I am late to the Arlo Finch party, having missed the first in the series. However, Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon stands pretty sturdily on its own. August explains enough about the Long Woods and the Rangers so a reader new to the series can follow along, although the characters are cool enough that I will definitely go back and read the first in the series.

Here, Arlo and his fellow Rangers Wu and Indra, along with other Rangers, find themselves facing some really weird experiences as they head into their two weeks of camp. There are the usual suspects - the trio of friends who overcome great evil, the obligatory bully, the hip adults, and the scary monsters - all stirred up into a stew of steady action and hair-raising adventures.

Kids who enjoy imaginative adventures will thoroughly enjoy Arlo Finch, in all his books. Recommended for middle grade readers.

This is the second book in the Arlo Finch series. I got a copy of this through NetGalley to review. This is a well written story with some fun adventure and interesting magical creatures.

Arlo is heading to summer camp with his patrol. However, something very odd happens to him when he stumbles into the Eldritch Realm and sees duplicates of his friends there. As Arlo struggles to unravel this mystery he is also drawn in to the mystery of Yellow Patrol and what happened to them.

This is a well written book that I generally enjoyed. I do wish a little less time was spent on camp politics and friendship issues. Additionally, this book deals with time travel which is always a bit of a mess. August over-explains that whole result of the time travel portion a bit too much.

Things tie up nicely in this book though and the story is set up for the next book in the series “Arlo Finch in the Kingdom of Shadows” which is set to release in 2020.

Overall this was a solid book in the Arlo Finch series. I do think kids will enjoy this series more than adults. For me there was a bit too much friendship drama and camp politics, I wanted more focus on the mysterious creatures and the Eldritch realm. I am unsure whether or not I will continue with this series at this point. That being said this is a very well done middle grade fantasy series and I think many will really enjoy it.

Another solid adventure for Arlo Finch. The pacing was excellent, I loved how the mystery around him and why the Eldritch wants him both gets some answers, but also deepens. What I was truly impressed with was how he handled Russell. Nice job.

I was a great fan of the first Arlo Finch book and, thus, greatly excited to read the second. While this particular volume started out slow for me, I was fully hooked and 100% back on Team Arlo by the end. The series is getting somewhat darker, so parents of sensitive kiddos should still use caution (this was also the case with the first book), but for those old enough or hardy enough to manage a bit of monster and trans-dimensional mayhem this is a great addition to a cracking new series.

ARC via NetGalley