It took too long to get to the story. I think it may need a bit of tweaking and editing to make it more of an enjoyable read. I found myself sort of skipping through the book, but never finished reading it. The writing itself isn't bad overall, I think it just needs to reigned in a bit in the descriptives and backgrounds of characters. Is this going to be a series?

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed Aline as a characters. Overall i really enjoyed reading this book.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I opened the book and was excited to be swept away into an enchanted tale of creatures unknown...but I could barely make it 20 pages. I really don't know what the book was about as I hadn't got there yet. The author is AMAZING at detail and back story of all the magical creatures BUT this is supposed to be a middle school book and being an adult who is an avid reader I couldn't get past the descriptions and into the story. It took way too long to capture my attention and at the end was unsuccessful in doing so. Middle school books need to capture their audience as soon as they can, some of my favorite books is from this age group and to say I was really disappointed with this book is an understatement.
I am not discouraged from the author though, there is great potential with a bit of guidance the imagination and description is all there just needs to be sifted through a bit.
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for an ARC for an honest review.

This is a great middle grade read, and one I will definitely recommend if I see young kids looking for something new in my store! It wasn't the perfect book for me, personally, but I truly think it's everything a kid would love to read about.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for sending me an ebook of this.
I really wanted to love this book. The book cover and the description made me think it would be a light fun fantasy read but this one just wasn't for me. I adored the characters and I loved the world building but it just didn't grip me. Maybe I had high expectations for this.
I think it's a series so I'm looking forward to the next book because it has some redeemable qualities.
Overall I enjoyed this book but unfortunately it isn't one of my favourites:(

Overall, this is a pretty good book. The characters are interesting and the second half has a lot of action to keep you engaged. Its biggest flaw are the first few chapters. The chapters are long and filled with so much information I felt like I should have been taking notes. I think the stories about the history of the land would have worked better and been more memorable had they been spread throughout the story as tales that Aline has told to her. Once Aline gets to the magical world the story finally felt like it was getting started - but it doesn't happen until chapter seven which is almost half way through the book. The only other aspect that needed a little cleaning up was some of the writing. You could tell that the author's primary language probably wasn't English which lead to some of the writing not flowing as smoothly.

This story is one that I really fell in love with the cover. However the story itself needs some work. This is a full on quest driven story that needs help in the aspect of content. The backstory for the characters was done pretty horribly and well overall it just needs work if you ask me. I really wanted to love this one but it felt more like a draft vs. a finished product. I think if the author goes back with a content editor and rereleases this one I would totally give it another go.


Go Into This One Knowing: Needs work

Time and care was taken by the author in this mystical world. The character backstories were fascinating. A book for all ages, one that you will want to read again and again.

I want to start off this review by saying that I liked Aline's story and the general premise of the book. What still made me give this book only 1 star is mostly the way it was written. Instead of being a fun, adventurous and quest driven book, I almost feel like I am reading a story written by my middle-grade pupils.

The first 30% of the book is just the author giving backstories for every single species and their origin and mission in the One World, as well build up the conflict that ultimately made Aline grow up in the human world. Instead of making this world-building exciting, it just feels like an endless list of facts and "fun stories" for three long chapters. We don't meet the main character of the story, Aline until Chapter 5, 31% into the book, and she does not come across as a convincing 12-year-old character at all.
I think the story would be much better if the author had more experience with world-building, especially for the target audience of middle-graders. For such a short book you CANNOT include somewhat extensive backstories for 12-15 different species, where some are not even important to the plot at all, especially not for the age-group. It would have been better if the stories were told through people Aline met, as a way to make the story more exciting. The language used also comes across as a bit too fancy and "old, adult fantasy" instead of that aimed for middle graders.

Again, good story, but needs a lot of work.

I expected this book to be a really fun, light read.. since it was published as a middle-grade title. To be honest, I think the writer just seems very inexperienced. While the approach of the topics seems geared correctly, the writing itself is unnecessarily convoluted in places.

That's not to say the story is complex. The main theme is a very clear, quest-driven path. The concepts are airy and magical. The creatures.. perhaps given a chance to enjoy them.. would be lovely.

Unfortunately, that's the biggest problem. The author doesn't seem to understand how to provide character and backstory information in an effective manner.. allowing the reader to absorb it and carry it forward in their mind throughout the read.

Literally, the first 20% of the book is spent massively downloading information to us. The opening pages begin with one of the many species we'll be seeing.. and the author goes through all of the defining characteristics of them (right down to varying colors/and what that means.. if there's an elemental connection).. piece by piece. Stopping, only to move onto the next species and do the exact same thing. Pages and pages of details that when delivered en masse, you have no hope of recalling properly.

The next 10% is a battle, which sounded like it might have been fantastic. If.. if.. again.. the author hadn't been tripped up by the need to overexplain everything. I don't mean giving us a good visual.. I'm talking.. letting the reader know exactly where every single named (often 4-5 within each species) character is and what they are doing.. during the battle. In fact, throughout the book, she's terrible about having to name and interact with every single character present in a scene. There are five weredogs.. of course.. they all have to be spoken about individually.

Ultimately, I wanted to love this little book. Even with all it's problems, there were characters I liked and there were moments of tragedy that I felt. I just think this title could have been served far better by simplifying the delivery and cleaning up the scenes. Also, I really felt like the Blue Bottle didn't live up to the value assigned to it.. but.. that's just me. Hopefully, you'll feel differently. For me, it was just 'okay.'