THE LOST WONDERLAND DIARIES by J. Scott Savage

Something monstrous wants to exit Wonderland and enter the real world.

Lewis Carroll, author of the classic book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, secretly recorded the true story of his actual travels to Wonderland in four journals which have been lost to the world . . . until now.

Celia and Tyrus discover the legendary Lost Diaries of Wonderland and fall into a portal that pulls them into the same fantasy world as the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter. However, Wonderland has vastly changed. Some of the characters that Tyrus remembers from the book have been transformed into angry monsters.

Helped by the Cheshire Cat and a new character, Sylvan, a young rabbit, Celia and Tyrus desperately work to solve puzzles and riddles, looking for a way out of Wonderland. But the danger increases when the Queen of Hearts begins hunting them, believing the two young visitors hold the key to opening multiple portals to multiple worlds, and she will stop at nothing to capture them.

Will the crazed creatures of Wonderland escape into the real world? Can Celia and Tyrus stop them and save both worlds? Or will they be trapped in Wonderland forever? 

Opening line:

"Is it time?"

What a funny, strange, laugh-out-loud ride in a fantasy world created by Carroll and Savage! Celia and Tyrus are thrust into the iconic world of Wonderland, thanks to one of Carroll's lost diaries. Tyrus is a reader, loves imagination, and understands the world. Celia loves math and logic and not reading since she has dyslexia. 

I LOVED all the different areas of Wonderland the two characters had to get through by solving puzzles. I LOVED the puzzles! Except the math ones, which went over my head but that doesn't mean I'm not logical. haha! 

I believe any reader, young or mature, would love this book. It's compelling, smart and intriguing. 

I have a couple of favorite quotes from the book:

""Now then," Judge Dodo said, "having heard the evidence, it is my duty to inform you that, should you be found guilty, you are subject to swift and just punishment up to and including name-calling, hair-pulling, button-pushing and being forced to listen to bad karaoke.""

I had to reread that part a couple of times and I laughed every time. 

""I don't read books because I have to," he said, in a stunned voice. "I read them because I want to." 

LOVE IT!

And one last one, which is my favorite and sums up this book loverliest:

 

Thank you to netgalley and Shadow Mountain for the early read!

Mysteries of Cove book 1: Fires of Invention ~ Cover reveal!!

J. Scott Savage is one of my favorite people and I'll tell you why:

1. He's a fantastic writer/author.

    Read his books and you'll see why he's so good! My favorite was the last one in a series (Shandra Covington Series) that took a few years to finish. I haven't even read the other books in the series, just the last and I loved it.

2. He's genuine and nice and genuinely nice.

    Jeff is a good guy. He really, really is one of the nice guys. He's down-to-earth, humble, funny and easy to talk to. Don't believe me? Go to one of his book signings or catch him at a writer's conference and say hi. Tell him Taffy sent you. I dare you...

3. He's a great teacher. 

    I don't if I already know the subject Jeff is teaching, I'm bound to learn something from him.

4. He loves to give back to the writing community.

    Jeff/Scott gives a lot of time (a lot of it is for free) to the community. He's da boss. 

I'm excited to read this newest book of his. I'm a little put out that it's a series because I will have to WAIT to read all the books. ;)

Keep reading to find out more about Mr. Savage and the book. You can find him at all the places below:

FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Scott-Savage/55805743891
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jscottsavage

INSTAGRAM: jscottsavage

WEBSITE: www.jscottsavage.com

Author Note:

Like many of my books, the inspiration for my new series Fires of Invention came from the collision of two ideas. The first time the story occurred to me was while I was watching the musical Wicked with my wife. The moment I walked into the theater and saw the huge mechanical dragon above the stage, I thought, Wow! I have to write a story about that! A few weeks later, I was talking with my nephew, who is probably the most creative kid I know, but whose inventiveness often gets him into trouble, and I thought, What if a kid who had the talents of my nephew lived in a world where creativity was against the law? What if the kids were building . . . a steam-powered dragon? Bam! I had my story.

Powered by great feedback from my agent, Michael Bourret, my good friend and author James Dashner, my publisher, Chris Schoebinger, and the song “Warriors” by Imagine Dragons, I wrote the entire first draft of the first volume in the series, Mysteries of Cove in four weeks. This book is unlike anything I have ever written. There are elements of City of Ember, Dragon Riders, and Hugo in it all mashed up together in a world I fell in love with from the moment I started writing.

I think what’s most exciting to me about this book is that it’s about giving yourself the freedom to imagine. To take chances. Too often we limit ourselves by only trying things we’re confident we can succeed at when what we need to do is give ourselves permission to fail. Often it is when we attempt things with no idea of how we can possibly pull them off that we achieve our greatest successes.

Book Description:

STEAMPUNK! Plus Dragons!

Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and "invention" is a curse word. Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion-an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.

Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlikely anything they've ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on-and quite possibly their very lives.

Author Bio:

J. Scott Savage is the author of the Farworld middle grade fantasy series and the Case File 13 middle grade monster series. He has been writing and publishing books for over ten years. He has visited over 400 elementary schools, dozens of writers conferences, and taught many writing classes. He has four children and lives with his wife Jennifer and their Border Collie, Pepper, in a windy valley of the Rocky Mountains.