Cover Reveal for Stellarlune!

Storykeepers! This is exciting! Did you know that back in February, Shannon Messenger’s newest instalment in the Keeper of the Lost Cities cover was revealed?

I didn’t!

And after looking it up and finding a surprising lack of blog posts about it, I decided it was high time to do one myself.

But first, I thought I’d be fun to recap this series so far …

Be warned, there be spoilers ahead! So if you haven’t read the books —

You should!

Content warning: However, I’d probably say it’s for somewhere between twelve-fourteen-sixteen and up, depending on your parents’ rules about magic and violence. Seriously. the bad guys are crazy, do horrible things, and the book revolves around the main character’s telepathic powers. To which end, this is one of those ones I think younger kids shouldn’t read — depending on what they’ve been exposed to.

I know that sucks. And I remember how it feels.

Kids, if you get an older sibling to skip to the end of this post, I’ll make it up to you with a special recommendation, just for you. And I promise — if you love fantasy, then you will love this when you’re older.

It’s a really great series. The characters are amazing. Which is why I love it!

For anyone who hasn’t read this: skip to the big: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO if you want to get no spoilers. (Or if you’re like me and trying to borrow them from your library while discovering they’re all inconveniently on loan already.)

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SPOILERS STARTING NOW:

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Sophie was an ordinary human girl … except for her gift of telepathy. 

Wait. 

Turns out she’s not a human. She’s an elf. Who got implanted into her human mother just after conception by her next-door-neighbour/mom’s fertility doctor/rebel group leader/astronomy teacher/headmaster/man who tweaked her genes and created her/illegal twin/one of the more tight-lipped mentor characters in history/guy who smells like feet.

Of course, we don’t find out most of that till later.

And after coming to the elf world, she met a bunch of elves and made a bunch of friends, also somehow getting caught in a love square while nearly getting killed (repeatedly) by a group of psychopaths in black cloaks.

Yes I said love square.

We’ll come back to the guys in cloaks.

The love square eventually became a triangle after she kissed her best friend, Dex, to prove that they didn’t like each other. (How does that logic work?)

And so she had two guys to choose from:

Fitz, her first friend, the boy she has a major crush on; or Keefe, the somewhat messed-up but really sweet boy who’s also Fritz’s best friend, whom she has the most adorable friendship with.

Except that while Keefe is head over heels for her, she’s kinda oblivious to him.

So she goes for Fitz.

. . .

That ends well.

Dating ruins their entire friendship, and Fitz doesn’t care about her needs — all he wants is for her to fit in with his. When she says she can’t, he says it’s over.

Cue broken heart and wiser Sophie.

Oh yeah. All because she doesn’t know who her parents are (thanks tight-lipped mentor), she can’t go through the matchmaking process of the elves.

Basically why Fitz dumped her.

Seriously, Fitz. Not cool.

Shame on you!

But it turns out maybe it’s a good thing she doesn’t know who her parents are, because when she does discover her mum’s identity, she becomes a teenage ball of rage for being lied to. And then she understands why she was lied to … but it doesn’t make her any less mad.

In fact, I felt she was slightly too mad. Does anyone else agree? Or am I the minority here?

Back to Keefe.

Sophie really loves Keefe deep down — I really want her to end up with him — but at the end of book 8.5, Unlocked, Keefe runs away because his mother—

— The leader of the creepy cloak psychos —

Changed his elven talent to something weird and scary and hard to control. So he runs away. Again.

…

*Face Palm*

Keefe? When will you learn? 

C’mon. We’re all cheering for you.

*Draws breath for Silveny voice*

KEEFE KEEFE KEEFE! You can do it! You can face your fears and win Sophie’s heart! Come on, Keefe! We believe in you!

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Nah, he still ran away.

To be fair, what his mum did to him really is creepy. And he was in a bad headspace already, cause of being manipulated by his mum since childhood, and given the cold shoulder by his father.

Keefe has issues.

Mostly because his family consists of A: one psychopath, and B: Lucius Malfoy.

Ahem.😅

And then the guy he looked up to as a big brother, Alvar, turned out to be a creepy cloaked guy too … 

Poor Keefe.

And then his best friend Fitz got real mad at him cause … well, let’s just say Sophie kinda feels safer around Keefe than around Fitz. And visits him more. And they both found Alvar and didn’t tell Fitz, which made Fitz even madder cause he has severe brother issues.

Fitz’s level of rage at Alvar is actual scary.

Take a chill pill, Fitz.

Another reason Sophie and Keefe would be perfect together!❤️

…

Um, where were we?

That’s right! Also in Unlocked, Sophie decides — on the advice of one of the creepy black cloaked people, who has seemingly temporarily changed sides — to fight and hurt the bad guys the way they fight and hurt her.

Cue hero going off the path of righteousness arc, only to realise that ‘No. We’re the good guys, so we don’t stoop to their level.’

But only after making a bunch of mistakes where she stoops to their level that she later regrets.

…

Arcs like that really annoy me.

But … if Shannon Messenger manages to do it well, or to do something different with it, I’ll love it. Especially if she goes to save Keefe.

Who else is rooting for that?❤️

Random question: does anyone else miss innocent Sophie who was new to the elf world and just wanted to hug Ella?

I do …🥲

And does anyone else really want a therapy stuffed animal toy and a doctor like Elwin? I actually have one … it’s a lemur … (the stuffed animal toy. Not my doctor. I don’t have a doctor like Elwin, sadly.)

Anyway, that’s enough of a recap. Let’s see … did I miss anything important?

– Shipped Keefe with Sophie. ✔️

– Told Fitz to take a chill pill about Alvar. ✔️

– Elaborated on the confusing complexity of Mr. Forkle/Magnate Leto/Headmaster Leto/Sir Astin/Forgot his real name. ✔️

– Mentioned slight annoyance about where I think Sophie’s arc will go in the next book. ✔️

– Tried to root for Keefe to not run away. ✔️

– It didn’t work. ✔️

– Mentioned Dex’s first and most awkward kiss. ✔️

– Shipped Biana and Dex … wait, I didn’t do that one! Um … consider it added. ✔️

– Does anyone wonder what happened to Alden being a major character? He seemed like one at the start, but he’s sorta faded into the minor range … erm, this isn’t really a check point, though.

– Mention the fact I kinda wished Bronte had been Sophie’s father. Um … Well, I have now! ✔️

– Talk about the awesome therepy stuffed animal toys! ✔️

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SPOILERS END

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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOKAY!

It’s finally time for the thing we’ve all been waiting for!

The cover reveal!

And here 

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It …

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You’re getting excited now, right?

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Okay, I really will put it there … chill pill …

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Like Fitz😂

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All right, for real now!

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And here it is!

Isn’t it beautiful? The colours! The drama! The light!

It sparkles right off the page!

That’s sooo cool!

I’m excited. I don’t know what Sophie’s doing, but this picture almost redeems where I think her arc might be going. I think it might be my favourite picture of Sophie yet!

(Except all of the ones of her and Keefe. If you’ve read 8.5, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)

We’ve never had Marella or Maruca on a cover yet, so this is cool! There is some serious girl power going on here!

Who else thinks there should be more girl-girl friendship focus in books?

Not that I don’t like bromances or anything …

*Cough* wrote a whole book that revolves around bromance *cough.*

Speaking of great friendships/relationships, here’s the recommendation I promised for any and all kids reading this blog: The Beyond the Orphan Train Series by Arleta Richardson.

It’s about a family of four siblings who end up in an orphan home in the old west after their mother dies — until they travel along the orphan train, get adopted, and face the frontier even as they learn how to be a family … and have adventures along the way. The books even come with a cool list of discussion questions at the back — and it’s really fun to imagine you’re alongside the characters as they journey through finding family and friends everywhere they go.

Arleta Richardson fills her stories with life and childlike wonder — and a lot of adventure! These books would be great for family read alouds, or for older children to read by themselves. I highly recommend these books — they’re completely suitable, and are really fun stories about what it was like for orphans in the old west.

Quality children’s books!

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this post! I love the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes! (I’m totally not in full geek mode today😉😁)

(While desperately rooting for Keefe and Soph to get together. C’mon Soph. KEEFE KEEFE KEEFE!)

That’s all for now! Hope you’re now as excited as I am about the release of Stellarlune in November. I can’t wait!

~ Until the next story, fun tale to tell; enjoy your adventures, I pray you stay well ~

— Hadassah Waugh