As always, a book comes out every season with more hype than the second coming. This is the one for fall, and it is truly undeserved. I read this with my book-devouring daughter, and while the plot sounds good on paper, we were disappointed in the actual writing and delivery of the story. The Guttenberg history is interesting, thus the second star, but the writer is heavy handed and his storytelling is clunky. There is no sense of building of intensity, and the characters are flat. I cannot say that the book is without merit--bibliophiles will like anything that has to do with magical books--but the actual story is overblown and hard to get to like, as are the protagonists. It's Da Vinci code lite, and my daughter gave up on it half way through.