Magdalena and her friends Gabriel and Hubert decide to spend a beautiful day exploring the woods behind Hubert's farm. Magdalena just celebrated her 13th birthday and her wish to have something exciting happen to her has come true, but not in the way she had hoped! When people say to "be careful what you wish for," this is exactly what they had in mind!

I loved the description of this book and was looking forward to reading it, but there were a few glaring problems that really took away from my ability to fully engage with the characters and the story. The description of the book says that it is for middle grades to young adult, but I really think it is geared more toward the younger set. The characters are 13, so I would say this is the age of the readers that would enjoy it, as young adults would really notice the problems and be bogged down by them, as I was. The way the kids speak was weirdly formal, especially for 13 year olds. For example, they didn't use contractions when speaking to each other, and they explained things that the others should already know, almost like they were adults speaking to children instead of young teenagers speaking to friends they've known their whole lives. And at one point, when Magdalena is talking with 5 of her good friends (the members of MALB, the Mystical Alliance of Lily Brooke), she says: "This morning, he made eye contact with my mother, Leona, and had his assistant take his place at the door to greet the morning attendees. My mother turned to my father, Paulos, and excused herself stating she needed to go to the ladies' restroom." Again, these kids have known each other all of their lives, so you would assume they know who her mother and father are, which was why it was odd that she threw her parents' names in there, like they had no idea who she was talking about! I've just never heard kids do that, especially 13 year olds who seem to abbreviate everything these days. Then there was the wrong usage of who/whoever and whom/whomever, which is a pet peeve of mine. I stumbled every time the words were used wrong: e.g. "Whom wrote such a ridiculous story?" This happened over and over again. Also, the writing seems forced sometimes, which breaks the reader's concentration and the flow of the story itself. Other times, something just doesn't make sense, so you have to stop and figure out what didn't work in the sentence, and that takes you out of the story as well: "The group all tried to bend, move or sway the perfectly spaced boulders, but nothing gave." How the heck do you bend or sway a boulder? It just doesn't make sense.

Another big problem for me was that there would be pages of descriptions of what was happening in a scene, as well as dialogue, and then when someone new came along, instead of just saying that the character repeated what they had heard, done or said, they actually repeated the whole darn thing! There was way too much retelling and re-explaining, and I feel like that bogged the story down a lot. But other times, not enough was explained. When something big happens to Magdalena in the second half of the book, and I mean big as in life changing, rock my world kind of big, she has a moment of indecision, then says she has come to terms with it, and then just seems to know instinctively what to do and how to do it (it's hard to describe it without giving it away lol), even though it's something that adults would have to take time themselves to figure out! There just wasn't enough explanation of how one got from point A to point B sometimes.

Now, the things that I liked about the book: the story itself was a good one. There was a sense of intrigue and mystery that drew you in and made you want to continue to read. The characters were described very well so it was easy to find yourself invested in them. The world building was great, so much so that you felt you were walking around Lily Brooke alongside the characters. The characters were likable so you found yourself honestly pulling for them to solve the mystery and save the town. The title comes from the choice you have in life of choosing the straight path, staying on the straight and narrow, or choosing the crooked trail, which can lead you to trouble. I really loved that symbolism.

In summary, I liked the actual story here, and the characters, but felt the book was bogged down with unnecessary repetition, stilted conversations, and story flow problems, which could all be fixed if the book were to be re-edited.

I'm giving this book 3 stars out of 5 :) ( )

We all know about curiosity killing the cat, but in Magdalena Gottschalk’s case her snoopy around where she shouldn’t have wound up releasing in her charming small town of Lily Brooks demons which have been sequestered and safely locked up for years; demons which were part and parcel of the town’s dark secret.

On her [lucky] birthday, Magdalena and two of her friends Gabriel Bach and Hubert Mueller discover an opening to a concealed cave. The moment they did, she distinctly heard a numinous buzzing in her ears, a buzzing which gradually transformed itself into voices that were difficult to understand. Not knowing what they’d been saying and neglecting to throw caution to the wind, she and her friends proceeded to enter the unknown lurking in the cave ahead of them. And by doing so, embarked on the most menacingly big, hazardous, awe-inspiring journey in their young lives.

Banding together and with three other friends they form the MALB [Mystical Alliance of Lily Brooke] in a comradeship of faithfulness and bravery as they’re met with the unbridled enchantments which have been troubling the trio ever since their finding the prohibited sacrificial cave, the zigzagging path and the enigmatic treehouse.

This all leads to Magdalena’s self-discovery of who she is and the reason for her being; protecting everyone dear to her from the malevolent forces which have been concealing themselves amidst the lives of everyone else. What is the secret behind these forces? Will, she and her friends be able to corral these forces back to whence they came?

In any regards Ms. Grant in her endeavor here has created a riveting fantasy novel which is sure to delight its intended audience of Mid-Grade and Young Adult readers and why I’ve given her the 5 STARS I have. ( )