The two most important aspects of a book or movie for me are: an awesome plot and well developed, Likable characters. Ms. Messenger has created this amazing world with both plot and characters that are not only believable, but down to earth and inspiring. I'm still piecing together certain aspects of the overall plot...she hints at the Neverseen's motives and goals throughout the series, but I LOVE a challenge so I'm excited to see if what I've been thinking are accurate. Since Ms. Messenger is able to tell her story through a series instead of one book, she can use more time to develop her characters and the relationships between them, making them more of a team than a random bunch of characters thrown together, while still moving the plot along.I love this book because it is clean, yes there is some romance, but it's age appropriate for middle grades. Also she might hint that the characters are swearing, but she doesn't include swear words in her writing, which I LOVE because it's hard to find books for my children to read that are this clean. Sophie, the main characters is what every strong willed girl could use as a role model. She's smart and is in control of herself and the choices that she makes, but she's not perfect. She makes mistakes and learns from them. She tries her best to do the right thing even when her choices seem daunting. She cares about others more than she cares about herself, which isn't very popular in society right now. She surrounds herself with friends that help rather than hinder her self esteem, an excellent thing for girls to think about considering how catty girls can be.Overall Flashback is a wonderful book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and can't wait to share with my kids. There is action, friendship, teamwork, drama, and an overall sense of staying true to yourself and choosing to do the right thing over what is deemed popular. I can't wait for the next one.

Just when I think this series can’t get any better Miss Messenger tops herself. I love the characters, her dialog between them is perfect. Her storytelling keeps you wanting to turn the pages, I seriously have a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend this series for yourself and of course for kids!

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.

This book was amazing. However SPOILER ALERT when Sophie is in the healing centers it gets kinda boring. Otherwise, another amazing book!

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.