This book was probably the best one yet!! I have read all 7 books and love them all!! Please please please read this book!!! Shannon Messenger uses supervisors choice and spectacular cliffhangers for every chapter. I could NOT put this book down! Hint: I was so sleep deprived for those 3 days!! I would recommend this book to anyone that likes good vs. Bad, fantasy, magic, and any book!!

FLASHBACK is the 7th book in the KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES series, and it doesn’t disappoint!Sophie and her crew of amazing friends have so many irons in the fire, it’s sometimes hard to remember they’re kids.I love these stories, and FLASHBACK brings us even more adventure, suspense, and a gloriously breathtaking cliffhanger of an ending.Readers everywhere are going to love and hate it. And that’s the best kind of reaction!

This is probably one of my all time favorite series. I love the characters and the sense of excitement you get learning about the mysteries of the elvin world. This book was different though. The beginning was pretty good. It answered several questions that were left as cliffhangers in the previous book, so that was good. But after chapter 30 or so, the whole plot seemed to disintegrate. Several characters that were extremely important in the previous books seemed to be left out for no good reason. The whole idea of Sophie, Fitz, Keefe, Dex, Biana, Linh, Tam, Wylie, and Marella being a team was left out, and after looking at the size of this book, I had really been hoping for some quality time with each of the characters. I was pretty disappointed when only Fitz and Keefe had interactions with Sophie and the small amount of time spent with other characters seemed very forced and didn’t contribute anything to the plot. I also wish there was more Grady-Edaline-Della-Alden-Sandor-Black Swan time. I had really enjoyed their guidance/ parental contributions to previous books, but yet again they were left out. Overall, this is an awesome series, I just hope the next book is better.

Sadly, I'm losing interest in this series, which I began with great enthusiasm, but which I've begun to find rather tedious. To begin with, I admire the author & her craft, so I don't want to bash her or her work, but I think - at some point - sci fi & fantasy series run on too long, and - for this series - I think we've reached that point (perhaps we reached it a while back, but it's really getting more noticeable by the moment). Here's the problem (SPOILER ALERT): in the penultimate scene, we're reminded that we STILL don't know the cause of the Neverseen (the antagonists). Well, if we don't know their cause, how do we know that they're the bad guys? As it stands now, there's a colorable case to be made that the Neverseen have fought against the Council's participation in and/or its cover-up of illegal experimentation on humans & trolls. Why would they be the bad guys for opposing illegal & immoral experimentation ? What, exactly, did they do that's so awful? Especially when you realize that Fintan may be to blame for most of it, so - really - they could argue they just had a few mis-steps as the result of a bad leader - which, ironically, is the Council's excuse for its own misconduct. And what pray tell is the Black Swan's goal? Their experiments w Sophie are pretty dubious too. In the end, what is Sophie fighting for? If I don't know, why should I care? If she's going to switch sides in the end, why shouldn't I switch sides now? Or wait for the reveal? 7 books in we should know what we're fighting about; at this point, the author is hiding too much & taking too long to get to the real story, whatever it will be. I mean this world makes no sense: who do these militaristic trolls & goblins & ogres fight? And how would a world w 3 militaristic societies count as peaceful? If the Elves are just oppressing everybody else or letting everybody else fight while they stand aloof, why do I care if their "peace" lasts? I just feel like I've been told too little to really care. At this point, I want to know what's really at stake - no more "mysteries" for another book. All of these game-changers just make me dizzy -- I need something to latch onto so I can care about the outcome of these endless fights.

Its an amazing, thrilling, and kind of romantic.( Sophizt ) This is one of the best books of the series!!!!!