Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Download from Apple iTunes (eBook) Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Author Donan Berg Category:  Fantasy Publisher: DOTDON Books ISBN-10:  1941244254 Type: Fiction Pages: 151 Copyright: March 31, 2021 ISBN-13: 9781941244258 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Fears converge on fourteen-year-old Eta Dorcas. Her fingertips glow blue after she captures a weasel who speaks. July 2021 Literary Titan Gold Award winner. Five-star review cites unique characters, a striking setting with innovative plot and elegant prose. Breaking News, Find the Girl, A Fantasy Novel, achieves 406 days as #No1 most popular at AuthorsDen.com This is as of June 3, 2022, and extends its 2021 streak as top novel halfway into 2022.. Last July, Find the Girl, A Fantasy Novel won the Literary Titan Gold Award.  Judges praised Find the Girl, A Fantasy Novel for its unique characters, innovative plot, and a fresh theme written in elegant prose.  Seventh grader Eta Dorcas hides from her family her glowing blue fingertips and the weasel she captures in an Iowa cave. The weasel escapes her backpack. When she finds it in a woodpile connected to an underground cavern, it speaks and shape-shifts into a cursed 17-year-old boy. Eta dares not tell Dad, Grandma, brother Nathan, or sister Daria who often taunts Eta by saying, "Eta has a boyfriend. Ian, an 1800s sailor, is cursed to live as a 21st century weasel unless he collects the silver, gold, and pearl spelled out in the anagram: "Find the Girl". In a startling premise richly elaborated with vivid personages and derring-do cosmic travel, Eta doesn't believe she has magical powers. Yet, she's an empowering spirit as she and Ian propel themselves aboard a Bayliner boat on three successive late-night trips to 1859 Greece, Ireland and the Mississippi River. The adventures blend harrowing intrigue, bond-building, and enlightenment without romance as the collectibles Ian needs are not freely given him and a "friend" betrays his trust. The extra pearl Eta finds adds to her Grandmother's lost, then recovered, family keepsake. A treasure for both of them.

Five Stars. Fun, Unique, Inspiring
Find the Girl, A Fantasy Novel

Find the Girl by Donan Berg immerses us in the whimsical story of Eta Dorcas. Eta’s world opens with a shocking discovery; after a trip to local caves with her grandma and younger sister Daria, Eta’s fingers suddenly begin to glow a bright blue. This shocks her – but she’s even more surprised to find that a creature has snuck into her backpack and escaped the cave with Eta and her family. We learn that the creature is a weasel who once lived as Eighteenth-Century Sailor, trapped in his animal form by a vicious curse.

Find the Girl takes a magical turn into an expansive world where anything is possible. Eta and Ian, the boy-become-weasel, are suddenly entangled in a quest to free Ian from the curse that’s been put upon him by Greek seafarers. This quest leaves him with three important words: find the girl. We travel around the world and through time with the protagonists as they encounter different trials and creatures, challenging them to discover a cure for the curse before time runs out.

This book was such a fun read. Eta’s voice is entertaining and joyful despite the strenuous trials she faces, and I loved seeing this magical world from her perspective. The bond she forms with Ian felt genuine and touching, and I found them both to be nuanced characters with relatable emotions among the fantastical setting. I enjoyed that the story left some open avenues where future tales could develop further from this intricate and well-constructed universe.

I found the world presented in Find the Girl so unique. It was unlike any fantasy stories I’ve read previously, and I loved the specialized voice that came along with this brand-new view. However, I did find the beginning confusing as we’re thrust into this magical world without much description. Berg makes up for the heavy information by providing, detailed fantastical occurrences later in the story, as we meet new characters who give more context to the universe that’s been constructed.

If you’re looking for a joyful and inspiring story that’s great for all ages, Find the Girl is your next perfect read. The story emphasizes how special it is to embrace wonder and change. It shows that when we care for one another and have the passion to help them, we might discover beautiful corners of the world along the way.

Literary Titan/Thomas Anderson
The Literary Titan is an organization of professional editors, writers, and professors that have a passion for the written word.