Sam's Quest for the Crimson Crystal

Welcome to Ben Furman's Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tour.

Synopsis from the back cover:

Not every hero looks the part....

"Sam" Mae Costas is nobody's idea of a hero. She is constantly teased about her thick glasses, her small size, and her asthma attacks are embarrassing and difficult to control. When Sam is forced to spend the summer on her grandpa's farm she thinks things can't get much worse.

Deep in the caverns below the farm, Prince Buznor is a young Awok on a life-and-death mission to save his world. He has to find Sam and prove to her that only she can find and control the Crimson Crystal.... the one weapon that can defeat the evil threatening his people.

To reach the Crimson Crystal Sam must journey through the hostile Land of Geffen, facing horde of catacomb dwarfs, vicious vampire bats, and deadly monsters. Can Sam overcome her fears, her doubts, and find the Crimson Crystal in time to save the Awokian world?

Sam's Quest for the Crimson Crystal by Ben Furman is a young adult fantasy. It is the first book in the Sam's Quest trilogy.

The book started off slow but once the quest began it moves along very quickly. Along the way Sam encounters many new characters. Some of these characters are friendly, like Kryton the crusty old dragonfly and others are not, like the evil Zogs and their leader Drogon.

I think that this book will appeal to girls, because the main character is a girl. Sam has flaws and insecurities just like every other girl, but she see herself in a different light after her quest.

Sam's Quest is written so that it will encourage the slow reader to keep going and finish the book because they will want to see what happens to Sam and her friends. The child who likes to read will want to read it because of the different challenges that Sam and her friends come across; as well as the different characters and the world that Furman has created.

My daughter has Sam 's Quest for the Crimson Crystal on her TBR list. She thinks it is cool that a girl is the main character. Maybe after she reads it I will put up her review on the blog.

Overall, I did like this book. I am looking forward to reading book two in the trilogy. The title of the book is Sam's Quest The Royal Trident. I will have a review up sometime in October.

About the Author:

During Mr. Furman's FBI career he worked counterterrorism, organized crime, bank robbery, extortion, and kidnapping. His is not a school marm's background that one might associate with writing young adult stories, but than , neither are Sam's fantastic journeys the stuff of coloring books. When Mr. Furman isn't writing, he fills his time painting, woodworking, and managing the Rexus Corporation, his private investigation company.

Happy Reading