Immersive story and famous characters make for a young book lover's dream.

4.5 stars.

Tilly Pages lives above her grandparents' bookshop. Growing up around books she is a true reader, and despite not knowing her father, her mother disappearing while she was still a baby, books are her respite.

Wanting to know more about her mother, she notices one day strange people appearing in the bookshop that seem somehow familiar. Lizzy... Alice... Anne...

Tilly soon realises that she is meeting characters from her favourite books. crossing from literature to life... and she may be able to go back with them...

It's the start of a book lover's paradise, a wish fulfillment - what if you could travel inside your favourite stories? It did remind me of Inkheart at several points, but used real books and characters known and loved the world over, using real details and scenes from them.

This will all wash over the heads of readers who aren't familiar with such titles as Anne of Green Gables, Alice in Wonderland and A Little Princess, but for those who love these stories, it will be a real treat seeing their favourite lovingly worked over and meshed together into a story.

I really liked this as an audiobook, it was a well-narrated story that transferred well for listeners, with the narrator voicing Tilly, her friends and family as well as the book characters with distinctions. She also kept Tilly sounding her age, though I wasn't too keen on her accent for Anne Shirley (or how she pronounced Avonlea!).

A great start to a series, will be pored over by young literature lovers (and those adults who read them as children). Lots of excitement and the potential for adventure.

With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.