The Thief of Farrowfell

All the members of the Ripon family are expert at stealing and selling magic, (mostly in an edible form) and 12-year-old Jude, not yet allowed on excursions except as a lookout, is desperate to prove that she is a True Ripon and worthy of more inclusion.  She steals some very valuable magic from the richest house around, but finds that not only is the lump of magic protected by a curse, but that the occupants of the house are a girl, Eri, and a boy, Fin, around her own age, whose parents disappeared a year ago while investigating the source of magical attacks. The magic-keeper on guard instructs her not only to return the magic to the parents, but to ask their forgiveness, which means that they must still be alive, but she needs to find them without asking her own family for help, or she would be in more trouble.  The three resourceful children start the quest, but nothing is straightforward, especially in Jude’s own family…

There are some great characters in this book: Moorley, Jude’s older sister seems aloof and big sister-ish, but turns out to be very helpful; the aunts and an information-spouting cousin are fun, the patriarch of the family is not called Grandfather, but Grandleader, and he turns out to be not quite the hero Jude thinks he is.

The helplings, who are magical robots, keep getting their instructions wrong, which brings some comic relief to an absorbing story- the reader quickly gets used to the rules involved in the use of magic, and it is pleasing to note that the Hall of Knowledge, an enormous library that talks, is a very useful source of help.

Ravena Guron has previously written a bestselling YA crime novel This Book Kills, set in a boarding school, and this intended to be the beginning of a series. Jude’s further adventures should be interesting!