Review on my Wrap Up Vlog
https://youtu.be/OOcKZ5f0UWc ( )

I had a hard time getting into this - mostly because I kept getting confused about who Benjamin, Travis, and Rowan were (Is that the nice kid, or the nasty one, or the one who flunked?). Once I finally got the characters straight, it drew me in a lot more. This is sort of the inverse of her LaZelle family series - rather than being the story of one of the strange family, it's the story of an innocent outsider who gets caught up in a strange family. And Maya is young and uncertain enough that I don't like her as well as I do Tom in The Thread That Binds the Bones (my favorite NKH story). But Maya is interesting, and the events she's caught up in even more so. The Gaters are yet another family with a strange magic, but this one is tied to more of an organization - the Gates/Portals go to other worlds, with their own inhabitants and families that manage the gates on those sides. Maya accidentally ends up literally connected to a being that came through the gates, and has to be exposed to all the rest in order to handle the connection. Her drawing talent (which seems amazing) both helps and hinders the process. And the fact that she's mourning a friend who died recently also plays a major part. Then her companion hatches, they acclimate...and the book ends. I can see why - this does close the original arc - but it's frustrating, as they're finally ready to actually do something and it ends. It is by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, so I'm looking for the next book now. ( )

Very charming, and somehow warm. I think I'm going to like NKH's foray into juveniles. The only down side is it seems very much like a prelude, rather than a full story arc in itself. ( )

Maya and her family move to a new town over the summer. When school starts, Maya soon learns that her new neighbors, two of whom are classmates, are hiding magical secrets.

There's nothing really wrong with this, but it doesn't quite jell. ( )

When she and her family move to Oregon, Maya discovers that the kids in a nearby apartment building perform magic and use portals to visit other worlds, a situation that is complicated by Maya's efforts to safeguard an alien.