The Alchemyst

I got this through GoodReads First Reads and having read some of the reviews was a bit dubious, however I've got to say I quite liked it.

If you read it, you MUST take it completely as a fantasy book and not try to take any historical accuracy from the story.Once you have accepted that, the book us quite enjoyable. The characters are well described although some of the detail is a little repetitive. (i.e. Did you know the parents are archeologists??)

The bad guys in the story do feel quite menacing on occasion and the description of the shadow realm is done quite nicely.

Overall a good read.