The cover is gorgeous, which is the reason I picked this book to read and review. I absolutely LOVED it. I loved the humor. It got me within the first few pages with the map. Once I met the characters, you wouldn't have a hard time figuring out who the person was who "wrote" on the map.
This story is about a girl who has a terminal lung disease and a boy who has had a traumatic event happen to him recently. They are both lab partners at their high school. One day, Madeline is at school and she is looked terrible according to Jason. She ends up blacking out and Jason rushing her to the hospital. Time ends up freezing and a mysterious man named Hannali offering Madeline a deal. He will allow her to breathe freely and normally again in exchange for a year of servitude and a place called The Sunlit Lands.
Jason refuses to let her go by herself, so he makes a deal for pudding cups.. chocolate to be exact and not the fake stuff.. (this cracked me up and had me rolling.. so I had to include it.) He makes the deal but he says he will be in servitude to Madeline and not the people who Madeline are in a deal with. This means that he has to obey what she asks of him while in the Sunlit Lands.
This is an epic fantasy about magic, greed, justice and injustice. We learn that when they hone their special skills and it is being taken from someone else, or if you are breathing fine... is that pure magic, or is it making someone else suffer for something they or their family desperately need.
Thanks to Tyndale House Publishing for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.
