The Riddler's gift is an excellent book. In a traditional tale of good versus evil, self-discovery, coming of age and of course love, the author delivers a novel that makes you care a great deal about the protagonists while rooting hard against their opponents.



The main heroin is Tabitha but the character who won the book for me is The Riddler. I love his humor, his riddle and wishes he would have even had a more prominent role in the story. I also appreciated how much I despised the villains and how they never suddenly became stupid at the end to let the heroes beat the improbable odds.



The book is two very separate part which is well defined based on a single event I will not mention to avoid spoilers. One evil is replaced by another evil and this lead to a different mood in the book.



Although this is fantasy, I would not recommend to anyone under 15 because of some of the violence (physical, sexual, emotional) as well as the abuse certain characters suffers.



My two issue with the book is first that I saw a lot of twists coming way before the heroin. I do believe that it is done purposely by the author but I do enjoy surprises in a book. The other issue that I felt an epilogue chapter would have been nice to tie up the various loose ends the author left. I know this is a first in a series but I would have enjoyed at least short resolutions on some of the issues and characters presented in the book.



Having said that, this is still a fantastic read which I recommend to fan of fantasy fiction. Great Book!