Review Chase Tinker and the House of Magic by Malia Ann Haberman

Title: Chase Tinker and the House of Magic
Author: Malia Ann Haberman

Published: August 15th, 2012 (Crossroad Press)

Pages: 465

Source: for review
Series: Chase Tinker #1
Rating: 3.5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads: In Chase Tinker's world, magic, lies and secrets can be a lethal combination...

Thirteen-year-old Chase Tinker can't understand why he has the power to move things with his mind. Besides that, his dad has been missing for over a year, causing his mom to be too upset to pay much attention to her sons, so now he's been busted for shoplifting. As if this isn't enough to worry about, his younger brother Andy suddenly has a weird magical ability too.

Can things get any crazier? Chase thinks.

Then, a grandfather they thought to be long dead arrives at their door. He wants Chase and Andy to come visit him for the summer so they can learn about their supernatural heritage and why they have magical powers in the first place.

The boys soon find out that Grandfather, along with their cousin Janie, lives on a remote island in the middle of Puget Sound in an out-of-this-world house where fantastic magic can be found in practically every room, stairway and corridor. Chase can't believe their dad has been keeping so much from them.

It's an even bigger shock when Chase learns that all their magic is controlled by a very powerful and mysterious Relic in the attic, and if anything happens to this relic, every bit of Tinker magic will be lost forever. He's even more disturbed when he learns his family has a dark and powerful enemy that is determined to steal all their magic, their house and their relic. 

Now Chase must find a way to stop these evil beings, while at the same time figuring out what has happened to his dad, unraveling even more Tinker lies and secrets and not letting on that he has a huge crush on the housekeeper's daughter.

Chase Tinker and the House of Magic is a fun middle grade read! When Malia emailed me with a review request I was hesitant at first. One, because I was super busy at the time and two, a middle grade indie published book didn't bring up many happy memories. I'm glad I decided to give it a chance anyway! 

When I first started this blog I read an indie published book without realizing it and I absolutely loved it! But after that there came a lot that were really bad. So, I'm always careful now with these kind of books. Luckily, there are still indie authors out there who can really write a good story. This is one of them! 

I started this book late at night. I love to start a new book right before I go to sleep and just read the first chapter to get to know the author's writing style. I immediately loved the writing style of Malia. Most of you probably know that's one of the most important things for me in a book. 

Like I said at the beginning Chase Tinker is a middle grade book, which isn't a bad thing. But I know I don't like these books so often. Mostly because I get annoyed with the MC, because he or she is so young I feel like I'm their mother (and I'm 24 with no kids of my own). It wasn't that bad with this book. I enjoyed reading it, although sometimes I did caught myself thinking: no Chase, you can't go fight the world on your own. You're only 12 years old! 

But looking past that I would definitely recommend Chase Tinker and the House of Magic to kids. This is a fun and exciting book for them! There's a lot of action and the world building is pretty interesting with the house full of rooms with different magical powers. That's pretty awesome! And for the "older" ones you might want to give this one a chance, too! I definitely enjoyed reading it!