Customer Reviews

The Faerie Door

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whether 9 or 90, you will find a special place in your heart for Victoria Deveny and Elliot Good, the main characters in B. E. Maxwell's first novel for "young" readers.

For us "mature" readers, be prepared to rekindle the love of those first awe-inspiring characters we hold so dear. For me it was Dorothy and Toto, Peter Pan and Wendy and, a little later, Pippi Longstocking.

Victoria and Elliot take us into the magical place in our souls where the stresses and strains of today's world can melt away. Hang on as you are transported into the "fantastical" world of B.E. Maxwell's imagination.

Read this for yourself, to unlock the long-forgotten part of you where magic still exists. Or maybe, more importantly, be the one to introduce the youngest of our readers to that place where magical stories and your own imagination can create those special childhood memories we all cherish to this day.

Thank You B. E. Maxwell for sharing this amazing world with all of us.

Victoria and Elliot are characters for forever.

Victoria Deveny is a young girl living in England in 1890. Elliot Good is a boy living in New Hampshire in 1966. Even though this pair is living decades apart, they share a love for all things faerie. The two read faerie stories and each one wishes to someday visit the faerie queen.

When Victoria discovers a secret passageway, she stumbles upon a magical ring and a portal into another time. At the same time, Elliot Good is finding another ring just like Victoria's. The two meet when Victoria crosses time and ends up near Elliot's house. The pair discover that although they have uncovered magic, there is something dark after them. They are soon being perused by the Shadow Knight and, in order to escape, they unlock another portal, this time into the land of faerie.

The Faerie Queen tells Victoria and Elliot that they are to embark on quests in order to stop the Shadow Knight and the evil queen he works for from gaining power. Both children must each retrieve a powerful magical orb; Elliot the orb of fire and Victoria the orb of ice. Each child must travel alone to various worlds and face dangers of all sorts.

Filled with wicked queens, good and evil magic, dragons, werewolf knights and, of course, faeries, THE FAERIE DOOR is a fantasy novel for all ages. Each chapter in told in an alternating view which helps keep the story moving. There are also plenty of scary moments that will have readers quickly turning pages. The author is very descriptive and the various worlds that Elliot and Victoria encounter are imaginative and full of magic.

Although the novel is fairly long, with over 400 pages, readers who stick with it will be rewarded.

Reviewed by: Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen

The settings in this book are described beautifully. There is such care to the details that it's not overwhelming but just right. Victoria and Elliot, characters who wouldn't normally meet, but under the circumstances do, go well together. They have fun, and you have fun reading about them. I thought the story might be loosely based on a ballet which is mentioned in it, but after researching that, I believe this is the author's own creation, which leaves me liking it all the more.

I find the story original even while, yes, it starts as a quest with rings. It is unlike the Lord of the rings trilogy and stands on it's own. Only thing I didn't like was there were times when I had to put the book down. For a children's book, I thought it got a little dark, but that could be me mirroring my own dark times in it. I was frustrated in a good way, because the reason I put it down was that the book would get so dark and end a chapter where I did not know how it was going to end. I worried whether I would get a nice ending or a sad ending. Overall, I would say that makes it a great book, and I think kids will love it.

We just completed this. My throat is hoarse from reading three chapters to my children tonight. We had to get to the end. What a WONDERFUL book. We all enjoyed it and are sad it is over. I hear there is a sequel in the works. We read the prequel and cannot wait.

BE Maxwell took us to such high levels of emotion, excitement and imagination throughout this book. We were regularly catching our breath between each chapter. This is a wonderful book for anyone 8 and older. Under 10 may need help with some of the words and concepts. Adults can enjoy this.

There was enough gore and action for both men/boys and women/girls.

This is worth lip-service and will be most likely to be the beginning of a memorable series. Written beautifully, it contains the components of a future classic. Memorable characters and innovative magical realms and a bit of time-travel make it stand out amongst many fantasy books wherein I see the same plot and characters hashed out again and again. I definitely plan of sharing this book with my children.

Victoria Deveny and Elliott Good are two young children, living half a century apart, as well as half a world apart. Both children love faerie tales, and are brought together by a magical portal from Victoria's place/time to Elliott's place/time. Once they meet, the two children discover a magical gateway to the Land of Faeries, where, under the service of Queen Edwina, queen of the faeries, they embark on separate quests to retrieve magical orbs. They must overcome obstacles and face perilous dangers in order to retrieve the orbs, and save the faerie world, as well as their own, from the Shadow Knight, who wants to close the portal between the human and faerie worlds, as well as unleash every kind of evil upon the worlds.

This novel is delightful, and only gets better as it moves along. This novel is reminiscent of the Chronicles of Narnia series, as well as several Grimms Fairy Tales. It is not only entertaining, but refreshing as well. It has just the right mix of friendship, adventure, peril, and mystery. Whether you are discovering the pleasure of fantasy adventures for the first time, or like me, you are an adult who is looking to recapture and revisit the joys of fairy tales you loved as a child, you will be captivated by the world that B. E. Maxwell has created.

I heartily recommend this book for all ages, and eagerly await the sequel!

3 1/2 stars

Victoria is from 1890s England, Elliot is from 1966 New Hampshire. Both are about 11 years old, and both - in their own place and time - find magical rings that are filled with power and the ability to access doors to different worlds, and different times.

Once Victoria shows up in Elliot's time, they quickly become fast friends and just as quickly are thrown into a menacing situations, complete with an evil knight who's shield bares what appears to be a black hole for an emblem. After Elliot's mother's apparent death, both children are transported to the Faerie world, where they learn that dangerous quests await them. Both children are sent on individual (but related) quests to different (but connected) worlds.

So, my thoughts:

The premise of this books is quite intriguing: that worlds and times are interwoven.
I loved some of the concepts in this book and the various levels to the plots and characters. Most of the book is fairly predictable, but I found myself surprised at certain twists along the way and guessing as to the true good/evil nature of some of the characters. However, this was peppered with some over explanation that I didn't feel was quite necessary (however, if a reader is more literal or doesn't want to be left questioning, then this could be a good thing).

I thought author Maxwell did a great job of cutting back and forth between Victoria's and Elliot's stories. For most of the book, one chapter is about Victoria, the next is about Elliot, then back to Victoria, then Elliot, and so forth. I felt the flow and breaks worked well, and I always felt I slipped easily back into each character's tale. (However, I did feel that Elliot's story was far more developed and detailed).


The story feels a lot like a novelized fairy tale. It certainly seemed like Maxwell was paying homage to classic fairy tale elements, and I did enjoy this, as will (I think) fans of folklore and fairy tales. Because of this, some of the events in the book are a little creepy, and may disturb young readers, but overall everything stayed just shy of too creepy. There was, I believe, only one passage that I felt was a little too much, but it wasn't dwelt on (if I'm recalling correctly, I think it dealt with heads on stakes, but I could be wrong, and was just in passing).
This is part of what I loved most about this book -- 1) that I never really felt Maxwell talked down to the audience, and 2) that Maxwell has a fantastic way with words and vocabulary, and uses both! So, if you have, or are, a young reader that loves words and learning new ones (or old ones that have gone out of style) but still want stories that are age appropriate, then this is a fantastic book! I found myself wanting to look up some of the words a few time, haha! :)

Sometimes Maxwell inserts 'information' about the real world - like, little tidbits of learning. Some of this fit well into the story and didn't bother me, but sometimes it did break up the flow a little.

Overall, I really liked the characters, but most of this stemmed from the first part/half of the book, and after that the character introspection seemed to go away. Yes, the characters face ever-increasing dangers, so we can derive their character from their actions, but I wanted to know more of what drove them.
I also found myself questioning the way Victoria went about completing her quest. Not anything immoral or the like, but more that she didn't seem to do that much. It seemed she waited to be told what to do - more of a, 'don't worry, Victoria, you're at the right place at the right time, and it will make sense later on.' I don't mind some of this, but I felt it was a little too much compared to the decisions she made on her own, and her challenges just never really felt comparable to Elliot's (until the end, perhaps). However, I was glad that ballet played such a strong role in the book, and young dancers will appreciate this as well.

All this, combined with the rather vague climax, was unfortunate, because all the elements were there to make the story so much more.

Something else of note, this book is very heavy on description. If you like description, then you'll probably enjoy Maxwell's. But, for me it overpowered the actual story and I found myself loosing interest in the events because things got slowed down. Also, there were so many descriptions it was hard to sort out what was important and what wasn't.

Overall, this is a solid book and a I'd probably look up other of Maxwell's works. But, for me, this tale was lacking in places, but I did still enjoyed the book.

Normally I don't write reviews. I just don't feel the need for it.

However, I really did not think this was a good book and will not be purchasing any future stories. I'm glad that I only paid $4.00 for the book from a Barnes and Noble clearance table.

The writing is mediocre. There's several continuity issues throughout the book that never get resolved. The main characters aren't developed enough at all. The world isn't fully brought forth, even though there's a lot of description, just not in the right places. The climax is solved through simplicity and not through any real thought from either of the children. Actually, for the most part other's solve the problems for them, they really don't solve it on their own.

I know they're supposed to be 11 years old, but I began playing Dungeons and Dragons at the age of 10 and had a lot more creative answers to solving adventures then either of these children. There are simply better children's fantasy novels written that I would spend my time and money on.

The book just seems too much of a rough draft that needs a lot of rewriting to make it worthy of keeping. It will be going to my local thrift store this evening. I hope the author continues to improve and writes. I wish him the best.