This one was not for me.
Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I like this book and I would read it again and again. I gave it five stars because the book gave me that awe factor like those books give. The book as that magical feeling like you are in the book, and it is well written.

There was a lot of adventure in this book, and it was pretty light for a mystery book, especially in comparison to a lot of darker titles currently on the market. I felt that this book had a lot of potential, but there were a few pitfalls that made it fall flat for me. While I loved Lily and Mia and thought they were great characters, Nate was completely unlikable for me, although he does improve a bit as the book goes on. For most of the book, however, I felt he was shallow, snobby, and a bit of a jerk. While I enjoyed the overall lightness of the story, I felt the author took it too far in some places. The "bad guys" felt childish and unbelievable. Parts of the story felt too vague and not fleshed out enough. This felt more like an early drafted rather than a completed work.

Nate and Lily are authentic and likeable in their desperate outsider status. Dumped with their uncle at his House of Illusion attraction in the rural Sacramento River Delta without their phones when their mom, prone to bad feelings about things, believes they are in danger of something bad happening. By turns funny, sly, and sarcastic this book hits a good pace for readers looking for an engaging story that avoids excess and never takes itself too seriously. House of Illusion is a solid read that will appeal to students in grades 7 - 12. While there is some conversation about underage drinking, and Nate‘s mom goes for inpatient care for a mental health issue, the approach is understated enough that this would be ok to hand to middle grade readers looking for a more “mature title”. Car chases, teens making unpredictable choices, psychic ability that is part of a made up marketing scheme, and conspiracy theorists willing to do anything to find a mythic fortune all contribute to an unpredictable narrative that keeps readers engaged but also focuses on authenticity, developing true relationships over superficial ones and discovering home in an unlikely place. A good addition to #highschoollibraries and #teenbook collections. Readers who enjoy Nate and Lily’s adventure will be pleased to know this appears to be the beginning of a series.

Thank you Netgalley for this Arc!

This was such a fun read! A mystery/Thriller that would go from serious to laugh out loud funny. I really needed this book. It was a relief to read something so thrilling and yet light and fun.

I definitely recommend this one as a quick read that will give the reader thrills and chills while also making you smile!

I was part of the official cover reveal for The Attraction with Xpresso Book Tours. I really wanted to like it because it sounds so interesting and fun. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the target audience as I haven't been able to get into the story. I'm a firm believer at retrying a book at a later date so I plan to do that. Thank you for providing me with a review copy.

This book was okay to me. I did like the enlightenment Nate character experiences when he meets Mia and realized the privilege he was accustomed to. I loved the backstory of the attraction as well. A great spooky read.

Nathan--a teenaged boy--and Lily--his younger sister, wake up one morning to find bags packed ready to move from the city to the California delta. All summer plans, including Nathan's dream job, are cancelled. Mom has a habit of doing that, and this time they are being banished, for their safety, to live with Mom's brother, who runs a roadside attraction. Neither are happy, but Mom will not budge, nor will she tell them where she will be, how long they will be there, and what there is to be afraid of. The culture of the delta is very different, but Lily and Nathan discover that there are some positive things there. Nathan finds a romance, and they discover they actually are in danger. It is refreshing to have a realistic story told from the point of view of a teenage boy and he learns that life in what he had considered to be the end of the earth can actually be good. Together Nathan, Lily, his uncle and his new love interest satisfactorily overcome the danger they were in. A Satisfying ending.

The Attraction: House of Illusion is identified, by the publisher, as “humor, mystery & thriller, teens & YA”

Which means that I, as an A who has long since stopped being Y, am not part of the target audience. Imagine then my surprise to find that I thoroughly enjoyed the book from first page to last. The trick, as much as there is one, is that although the book is about teenagers they are not portrayed as angst ridden complaining stereotypes. The young adults/teens/tweens are as fully realized as any of other characters in the book. The humor is situational rather than farcical and there are multiple, interlocking mysteries. Why we wonder, from page one, has Nate’s mother decided to uproot her children and send them off to the Californian ‘delta area?’ How will Nate and his younger sister Lily (a tweener) handle being dropped into world with no internet and little TV without even their cell phones to keep them in touch with the rest of the world? Who are the strange people who have taken to following Nate and his sister around?

Adults are neither mysteriously absent nor do they take over to become the ‘responsible’ parties. The realism of the book extends to the ways in which adults do interact with teenagers and the complex stratification of social life of an American teenager.

In short this is a bang up good story that happens to be about a teenager and written in an appropriate voice. The rare YA that both a teenager and their parent(s\) will enjoy.

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Thank you Publisher and NetGalley for this advanced copy!

The Attraction House Of Illusion by Rick was a good, quick, interesting story!
First of all the pacing was a little slow at times, At first I honestly didn't think this book was going to be for me!
The characters were interesting and and funny!
The story itself was fun, intriguing and worth the read!
This coming of age book was good in its own way!