Note: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The writing style was simple and easy to read. The story practically flew by I was able to read it so fast.

I know the story is supposed to be about Lou but is just seemed like a lot of the story didn’t really ‘involve’ her. I know that sounds weird because she was there but she just didn’t seem very present in the forefront of the story for being the main character. I did end up liking her as a character but it seemed like Cindy (Sin) was more in the lead of everything. Al didn’t really do anything for me, he seemed under developed, especially more so towards the end. I never really connected with him or knew where he was coming from making it difficult to sympathize with his character.

It kind of just ended though. I wanted a more solid resolution of what was happening or maybe some hint that it was going to continue.

Also on: http://lrjohnson13.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-box-by-christina-g-gaudet.html ( )

This review was originally published in my blog: http://www.nightowlreads.org/2012/09/tour-stop-box-review.html

Disclaimer: I received an ebook copy of this book as part of the tour. I did not get paid to read and review this book. All opinions are my own and were not influenced by anything or anyone.

The Box is a nice magical story. A regular girl discovers a box from her dead Gran's things and from it came out a tiny man. That's when Lou's world turned upside down. She is suddenly introduced to a world she didn't know existed and despite finding out about it, she refused to believe that it's real.

Something feels lacking with the character development, but it works in the story anyway. Lou turns out to be a sorceress whose magic was stripped and bound by her Gran, while her sister Cindy (Sin) is a witch. What the difference? A sorceress has her own magic while a witch can only harness magic from magical objects or herbs. Aldric (Al) is a wizard, what they do isn't something I want to discuss as I think it counts as a spoiler.

Lou is "little miss perfect". She does ballet and taekwondo, and is considered a good girl. While her sis Cindy does her own thing, sneaking out and dates guys she didn't really like, and she always gets in an argument with their mom. I think she's just misunderstood, in the duration of the story I saw that she means well and despite trying to seem like the bad girl, she just wants to enjoy life. Aldric is probably my favorite character but I wished there was more between him and Lou. I did like, however, that despite the obvious fact that they liked each other, that didn't get in the way of what needs to be done, which is to defeat the villain.

As for technicalities, there's no label of whose perspective it is we're reading but it's not hard to distinguish if it's Lou or Al. I got confused at first because I didn't expect the change in POV, but after a while I wasn't surprised when it switched back to Lou. I didn't mind, but I'm sure there are people who wouldn't be too happy with this format.

This book has the right amount of adventure, suspense, magic, budding romance, and cliffhanger. I think it's safe for middle grade readers too. The ending surprised me, I admit I didn't expect it to end that way but it made me wonder if the author plans to write a sequel. But it's listed as stand-alone so I doubt I'll find out what happens with Lou, Cindy, and Aldric next. ( )