The Girl of Ink and Stars

Whew! That was a ride!

This is an action-packed middle grade adventure story that does not stop moving the entire time. I almost felt like I was holding my breath the whole time too. It's set on the fictional island of Joya and follows a girl named Isabella, a cartographer's daughter, on an epic journey to find her missing best friend and in the process save the island from the resurfacing of an ancient myth that is found to be very real and very dangerous.

This is adventure and storytelling at its finest, but I also found it to be darker than I was expecting. Slight spoiler - there is a fire demon that reawakens, and it's intense. More intense than I like to read in general, much less in a middle grade book. So if that kind of darkness makes you uncomfortable, I would stay away from this one. Otherwise, it's an adrenaline-packed adventure with some cool cartography bits that I enjoyed.