Tween Tuesday: Jinx by Sage Blackwood

 4 soft frosted molasses cookies.

Cover Love:
I do love this cover.  The colors work well together, the title is big and a major focal point and it has a strong fantasy element to it.  Well done!

Why I Wanted to Read This:
Lately I have been missing reading good MG fantasy books and was really ready for a new one.  I saw some good reviews on Jinx and I had the egalley so I decided to give it a try.  Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

In the Urwald, you don’t step off the path. Trolls, werewolves, and butter-churn riding witches lurk amid the clawing branches, eager to swoop up the unwary. Jinx has always feared leaving the path—then he meets the wizard Simon Magnus.

Jinx knows that wizards are evil. But Simon’s kitchen is cozy, and he seems cranky rather than wicked. Staying with him appears to be Jinx’s safest, and perhaps only, option. As Jinx’s curiosity about magic grows, he learns to listen to the trees as closely as he does to Simon’s unusual visitors. The more Jinx discovers, the more determined he becomes to explore beyond the security of well-trod paths. But in the Urwald, a little healthy fear is never out of place, for magic—and magicians—can be as dangerous as the forest, and soon Jinx must decide which is the greater threat.

Sage Blackwood introduces a daring new hero for an innovative new world as Jinx is joined by friends, battles enemies, and discovers life beyond—and even within—the forest is more complex than he can imagine, and that the Urwald itself needs him more than he could ever guess.

Romance?: Nope

What I Liked:
Like I said above I haven't gotten into a good middle grade fantasy book in awhile.  I know they are out there, but I guess I have been focusing on other things lately.  Jinx was a great book to take me back to fantasy.

I loved the world of the Urwald.  For the people who live in the clearings it is so tiny, just their area and sometimes the path in the Urwald.  The people in the cities almost don't even acknowledge this whole other world that goes on in the Urwald (at least that's the way I felt after we met Reven).  And then there is the alternate (?) place, Samara, that Simon visits.  There are layers to this one people!

I loved Jinx.  It was fun to see through his eyes and learn the new things that the Urwald had to offer.  We learned as he did, I liked how it came to us and him in pieces.  As readers, we could see the foreshadowing, but things really are not black & white in this world.  I cannot wait for Jinx to really start exploring his powers and for Simon to acknowledge just how powerful Jinx is!

I am not too sure about many of the other characters in this book.  Simon is probably good, certainly cranky, but I think he does care about Jinx.  Likewise, I think Sophie cares for Jinx but she is from a different place so can we truly trust her?  I am not sure about Elfwyn or Reven.  I liked them both fine, but am not nearly as attached to them as I am to Jinx.  I think that as cohorts of Jinx their secrets need to come out soon so that we (and Jinx) can trust them.

There is evil at every turn!  Jinx needs to realize his true potential and decide on his path to help this world and these woods he has come to belong to.

To Sum Up:  I hope this is a start of a series because there is a lot more I would like to explore in the Urwald.  I am buying this one for my library for sure!

eGalley requested and received from HarperCollins via Edelweiss.  Thanks!