Review: The 13 Treasures - Michelle Harrison

A family secret, a fateful inheritance . . .

While visiting her grandmother's house, Tanya discovers an unsolved mystery.  Fifty years ago, a girl vanished in the woods nearby - a girl Tanya's grandmother will not speak of.  Fabian, the caretaker's son, is tormented by the girl's disappearance.  His grandfather was the last person to see her alive, and has lived under suspicion ever since.  Together, Tanya and Fabian decide to find the truth.  But Tanya has her own secret: the ability to see fairies.  Can it help them to unravel the mystery?  Soon they are facing terrible danger - could the manor's sinister history be about to repeat itself?

Thirteen Treasures Trilogy:
One Wish
The 13 Treasures
The 13 Curses
The 13 Secrets

Visit Michelle Harrison's website for more information

Review:
Tanya's mother is at her wits end with her daughter's strange and destructive behaviour and sends Tanya to stay with her grandmother so she can get a break.  Tanya has never felt comfortable at her grandmother's house, she has always felt that her grandmother doesn't want her there but she is also plagued by the fairies that only she can see, fairies that seem to be found in greater numbers than ever near Elvesden Manor.  When Tanya discovers the mystery of a young girl who went missing 50 years ago, a girl that was last seen not far from the manor but that her grandmother refuses to talk about, she wants to find out what really happened.  Along with caretaker's son Fabian she sets out to discover if there is a connection with the disappearance 50 years ago and the young children that continue to go missing locally today.  The deeper they dig the greater the danger they find themselves in becomes but will they be able to find the truth before one of them is hurt?

I have to confess that fairies tend to be my least favorite paranormal characters so I tend to avoid books about them and I probably wouldn't have given this book a try if it hadn't come highly recommended by several friends.  I'm so glad that I didn't let my reservations put me off as it was one of the best fairy stories I've read and I'm really looking forward to continuing with the series.  In The 13 Treasures Michelle Harrison has created a dark world full of spiteful and vicious fairies that you really wouldn't want to meet under any circumstances, a world that draws you in and makes you need to know more.

Tanya has had the curse of second sight for her entire life and is constantly bullied and harassed by fairies wherever she goes.  It was easier to pass off strange incidences when she was a small child but as she has grown older adults have become increasingly less understanding of her behaviour.  Who is going to believe her if she tells them that the fairies cause it?  In her grandmother's house where the fairies appear in even greater numbers than usual her life is even harder - surely there must be a way to prove to them that she means no harm and get them to leave her alone?  Tanya was an easy character to like and you can't help but feel for her with all she has gone through at the hands of the fairies, she was definitely a lot braver that I would have been in her circumstances.  I didn't like Fabian much to start with but he really grew on me by the end of the story when I'd got to know him better, it was interesting to watch him grow as the story progressed.  My favorite character would have to be Red but I'm not going to say anymore about them as I don't want to give spoilers.

This book sucked me in from the beginning and I found it easy to picture the manor and the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit it.  I loved the mystery surrounding the house, the secret rooms and passages that could lead anywhere, you really were never quite sure who or what would turn up and where Tanya and Fabian would find themselves next.  The descriptions of the fairies were fantastic and I especially enjoyed the scenes with the goblins who could only talk in rhyme.  The 13 Treasures was a gripping read that I would highly recommend and I'll definitely be picking up a copy of The 13 Curses to see what happens next.

Source: Received from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review

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