The Moon Coin by Richard Due Book Review and Giveaway

Now on to the book I found on Amazon while scouting for high quality fantasy books for tweens and teens. In my first post I noted that so many books I start to read are so bad, I don’t read a full chapter. Click here if you want to know how I almost scared the author away. But I finished reading Richard Due’s book because I couldn’t put it down. Thanks to Kathy at I Am a Reader Not a Writer and Maryann from Chapter by Chapter for hosting the Book Lover’s Holiday Giveaway Hop.

Richard Due recently received the Gold Medal for the  2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. I bet even the electrimals  are cheering! You may enter to win a Kindle or Nook version of THE MOON COIN or THE DRAGONDAIN, book 2 in the series. The books also have wonderful color illustrations inside, not just on the covers. Read on for the blurbs:

“Tales, unlike stories, never lie. You see, a tale is an account of things in their due order, often divulged secretly, or as gossip. Would you like to hear one?” —Lord Autumn

Uncle Ebb was so good at telling his tales of the Moon Realm that sometimes it sounded like he’d been there himself.

As children, Lily and Jasper listened raptly to his bedtime tales of a place where nine moons swirled around one another, each inhabited by strange and wondrous beings: magical lunamancers; undersea merfolk; wise birds; winged dragons; and Lily’s favorite, the heroic, leonine Rinn.

There was only one rule: don’t tell a soul.

But now, years later, Uncle Ebb is missing. Lily has learned the secret behind the tales, and soon Jasper will too. But there’s one big problem. You see, something terrible has happened in the Moon Realm. . . .

Illustrated by Carolyn Arcabascio. Book One of The Moon Realm Series.

2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner

For a Six Chapter Preview: click HERE.

Take a visual tour of the book: HERE.

It’s the middle of the night, you need to send your brother to the Moon Realm, and he won’t wake up. So you improvise. . . .

When a confused Jasper awakes, he’s convinced he’s dreaming. But by the time he meets Greydor, Jasper understands that this is no dream. In fact, persuading the King of the Rinn to work with the men of Dain to defeat their common enemy is a nightmare. Then there’s the other side of the coin: convincing Tavin and Dubb that saddling a Rinn isn’t certain death. (“It’ll be fun!”) And perhaps even a greater worry: can he make friends with Dubb’s daughter Darce before she punches his lights out?

Lily has problems, too. There’s a little mousie scratching in her closet. Or at least, it sounds like a little mousie. Oh, and her second confrontation with Curse, and trying to form her first peerin. (Don’t you have to be from Dain to do that?) And where’s Ebb?

One thing’s for sure: now that Lily and Jasper have entered the Moon Realm, nothing can ever be the same again.

Illustrated by Carolyn Arcabascio. Book Two of the award winning Moon Realm Series.

For a Two Chapter Preview: click HERE.

The Moon Coin is Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore.

The Dragondain is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore.

Follow news about the Moon Realm Series here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardDue
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoonRealm
Blog: http://TheMoonRealm.com

Now let’s get on with my review already!

The Moon Coin by Richard Due

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found The Moon Coin free on Amazon and downloaded it because the reviews sounded so good. Too often indie books with a few glowing reviews are disappointing, full of errors and bad writing, so I read a couple of chapters to give them a fair chance and then put them down permanently. Not so with The Moon Coin. It was awesome!

Start with one eccentric uncle who loves to tell tales and make toys that look and act like their fairy tale counterparts. Add in a brother and sister who eventually outgrow his tales, that is, until the uncle disappears. Once the children, now teens, search his unusual mansion, you will be upset when you have to put The Moon Coin down even for a minute. That mansion and many other settings in The Moon Coin are so well visualized you’ll feel like you’re watching a movie. In fact, I would love to see the Moon coin become a movie.

I love books with great world building unless that building interferes with the action. In The Moon Coin, the world building adds to the action. There was never a dull moment from start to finish as the niece journeyed between moons in the realm. There are a lot of characters to remember, so keep that in mind when buying for younger children. Okay, also for forgetful adults like me. The worst problem for me was head hopping, although it’s common in the old-fashioned omniscient narrator style. I would have preferred to stay inside the niece’s point of view whenever she was included in a scene, so she would have to guess what others were thinking from their actions and expressions. That makes a book feel like it’s really happening instead of a story being told; authentic seeming no matter how fantastic the premise. And believe me—The Moon Coin’s premise is fantastic in a good way.

Conditions of the moons visited in this book are very unlike the tales the uncle told. One moon is under attack by an ancient enemy, another is already dystopian from a previous attack, and inhabitants on both think their own moon is the only real world. There is no way one book could cover the extent of evil’s plans for the moons in the realm, but unlike many series books, the story does have a real ending. And even though I felt like I was watching a movie instead of living it, it was a great movie. The Moon Realm is the most creative book I’ve read in years. I’m anxious to read the sequels.

View all my reviews

Now on to the giveaway. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Only one entry is mandatory, but the others will increase your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All done? Then please check out Richard’s blog for a chance to win a paperback. Besides that, we have three more giveaways. First, there’s the Kids’ Books Holiday Blog Hop with 4 books you can win through 12/10/12. Also, please check out Paul’s review of Through the Mirror and into Snow by Ann T. Bugg for the Before Happily Ever After Blog Tour. Click here to enter the 3 book giveaway which ends 12/12/12. And last but not least, author Crystal Marcos is giving away a Kindle Fire, or you can win 3 ebooks, including Paul’s, through 12/15/12, if you click here. Now you’re good to go to all the other family friendly book giveaways in the list below, but please remember to leave a comment first. Thanks and see you Monday for Lionel’s Christmas Adventure Blog Tour Finale!