About the Book

Join a hunt for lost witch treasure, in an enchanting adventure story of storms, spells, and the magic of the natural world, from bestselling and award-winning Tim Tilley.

Will believes in witches and the stories he’s grown up with – of mythical storm-lions, disappearing villages, and secret songs. Most of all, he believes the tales of magical treasure hidden in the Fens centuries ago. Treasure that he has to find, to solve the mystery of his Ma’s disappearance.

Then, in the eye of a storm, a witch arrives. She holds the key to finding the lost treasure – a powerful magical object that can summon storms. But someone else is searching for it too. If it falls into the wrong hands, Will’s beloved home could be destroyed, and with it, his chances of ever finding his ma.

Join Will on an epic quest filled with riddles, ruined towers, cloud cities and broomstick chases, on a journey to save everything he loves before time runs out.

About the Author

Tim Tilley studied illustration at Anglia Ruskin University and now teaches children’s book illustration courses at City Lit. He is always watchful of the world around him and loves collecting and drawing beautiful snapshots of nature, relishing the small things people often miss. Tim’s debut children’s book, the bestselling and critically-acclaimed Harklights, is the winner of the Joan Aiken Future Classics Prize and the Junior Design Award.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/timbertilley

Instagram: http://instagram.com/timbertilleytales

What I Thought

To me this was a pacy, Witchy Indiana Jones with Ecological themes. Full of action and adventure this does roll along at breakbroom speed. 

Our protagonist Will is distressed by his mother’s disappearance and wonders if, the family legend about ‘that time their ancestor saved a witch’, has anything to do with it. Spending his days searching for her he’s lost touch with one of his friends and Fa never believed in witches anyway.

I couldn’t quite place this originally thinking it was a contemporary urban fantasy but I think it’s more an alternative and older version of our world and one that isn’t as technological. 

Humans are referred to by witches as Grounders – which does make sense later on. Not only is there a history of witch trials, grounders are now pillaging the earth. Taking but not giving back. No balance or care. This leads one witch to want to do something about it, except he’s prepared to sacrifice others to achieve this. 

Will’s Cool Aunt Hera is the Indiana Jones esque archaeologist and I very much pictured her as an Amelia Earhart lookalike but in a motorcar rather than a plane – oh yeah and she has a sword!

Witch coven leader in training Magda literally crashes into their lives and we barely get a breath as not only do they have to try and save both Will and Magda’s mother but also the witch and grounder communities, the former literally falling to pieces and the latter on the precipice of a severe storm. There’s also a theme around gaining inner confidence in order to focus and control magic and the support the young characters give each other is heartwarming – even when it comes to saving Will’s bully. 

I would say that this felt at the younger age of middle grade with the peril being tamer than for a slightly older audience. However, the search for Agatha Crow’s amulet’s Ruby was the most enjoyable part of this and I particularly loved the riddles and booby traps they had to get through. There’s even a touch of the mind control we see in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 

The ecological message is returned to at the end and I’m not sure if something that happens towards the end hints at a potential sequel. 

A huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and Usborne for the gifted ARC copy. As ever all opinions are my own. Follow along with the blogtour by using the hashtag #Witchstorm.