Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev

Release Date: July 7, 2009 from Feiwel & Friends

Synopsis:

All her world’s a stage.

Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.

She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.

She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.

That is, until now.

Enter Stage Right

NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.

COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE’S sidekicks.

ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie’s weakness. The symbol of impending doom.

BERTIE. Our heroine.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

This was a really wonderful book. It was touching, witty and beautifully written. Plus, it was completely original; I've never read anything like it. It's truly magical.

It is full of incredible characters many of which are already familiar to us all. And in the middle of all of these classic characters is Bertie, our leading lady, who has this amazing world at her fingertips, but still feels like an outsider. I loved watching Bertie discover her own story in the midst of all of these classic tales. We get to solve Bertie's mystery right along with her and her friends the fairies, who kept me laughing through the whole book.

Eyes Like Stars just completely swept me away to another world. It was easy to fall into this story and just get lost. Mantchev has a fantastic fresh voice and I can't wait to enter the Theatre Illuminata all over again. If you like Shakespeare, theater, humor, romance, adventure, fantasy, fairies, great storytelling, or all of the above, then this is the book for you.

I have an extra copy of this, which I will most likely be giving away in next month's contest, so be sure to keep a look out.