Book Review: Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye

Book: Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye (book #1) by Tania Del Rio with illustrations by Will Staehle

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

Meet Warren the 13th. He’s the lone bellhop, valet, groundskeeper, and errand boy of his family’s ancient hotel. It’s a strange, shadowy mansion full of crooked corridors and mysterious riddles—and it just might be home to a magical treasure known as the All-Seeing Eye. But if Warren is going to find the hidden treasure, he’ll need to solve several other mysteries first: What is the strange creature lurking in the hotel boiler room? Who is the ghostly girl creeping around the garden’s hedge maze? And why is the hotel’s only guest covered in bandages? Full of puzzles, secret codes, outrageous inventions, and hundreds of intricate illustrations, Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye will delight and confound readers of all ages.



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye was not at all what I expected. The story follows Warren the 13th, a 12 year old boy who is the heir to his family's once magnificent hotel The Warren. Due to his lazy Uncle Rupert's incompetence, the hotel has become rundown and decrepit and guests are a rarity. Thanks to his uncle doing absolutely nothing, Warren is left with the responsibility of doing all the work to try to maintain the hotel. And it doesn't help matters that Warren's Aunt Annaconda (his uncle's new wife) is horrible to him. When she's not tormenting him, she goes around the hotel in search of the mysterious All-Seeing Eye.

But the All-Seeing Eye is just a myth or that is what everyone believes. However, when Warren accidentally found a clue that proved that the All-Seeing Eye is real, it was all his aunt needed to increase her search. Unbeknownst to Warren and his uncle, Aunt Annaconda is a witch and joining her in the search was her apprentice, Petula. By the time Warren found out his aunt was a witch, she had already invited her two sisters (who were also witches) Isosceles and Scalene to help with the search.

His aunt's efforts were derailed a bit when an overwhelming large number of guests checked into the hotel. They were all looking for the All-Seeing Eye, unfortunately for Annaconda her sisters had mistakenly told too many people where they were going and what they hoped to find.

Warren wasn't alone in trying to stop his aunt, he not only had help from his friend Mr. Friggs but from a mysterious stranger and a very unbelievable likeable monster.

This is a fascinating fast-paced well written story that's filled with action, adventure and magic as Warren tries to stop his evil aunt from getting her hands on the All-Seeing Eye. He also wanted to save his beloved home The Warren hotel. There were quite a few twists and surprising double crosses in this dark and humorous imaginative story.