the end), and the “generic friend” is just that – a generic friend. I didn’t feel as if I really got to know anyone.

The plot was just a bit too odd and unrealistic for me to believe. Yes, this is fantasy, but there’s a way to make the fantasy world seem natural and not forced. Falling into a painting for a whole year without a care in the world and the loved ones they left behind just seems too odd. There was kind of an explanation given at the end, but it wasn’t very satisfying. Though this is a children’s book, I felt there wasn’t a lot of substance here either.

Now, the biggest pet peeve of mine is the unoriginal take on the book. There were too many similarities to Harry Potter for my liking. Here are some of the ways that the two are similar:

- an orphaned eleven-year-old lives with people who mistreat her and she enters a magical world
- goes to a magical school, away from home for a whole year
- using a stick-like object to create magic (Harry Potter – a wand; Magora – a paintbrush)
- a brainy friend who always refers to a book for answers
- students/people prejudiced against those who aren’t “full” (Harry Potter – Muggle-born; Magora – Unfinished ones)
- a teacher who seems evil and distrustful, who ends up being okay
- performative tests in front of others to prove how much students are capable of
- a street of shops full of magical objects and food
- Holly is the only one who is able to hear a seemingly bodiless voice in her head

I could be overly sensitive toward this as I am a Harry Potter fan. After all, Harry Potter is the reason I love reading and I grew up with him. However, I couldn’t look past on the parts that seemed to have been pulled right from Harry Potter.

Overall, if a child read this before reading Harry Potter, they might fall in love with the concept of traveling to an unfamiliar world. Perhaps, it would be a place that they’d want to visit if they could. Also, the concept of using art in this fashion could easily pull some children into the world of Magora. For me, though, The Gallery of Wonders did not leave a very good first impression. I would perhaps recommend this to children who would like to visit a new world, which mixes art with magic.

I received a free copy of The Gallery of Wonders, Magora Book 1, by Marc Remus in exchange for an honest review. Holly O’Flanigan is an orphan and is being required to stay with a foster family instead of with her grandfather. Her grandfather passes away and leaves Holly all alone. Shortly thereafter, Holly and three other children fall into the fantastical world of Magora. In Magora, the inhabitants use paintbrushes rather than wands to create magic. It seems to be a wonderful place; however, that wonder is threatened by the menacing Cuspidor, who seeks to take over everything.

This story was highly entertaining. I found it enjoyable. I would recommend it for children who like stories of fantasy, fantasy worlds, and escape to boarding schools.

#TheGalleryOfWonders #NetGalley

My 11 year old daughter and I both read the book one after the other and we both absolutely loved it. We loved it so much, we recommended it for purchase at our local library and at the school library!

In the veins of awesome middle grade fantasy this one will sit in wonder on my shelf right next to Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia. It an amazing story with loveable characters with a story that easily pulls you and you feel like your a part of this magical world in cased in stunning artwork. The author is a painter so he does a impeccable job of describing the brush strokes used in magic working, the details in paintings, and of course the wonderful way they traveled to Magora.

The first book in the series and it has captivated me and my 9 and 11 year old daughters. We requested these books to be read during homeschooling and we read them even when we're not. Full of adventure and mystery and wonderful characters, this is a definite must read for all who enjoy middle grade books! We will be posting a full review on the blog (and cross posting to Amazon and Goodreads) very soon.