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This is an excellent middle-grade fiction featuring time travel and historical fiction, my two personal favourites.

A girl "10 years and 4 months old" is narrating. Sometimes she's known as Rebecca, sometimes Peggy, or Eleanor, depending on her whimsy of the week. She's feisty, forthright, a leader of her group of friends and apparently, a person who finds things. The author writes as a 10-year-old very successfully!

On a beautiful English summer day in 1962, our heroine finds a wooden shield in a "beck" or creek. (I didn’t know what a beck is so checked it in Webster's. It's a British word first used in the 14th century – how appropriate.) The shield is old and Rebecca/Peggy/Eleanor wants to examine it more closely at home in the family garage. While doing so, a knight in armour, speaking old English, suddenly appears. This knight, Sir Kay, is aware that he is in a different time – "I know we are in the wrong time for me, but the right time for you…..I was waiting for you…..My Lady!" The knight and our heroine seamlessly travel from the 1960's back to 1340 and so the exciting adventure escalates. The shield (Sir Kay's) and what it contains are important to the security of the realm. She becomes friends with 10-year-old Edward, the future Black Prince.

The author evokes 14th century England by the use of language, clothes, tapestries, the rushes on the floors and the ancient weaponry. Rebecca/Peggy/Eleanor finds herself dressed in the style of medieval times in "a long, pale blue wool dress....with gold buttons and braiding."

The scenario is creative, the action fast paced and well written. This is Book 1 so more time travel and historical fiction is in store for readers - something to anticipate!

I highly recommend this MG book for young teens and adults alike. You won't be disappointed.

Disclosure: Thanks to Rachel Gilbey from Authoright Marketing & Publicity for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.


Originally heralding from the North of England, C.J Bentley has travelled extensively and enjoyed living in a variety of countries across the world from Dubai to Doha, Qatar and now the countryside in the South of France. A background in teaching and childcare she has always enjoyed creating adventure short stories. However, it was when she became a grandma and with her grandchildren growing up that she discovered that books seemed to contain only stories of vampires, zombies and farts that she decided seriously to take matters into her own hands and put pen to paper which today she calls The Finder Series.

Connect with the Author: Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter  




Book Description:

My Review:

Reviewed by Sandra Olshaski

About the author:



Enter Harry Cavanagh of the CIA, who was also on Maggie’s plane. And the mystery intensifies! Then, Maggie and Allie are abducted, thrown into a dark room with another occupant named Mohammed Hadi El Kabir, a Sufi mystic (another dark-skinned man, but a “good guy”, this time). He guides them through their ordeal as he philosophically reassures them that they will be freed in Allah’s own time. All is resolved by the story’s end. Though this is a fast-paced light-hearted novel, the mystery at the heart of the story is serious as it deals with current themes in international news.

I have read all 10 books in this series only to realize that this one--and not Book 10—is actually the last one. But wait, it gets better. Book 1 of a second series in The 39 Clues is being published on August 30, 2011. And it promises to be good! I will be posting a review of it on August 27.

So what is Book 11 about? It's an introduction to the Vespers, the organization that will stop at nothing to grab the 39 clues that led Amy and her brother Dan to the secret of great power. A secret started 500 years ago by their ancestor Gideon Cahill and coveted by the cruel and evil Damien Vesper.

The book is divided into 4 parts, each written by a different author. The first part is about Gideon Cahill (1507), the second about Madeline Cahill (1527), the third about Grace Cahill (1942) and finally the 4^th part is about Amy and Dan Cahill in the present day. I enjoyed reading all four parts immensely because it gave the history of how the 39 clues started, how the Madrigal was formed and how Grace Cahill came to have something in her possession that was to be guarded.

Filled with action and suspense, as one would expect from the 39 Clues series, the adventure and danger continues. We were given a taste of what's to come. Amy and Dan are no longer innocent teens trying to figure things out. They are now on a mission. I am really looking forward to what the second series will bring out. And I don't think I will be disappointed.

I will count this book toward the following challenges: Middle Grade Book Challenge, TwentyEleven Challenge


Disclosure: Thanks to Nikole Kritikos from Scholastic for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.