Book Rating: ★★★★✰ (4 / 5 stars)
After Eleanor’s adventure to Nightshade Forest, she is keen to learn more about the magic book her father gave her. Upon opening up a story about a city of gold, Eleanor is transported back into the book, where an evil imp is turning the city to gold before her very eyes. With the help of a jittery rabbit, Eleanor embarks on a quest to save the day…or find herself turned into gold!
After reading Nightshade Forest last year, I was eager to jump back into Eleanor Mason’s Literary Adventures…and it did not disappoint! Eleanor’s curiosity and excitement for adventure will resonate with readers, young and old alike. Who doesn’t want to take an adventure into a story? Isn’t that why we pick up books in the first place?
Mitchell does a fantastic job capturing that childhood desire for adventure. Eleanor is a precocious young girl, and her intelligence is truly put to the test in a world filled with riddles. But, I think most of all, it is most valuable at the end, where she identifies the twist on a classic tale and the secret of her local librarian!
Out of curiosity, I actually went back and reread my review for Nightshade Forest. A year ago, I said that I didn’t usually read middle grade fiction. Oh how times have changed! I’ve kind of come to adore it; the simpler plot lines, the happier endings, the childish jokes…they all warm the piece of my heart that still yearns for simpler times. So, I’d like to give credit to Nikki Mitchell when it comes to my love for middle grade stories. Without Eleanor’s adventures, I don’t think I ever would have realized how much I enjoy these types of tales.
As with a lot of middle grade fiction, and me being an adult, sometimes I feel like something is missing. I can’t pinpoint it though…and that being the case, it means that since I enjoyed this story anyway…children will LOVE it!
So if you’re looking for a quick, short novel that will bring you back to your childhood adventures…definitely check on Nightshade Forest and City of Gold! You’ll have a blast!
What’s it about?
Sometimes a magic portal can be found in ordinary things. That’s exactly what Eleanor Mason discovers when she receives a tattered book of stories from her father.
After her first adventure in the Nightshade Forest, Eleanor quickly jumps through the portal again, only to find herself standing in a field of golden wheat. When a nervous rabbit asks her to save the city from an evil imp with a magic spinning wheel, Eleanor knows she must join him on an epic adventure to solve a riddle, destroy the wheel, and save the townspeople—all before the sun rises on the city.
Can Eleanor rely on the prophecy of an ancient fairy statue to save the day, or will she run out of time and watch as her friends slowly turn to gold?
E.S. Barrison 