Missing Key Details Readers Need to Know

The Toadhouse Trilogy:  Book One by J.H. Lourey

Children/Young Adult Fantasy

This is the kind of book that's right up my alley--a book about books!  There are so very few of them (Inheart by Cornelia Funke, for example) and I loved it when I happen across them.

Aine and her brother Spenser live a very unconventional lifestyle.  After their parents were killed, they were shuttled off to a grandmother they'd never met to live as virtual hermits in the woods of Missouri.  Their existence is shattered when a monster invades their home. The monster is named Biblos and the only way to escape him is to put their trust in a man named Gilgamesh, who is clearly hiding some secrets of his own.  Escape comes in the way of a toadhouse, a sort of magical time traveling machine, that can skip dimensions into books.  What'a toadhouse?  A house where toads live? That, and other details, aren't really fully explained.

That summary probably seemed a bit murky which is why I couldn't give the book more stars.  The plot itself was a bit murky.  Key information is either completely left out or given so late in the book that it makes truly understanding the characters and their motivations difficult.  I did really love all the literary references and this will keep me coming back to the series for more.  It is well-written with adventure, action, and thrills and has a mystery that will probably only be solved in the third book of this trilogy.  Overall, I quite liked the book--it was something different, a breath of fresh air.  The characters were engaging, if rather difficult to connect with.  There's a lot I don't understand about the plot (why fairies...isn't it enough the story can skip through books?  It seemed like too much of a stretch), but I am hoping future books might clear it up.  If not, it's worth a read just to see which storybook the gang jumps into next.