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B18E2CC0-8F29-473E-95BF-9CBA1FDC1932

Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Children’s Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: September 8th, 2020

320 Pages

Synopsis: Tom and Augusta are from different places and different times, but they meet in the virtual world to combine forces in battle, to save a kingdom, escape a web of deceit and to find love. In a place where fictions can be truths and truths fictions, learning who to trust is more than friendship, it is about survival.

Glass Town Wars inspired by the early writings of the Brontës, is a captivating, magical novel by the renowned Celia Rees.

I’m going to start with something positive: Isn’t this an eye-catching cover? I love the colors, imagery, and ominous caption. Unfortunately, once I started reading Glass Town Wars, things went downhill pretty quickly.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I was thoroughly confused for the first 1/4 of the book. I think part of the problem was the plot didn’t really match the synopsis. I thought the setting had potential, but it’s not developed fully. The characters are bland and weak and I never connected with them. And finally, my attention was initially captured by the mention of the story being inspired by the Brontës works, but as this aspect isn’t really explored until the latter half of the book, it wasn’t enough to save the story for me.

To sum things up, Glass Town Wars will most likely be on the list of my biggest disappointments of 2020. Celia Rees is a well-respected author and I’ve enjoyed her previous books. This, while imaginative and original, ultimately fails to live up to the potential that you get all too infrequent tantalizing glimpses of. It left me confused, let down, and quite frustrated, so sadly I can’t bring myself to recommend it. However, mine is simply one opinion, so as always, if you’re intrigued by the sounds of this, I encourage you to read other reviews on sites such as Goodreads.