Book Review - Reckless

Title: Reckless
Author: Cornelia Funke
Publisher: Chicken House
Release Date: 14th September 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1905294855

Synopsis
For the first time in his life, Jacob Reckless is afraid. For years he's stolen across to another world. A dark enchanted place he's loved for its treasure, secrets and dangers. Until now. Will, his younger brother, has followed him with terrible consequences: The boy will turn to beast; the girl he loves will break her heart and chaos will rule forever, unless Jacob can spin a fairytale to save them ..  

My Review
I have been a fan of Cornelia Funke for a long time, 'Inkheart' is great and 'The Thief Lord' is one of my favourites, so I was excited when I heard about this release. 
Jacob Reckless was devastated when his dad disappeared, shortly after he finds a mirror in his dad's study that acts as a portal to another world. A world full of fairy tales and magic treasures. It's his way of escaping life. Until one day his younger brother Will follows him through and all his troubles catch up with him. Will gets attacked by a Goyl, a stone like creature that changes humans into one of their kind. Jacob must fight to save his brother, before he becomes cold hearted like the stone that's taking over.
I found the general idea of this book quite fascinating. The idea of another world of course has been done before, but Funke does do it well. The story is littered with hints of famous fairy tales and I quite enjoyed working out which she was referring to. However, I have to admit to getting a bit bored with it. I found myself skimming pages and just reading the bits of conversation. The book just didn't grip me as others had. 
I found that I couldn't give up on it though, I had to know how it would all turn out, I just had to do it in a quicker way. So skim reading came out. The scenes featuring mainly Jacob and Will i did read more closely, but when it went to the Goyl armies and the Dark Fairy, I got bored. 
In my opinion this book would be great as a short story, but it just went on a bit. 
Not everything was negative though, the characters are well developed and the writing does flow well. It just didn't wow me.
Fans of Funke may be disappointed, but it's still worth a look at.

My Rating
I would give this book 6/10, A good concept, just a bit disappointing.