Story Thieves #1 by James Riley

My name is Owen, and something unboring finally happened in my life. Bethany disappeared outside the school cafeteria, and I picked up a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory she dropped. Later, I was returning it to the library shelves when Bethany stepped right out of the pages with chocolate-covered fingers! Her father is a fictional character, and she's been jumping in and out of different titles trying to find him. I knew a story containing a finding spell, so I offered to help. However, I didn't tell Bethany about my secret motive for entering this book. She said I shouldn't talk to characters or change the story, but I was determined to save the Magister. How could I have known how quickly things would get out of hand? Bethany would probably say it was easily predictable.

The majority of the plot evolved from Owen's secret reason for choosing that specific book. He had grandiose ideas of what would happen, but his plans went totally wrong. The plots alternated their focuses between Owen and Bethany. The Magister felt characters in books were enslaved and wanted to rectify the misdeed. This was the focus of Bethany's "real-world" plot. Owen was stuck within the pages of a book and found himself at the center of a fictional conflict between magic and science. He was looking for an adventure but ignored Bethany's call for caution. Once again, why can't characters heed the warnings they are given? Answer, because then we wouldn't have interesting conflicts for books.  It was curious how Bethany was forced to deal with the seriousness of Owen's mistake, while Owen was having the time of his life. Some people are so self-centered they can't see how their decisions adversely affect others. Kiel was an apprentice to the Magister and supplied levity to the events. He was a fun-loving, confident mage who managed to "annoy" Bethany and a human/robot girl named Charm. Overall, this was an entertaining book that mixed adventure and action with zany twists. The sequel will continue Bethany's search for her father, but who knows which books will form the setting? Give it a shot.