I didn't much enjoy the first Books of Beginning, The Emerald Atlas, but it was a bedtime story for my boys (14 and 11), and both of them wanted to continue the series. At the end of The Fire Chronicle I gave them a list of other books to choose our next read, and both of them wanted to know "what about the third book?" I've never been so happy that a book in a series had yet to be released. When it comes out, the boys can read that on their own, if they want. For what it's worth, the 11 year old gave it 3 stars, taking off points for the "personal drama". By this he means the mushy scenes between Michael and the Elf Princess, though he certainly laughed out loud enough during the reading of those parts. The 14 year old is mired in teenagehood and therefore doesn't like to tell me how many stars he would give, or talk much about how much he liked/didn't like something, because he expects I will write about it here. I do, because it's useful information. After all, plenty of people did like this book, and it's helpful to me to determine WHY. 
 The siblings are separated early on in this title, with Kate having her own issues and adventures, and Michael and Emma going after the Chronicle, the second book. In true middle-book-in-a-series fashion, it ends in a somewhat cliffhanger, though I don't care one bit about what happens to the characters. There, that's the beginning and the end. I can't relate much of what happened in between, for I've never fallen asleep while reading aloud and been prodded by children to wake up and keep reading as much as I have with The Fire Chronicle. I found it mildly confusing, and by the time a chapter returned to talk about the next sibling and what they were doing, I had forgotten what they did previously. While I could recall the handful of main characters, there were lots of other names, and I would forget them, and need to stop and ask my kids: "Who is X/Y/Z??" 
 Thus, I never bonded with the characters, main or peripheral. They were are forgettable to me. The writing style was okay, the idea behind the story is okay, and I can understand why some might like this, yet that's why I only give it two stars. Everything that might have been good was merely okay. 
 Two things that quite annoyed me about the writing style: 
 1) The continued overuse of the word LEAPT. This was a mild annoyance in the first book, in the second it just became ridiculous. For my own entertainment, I began substituting words whenever I saw leapt. I would use jettisoned, miraculously jumped, hovered with style, etc. The kids always knew, though, and they would both say LEAPT! after I made my false insertion. Use a thesaurus, Mr. Stephens! 
 2) The sentences that droned on for the length of one or two paragraphs, connected by way too many uses of "and". Bah. I had to take multiple breaths just to finish some sentences. 
 Happy to be turning this one back in to the library!