Hey, friends!

If you’ve been following my Instagram posts the past two weeks, you know I’ve been reading the first Time Castaways book by Liesl Shurtliff. If you aren’t already following me there, you’re missing out!

What exactly is a time castaway? Well, Matteo and his younger siblings, Cory and Ruby, find out first-hand after breaking the number one family rule: Never ride a subway without an adult. Ever. But at least they remembered to follow rule number two: Always stick together. No matter what.

Especially when you end up on a train that turns into a frigate ship that travels back and forth through time!

A trail of mysterious clues that seem to be coming from their future selves leads the Hudson trio on a series of misadventures that span the globe and the centuries. Along the way they discover a secret that’s been kept from them their entire lives. And that the future holds just as many mysteries as the past. Will they find the answer they’re looking for before it’s too late?

A perfect blend of fact and fiction

I’m not sure what I liked the most about this book: The way it kept making me guess what was going to happen all the way up to the end. The way the author included real-life history in her fictional story. Or, the way she mixed in different languages (like French) without making me feel bad for not understanding what all the words meant.

If I had a real time machine, I’d jump forward to the day book two is released. But unfortunately for this bookwyrm, I’m going to have to take the long road there. Guess I’ll just have to find a few more books to read between now and then!

Give this book five dark chocolate eggs!

Time Castaways: The Mona Lisa Key is available in hardbound and is perfect for bookwyrms as young as eight to read on their own. This is also a fun adventure that everyone can enjoy as family.

Who knows, it might inspire you to take an adventure through time by visiting a museum or to explore a different culture through a trip or a book with your own family.

À la prochaine (Until next time), happy reading!

Note: No goods or services were exchanged for this review. The opinions expressed are the reviewer’s own.