Hey, hey, hey, people! Isabelle Knight here again with another (long overdue) book review!!! So since the start of this November, I have FINALLY been reading a series that has been on my TBR for… FOREVER. I kept seeing this book in bookstores, on Kindle, all the time, and since the covers are SO beautiful and the plot sounds great, I’ve been wanting to read these forever. But they’re not on Kindle Unlimited. But anyway, my dad got me Amazon Kids+ for my birthday which I could finally use to read Keeper!
I just recently finished the seventh book and decided to do a book review on this. Also, if you’re wondering why I’m doing book seven not book one, it’s because I’m kinda in the mood to chat with you about book seven. And besides, I’ve already done a book review of book one, and it will be up on my YouTube channel soon.
So basically, Flashback follows the adventures of Sophie Foster, an elf who has endless abilities – Telepath, Polyglot, Inflictor, Enhancer, etc. – after book five. I may have to give you just the synopsis of the book because (sorry!) i can’t really provide a summary here. Mainly because Keeper doesn’t follow like a particular story structure (as far as I know), and honestly, if I tried to give you a good summary, I’d be spitballing spoilers everywhere.
Sophie Foster doesn’t know what—or whom—to believe. And in a game with this many players, the worst mistake can be focusing on the wrong threat.
But when the Neverseen proves that Sophie’s far more vulnerable than she ever imagined, she realizes it’s time to change the rules. Her powerful abilities can only protect her so far. To face down ruthless enemies, she must learn to fight.
Unfortunately, battle training can’t help a beloved friend who’s facing a whole different danger—where the only solution involves one of the biggest risks Sophie and her friends have ever taken. And the distraction might be exactly what the villains have been waiting for.
First of all, I have to say that I am a huge fan of Keeper of the Lost Cities, and I absolutely LOVED the previous books… This one… not so much. Now I’m not going to be one to just pile on a bunch of negativity on a book because there are enough people who do that already. I’m just going to be sharing what I liked and didn’t really like about this book.
First of all, what I did love about the book – the writing style. Shannon Messenger definitely has the kind of writing style that keeps you hooked until the very last page. I really enjoyed it, it’s super descriptive and just really plants you right in the story. She has a million great and brilliant plot twists in every single book. Just when you think you know the truth about what’s going on, BAM! Suddenly, some villain attacks, the MC gets injured, and then you realize that everything you thought was right in this book, is a whole trick. Doing this can be really tricky, and I’ve never dared to try this, because you want the plot twists to make sense but not be ridiculous at the same time. But you still need to find a way to pull the reader in, trick them, and do a surprise reveal.
The plot twists were sooo good and I do love seeing a bunch of my favorite characters again (my favorites are Sophie and Silveny)!
However, one of the things I didn’t really like about the book. I feel like this book doesn’t have as much action compared to the other books, or at least, it’s not really done in the same way. This is a slight (not super) spoiler, but basically, Sophie does get attacked, and I feel like half of the book is spent with her and Fitz when they’re stuck in bedrest so. The action does pick up towards the end of the book, so there’s that. And when I say pick up, it picks up a LOT.
The other thing I wasn’t a huge fan of in Flashback, was probably the character of Fitz Vacker. Now if you are a Keeper fan who has not yet made it to Flashback um… chances are you’ll probably be fuming at me (like I was at my writing buddy for even merely SUGGESTING this). But I’m warning you, Fitz does get annoying towards the end of the series.
He was definitely my favorite character in the earlier books (especially in book one), and I’m just pretty sad and mad that this happened. But towards the later books, his personality and character really changes a lot. He becomes much more angrier, grumpier, and also… I don’t really know the word to describe this without sounding scary. But his personality and character really changes drastically, and I don’t really like that. I mean, character change is a good thing… When it’s done in a good and satisfying way. Not quite this time, because personally, for me, I feel like Fitz does act a bit out of sorts in the later books.
And there’s also a lot of Fitzphie in book seven. Like a lot. Maybe it’s just me because I’m not a huge fan of romance. A bit of it in MG fantasy books I always do love, though, because it adds so much hilarious tension and drama. But I feel like all the romance between Fitz and Sophie here might be just a tad bit over the top… (I apologize beforehand to all the Fitzphiles out there).
However, I did enjoy all the plot twists in this book, and some of the conversations between characters here were hilarious, especially Silveny’s classic stubbornness. Overall, it’s sort of half-half for me in terms of how much I enjoyed it. It’s not my favorite book, but I don’t hate this book either. I give it around three stars, I’d say. I’m already reading book eight, Legacy, and I’m enjoying it much more than book seven, so please don’t let this review hinder you. Everyone has different tastes, and if you continue forward, book eight is pretty good.
Also, I just have to add – the ending of book seven!!! Perfect, absolutely perfect… That last scene. Trust me, guys, you don’t want to miss it.
So, yeah, that wraps up my review of Shannon Messenger’s Keeper of the Lost Cities #7: Flashback. Thanks so much for coming! And don’t forget, the cover reveal for Enchantria: Champion is coming here TODAY, and it will be available for pre-order on Amazon tomorrow!
Isabelle
