Greystone Valley

By: Charlie Brooks

Narrated by: Serena Scott Thomas

Greystone Valley is a land of wizards, dragons, and warriors... and one young girl who ends up there quite by accident when her idle wish is granted.

Sarah discovers that not everything in the valley is as magic as she might've wished - especially the nearly illiterate wizard, the mouse-sized dragon, and the warrior who can't stand the sight of blood. Being hunted isn't helping, either. Will Sarah survive this new life of hers, and can she make it home?

And, more importantly, will she ever be the same again?

©2013 Charlie Brooks (P)2013 Charlie Brooks

Greystone Valley

I hope the sequel will be out soon. I enjoyed the audio book at a reasonable price. I look forward to the continuation of the experience.

Great Ending

I found the characters a bit difficult to care about and the plot seemed a bit simplistic to me, but it was worth reading just to get to the ending, which was heartfelt and moving enough to make me willing to give the next book a try, assuming there is one.

Cathartic Cry

As you've probably figured out by this point, I'm not only a member of several active book clubs, but also of many professional author/author assistant/publisher groups. And that's how I find many, if not all of my books.

This time, a publisher asked members of a group we're both in if anyone would be interested in a free audio book. After perusing the publishing house's selection of audio books, I chose Greystone Valley because...I really needed a light and fluffy kids book.

It wasn't light and fluffy. Like all great children's adventure books, there was a definite problem that the main character had to face and overcome. In this case, it's that the girl preferred to live in a fantasy world in her head because that was easier than facing the fact that her father had died. 

Then she gets pulled into an actual land of fantasy, and meets new friends and enemies and faces all kinds of obstacles that make it where she probably won't ever make it home again. Along the way, she discovers important truths about both herself and the world. Also, a glimmer of understanding of what her mom's going through.

Like I said, it wasn't light and fluffy. However, it ended up being exactly what I needed. A good cathartic cry as I was driving down the highway. Weeping openly as all kinds of bottled up feelings got purged. And through it all, my kids sat silently, listening intently, and only stopping the story to ask over and over again, "But HOW did her dad die?" (The book never said.) I think they needed it too.

This story gets a 5/5 for not only being a wonderfully crafted story with vivid and realistic characters, but also for handling death (sudden death at that) at a level kids can understand. I thoroughly recommend.

Greystone Valley was narrated by Serena Scott Thomas and published by Grey Gecko Press.