Britfield & The Lost Crown Blog Tour + Review

All Tom knows is the inside of the Weatherly Orphanage, where orphans are forced to make furniture for the horrible Grievouses who own the orphanage. None of the children go to school or have any fun, all they know is work and abuse from the adults at the orphanage. The adults begin to get suspicious that the orphans are doing something under their noses, and think that Tom is at the bottom of it. They try to bribe him with the truth about his past and punish his Sarah to try to get information out of him. Nevertheless, Tom never gives in and decides to escape instead. No one has managed to escape the Weatherly Orphanage before, but he sees this as his only option. Thus begins the tale of Tom and Sarah, a tale that includes intense chases, a hot air balloon, a dangerous detective, and a past that Tom is still curious about. 

I originally looked at the cover of this book and saw the hot air balloon, and then saw that the kids were from an orphanage. These two things made me think that this story was going to take place in the 18-1900s. Then a character closes a laptop in one of the first few chapters, and I was thrown into the current day. This book is a beautiful mix of past and present, as these kids don’t really know what regular life is like after so many years in the Orphanage, yet the world is in the 21st century outside. 

Another thing I thought this book was going to have more of was fantasy, and again, I was pleasantly surprised. This is definitely more of a contemporary mystery adventure story like a Nancy Drew than a fantasy novel, there is no magic, and I am happy it didn’t. I didn’t want the characters to have an easy magic way out of situations once the story got started, they were all very smart, and could use their brains to get in and out of situations. 

Tom and Sarah were both strong characters. Sarah may have been locked away for a portion of the start of the book, but she is no damsel in distress. The book puts both twelve-year-old characters on pretty equal footing for most of the novel, as they each have strengths and weaknesses in certain situations. And boy, do these two get into a lot of situations in this novel! Every time I thought the characters would have a moment to rest, they would get into trouble and would end up having to go on the run again. Not a dull moment in this read!

Since the characters are 12 this is definitely a middle-grade read, and I would definitely recommend this book for middle-grade readers. It is a long book so if the reader isn’t a strong one it might be difficult to get through. But me, being a little bookworm in middle school, would have loved this book being long enough to not be as easy as a Geronimo Stilton book but not as graphic and heavy as a Hunger Games or Divergent story would be. There is action, but nothing that would scare a more sensitive reader. 

The only thing I disliked about this book was completely cleared up by the end. I wasn’t sure why with all this modern technology the kids did not just go try to find non-corrupt authorities or adults for help, but things ended up being much more complicated than that. 

I was addicted to this book from beginning to end, and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out later this year!

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 books.