The Runaways Of Missing Lake by Tanya Fyfe
Publisher: Kindle Direct Press (September 1, 2020)
Category: Young Adult, Teen, Fantasy, Dragons
ISBN: 9798681416005
Available in Print and ebook, 394 pages
Luke Houser and his friends enter their junior year at Missing Lake High School under extremely unusual circumstances after a tremendous forest fire kept the community on edge for months. The memory of the fire permeates all aspects of everyone’s lives, including those of the incredible secret dragon family who live up north. Luke makes a new canine friend through his step-mom’s veterinary clinic and Chase plays an important role despite not being one of the family’s beloved sled dogs.
The silver dragon, Zagros has some serious news for his young Dragoneer that will impact the entire dragon realm, particularly the young dragons, Helios and Cassiel. Luke has to process this information all while a crisis unfolds during English class. Luke has to make some serious choices that challenge the sometimes awkward sixteen-year-old but he cannot share them with anyone without risking the discovery of the magnificent dragons.
This is the fourth book in the Missing Lake series that follows a reluctantly intrepid young man’s journey into adulthood with his family, friends, dogs, cats and dragons by his side.
Guest Review by Sal
This is absolutely the kind of book that, while it’s technically a Young Adult novel, makes for an enjoyable story for all ages and reading levels.
Luke Houser is a teenager living in the town of Missing Lake, Montana, and he has a seemingly normal life. He and his father own a group of sled dogs which Luke spends much of his time caring for, and, on top of that, his step-mother is a veterinarian, so Luke is well versed in animal care.
Just before the beginning of the book, Luke and his family are forced to evacuate their house due to local wildfires that are encroaching on Missing Lake. Packing up their dogs and everything else that is important to them, they leave town for several weeks. Around the time school is set to begin, Luke’s family returns to find that their house is still standing although the smell of the fires still lingers in town.
Everything goes seemingly back to normal, but for Luke, normal is a little different.
Since he was fifteen, Luke has been a Dragoneer, a keeper of a family of dragons that lives on a mountain outside of Missing Lake. The head of the family, an ancient dragon named Zagros, shares a telepathic link with Luke through which the two are able to communicate. Having survived the fires that ravaged the area, Zagros now tells Luke that his family is in danger from a more long term threat. The dragons need Luke’s help to save themselves from extinction in the future.
This was a great story with a very worthwhile moral in the end. Luke and his family and friends were excellent characters that made for a rich, interesting world.
Tanya Fyfe’s writing is spellbinding and her usage of atmosphere within the town of Missing Lake was pitch perfect. She has crafted a story here that is enjoyable, heartwarming and thrilling and is definitely worth the read. I have to give it all 5 stars!
Praise for Secrets Abound Missing Lake by Tanya Fyfe
“Winner of the Distinguished Favorite for Teens”- NYC Big Book Awards and the Independent Book Awards in 2018
“I so enjoy this series. With his anxieties about school, his love for his family’s sled dogs, and his adventures helping his stepmother in her veterinary clinic, Luke Houser is a very believable teenager in the mountainous wilds of Montana. Most of his problems are perfectly normal for a boy in his circumstances.
So his involvement with the local dragons feels totally natural.
The antics of the baby dragons once they hatch, especially the golden boy dragon, Helios (who is all boy too) are just as realistic feeling as those of Luke’s school friends. You get the feeling that dragons could be just as real as broken marriages and sick dogs. And you wonder how the dragons and dragoneers ever got by without good veterinary support for all these hundreds of years. No wonder they’re nearly extinct!”-Lora of Ettria
“While the third book in the series, I didn’t have a problem reading it without having read the previous two. I enjoyed Luke’s interactions with the dragons and all they go through. I was invested in these characters and what happened. I found Luke and his family to be realistic as were all the problems (outside of the dragons) that he was having. It is a clean book, which I love, and is just good. I would let my young teens on up read this, I think they would enjoy it!”-Ashley’s Bookshelf
“The descriptions of North Dakota, Montana, and Vancouver are well written and help the reader sink into the story. The characters and dialogue keep the pace going and makes for a book that is hard to put down. The ‘Secrets Abound Missing Lake’ is a memorable book that I plan to share with my grandchildren when they are a little older. I also plan to read the first two books in the series and can hardly wait for book 4. This book is a must read for those who like coming of age stories and dragons. Actually animal lovers would love it as well.”-Sal, Bound 4 Escape
About the Author
Award winning author Tanya Fyfe was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada and trained and performed as a professional figure skater and coach for many years. After working briefly as an English Teacher in Japan, she met her husband, Dr.Alistair Fyfe and moved to North Dakota in 1994.
She completed her BSc and then got accepted into veterinary school in Saskatchewan which she graduated from in 2005. Since then she has worked as a veterinarian in ND and Montana.
Tanya has written stories since she was a little girl and enjoyed completing a course with the Children’s Institute of Literature several years ago. She began writing her teen fiction series in 2013 which began with Lost and Found in Missing Lake. The Dragons of Missing Lake followed and then Secrets Abound in Missing Lake came next. Around the time of publication she started selling real estate in Montana (because, clearly, she was not busy enough) but was still able to jump back into the story to complete Book 4, The Runaways of Missing Lake.
She enjoys hanging out with her characters and tries to give readers a sense of what it is truly like to live in the beautiful mountains of western Montana. She enjoys spending time on any golf course with her husband and they canoe, hike and ride horses as well. They share their world with 5 adorable cats, several horses and 3 ridiculously personable ferrets.
Website: https://tanyafyfe.com/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/tanya.fyfe.9
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tanyafyfe
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tanyafyfe/
Giveaway
This giveaway is for 1 copy each for 3 winners and is open to Canada and the U.S. only. The winners will have the choice between print and ebook. This giveaway ends November 26, 2020,midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted by Rafflecopter only.
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