I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Tower at the End of Time by Amy Sparkes is the third person-POV Middle Grade fantasy sequel to The House at the Edge of Magic. After choosing to go with Eric, Flabberghast, and Dr. Spoon, Nine is expecting a life of adventure, but the House gets the hiccups and Flabberghast is invited to a hopscotch championship to defend his former title. Things never run smoothly for this newly formed family.

The House becomes even more of a character in this book. There were glimmers of the House in the vein of ‘setting as character’ in the first one, but here the House is always capitalized and it getting the hiccups and getting personified adds to the characterization. The hiccups are similar to human hiccups with an MG fantasy spin: the hiccups cause the house to hop between worlds. It’s a fun addition to an already whimsical story.

Nine’s sarcastic and exhausted voice returns as does Flabberghast’s over the top tendencies and Eric’s attempts at being helpful. Dr. Spoon is still determined to find Dish and still butting heads with Nine. What’s nice about this is that Tower essentially picks up right where House left off so that the character change and growth is all on page for the reader to see and the things that they loved and kept them reading and asking questions are still present. I’m excited to see what will be resolved in the third book, which I believe is the end of the trilogy and to finally meet Dish.

This is on the shorter side and fairly fast-paced with easy to understand language, which makes it a great choice for younger Middle Grade readers. The use of hopscotch and hiccups feels like it’s perfect for about the 8-10 crowd as it’s not talking to readers or preaching a life lesson, but is instead following a cohesive story that has a few lessons along the way.

I would recommend this to younger readers of Middle Grade, fans of MG fantasy that love a lot of whimsy, and those looking for a voice MG that has a more jaded child protagonist

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for the ARC! This was a great sequel. I really loved seeing g the characters again and seeing them grow. This was a great adventure, I really liked the puzzles they went through. As with the first, it's an absolutely ridiculous world, but its a great story.