About the Book: 
⦁ Title: All the Lost Places: A Novel
⦁ Author: Amanda Dykes
⦁ Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Inspirational Fiction
⦁ Publisher: ‎Bethany House Publishers (December 13, 2022)
⦁ Length: (400) pages
⦁ Format: Hardcover, Trade paperback, & eBook 
⦁ ISBN: 978-0764239502
⦁ Tour Dates: December 5 – December 19, 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION
When all of Venice is unmasked, one man's identity remains a mystery . . .

1807
When a baby is discovered floating in a basket along the quiet canals of Venice, a guild of artisans takes him in and raises him as a son, skilled in each of their trades. Although the boy, Sebastien Trovato, has wrestled with questions of his origins, it isn't until a woman washes ashore on his lagoon island that answers begin to emerge. In hunting down his story, Sebastien must make a choice that could alter not just his own future, but also that of the beloved floating city.

1904
Daniel Goodman is given a fresh start in life as the century turns. Hoping to redeem a past laden with regrets, he is sent on an assignment from California to Venice to procure and translate a rare book. There, he discovers a city of colliding hope and decay, much like his own life, and a mystery wrapped in the pages of that filigree-covered volume. With the help of Vittoria, a bookshop keeper, Daniel finds himself in a web of shadows, secrets, and discoveries carefully kept within the stones and canals of the ancient city . . . and in the mystery of the man whose story the book does not finish: Sebastien Trovato.

ADDITIONAL INFO | BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS | ADD TO GOODREADS

Review: 

A storybook with no ending has been in Daniel's family forever.  An heirloom his mother brought from Venice, it is one of Daniel's few possessions.  After years of crime, Daniel is trying to atone for all of his past wrongs.  One of his last tasks is to help his mother's shop.  A unique opportunity arises when Daniel finds a man wanting to recreate Venice in California.  The job includes a bevy of Daniel's talents, Italian translation, drawing, and finding the ending to a certain story.  Daniel arrives in Venice and immediately digs into the story, The Book of Water, which tells a fairytale-like account of Sebastian Trovato.  Daniel begins his adventure in Venice, digging deep into it's history looking for any information on the baby sent down the canal in a basket.  During his search, Daniel uncovers much more than Sebastian's story and is able to find more of himself as well. 

All The Lost Places is a masterfully written story within a story.  I love dual-time stories and this one is perfectly done.  I was held equally by both story lines and both Daniel's and Sebastian's characters and journeys.  I was immediately taken in by the story of Sebastian floating down the canal in a basket and then of Daniel's quest to right all of his past wrongs.  I was immersed in Venice in both time periods, the 1800's and early 1900's.  Venice's beauty, architecture, culture, people and mysteries were brought to life.  The mystery of Sebastian and the end of his story kept me in suspense the whole way through.  I was delighted in how Sebastian and Daniel were connected.  With themes of hope, redemption, love and finding yourself, All The Lost Places is an amazing story. 

AUTHOR BIO
​
Amanda Dykes's debut novel, Whose Waves These Are, is the winner of the prestigious 2020 Christy Award Book of the Year, a Booklist 2019 Top Ten Romance debut, and the winner of an INSPY Award. She's also the author of Yours Is the Night and Set the Stars Alight, a 2021 Christy Award finalist.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | GOODREADS

​It's been four years since Marina O'Connell's brother, Robbie died in an incident on the train tracks, now Marina is starting school at East Township High with the senior class that her brother should be in.  East Township High is a scrabble of mazes, fake doorways and hallways that lead to nowhere since it was once a military base for scientific experiments during World War II.  However, the hallways hold a dangerous secret, hidden portals to other dimensions called Down World.  After a chance meeting with senior Brady Picelli and Robbie's friend Kieran, Marina is pulled into the dangerous and mysterious Down World.  Marina discovers that Down World holds many secrets including secrets about her own family.


Down World is an exciting and fast-paced young adult science fiction thriller. From the time that Marina discovered the doors to Down World I was hooked on the worlds, how they worked, where they came from and what could happen in them. Marina's character is a very typical teen girl, focusing on romance and what someone might think of her at any point;  however, she is also dealing with a lot of issues.  She is still carrying around grief from her brother's death as well as dealing with her parent's depression from the event, when her brother died she also lost her core friend group and now needs to rebuild.  Because of all of this, Marina very easily grabs on to the first person to pay attention to her, Brady.  I was intrigued by the different realms in Down World, how they were all different and the consequences of going into the worlds.  I do wish there was more explanation of how the worlds were built in the 1940's and why.  I would love to know if they helped to alter World War II.  I enjoyed the ending, the solution was appropriate and didn't leave everything perfect, but did fix what needed to be fixed. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

​A little more than a year after Marina's last trip through the portals into Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in the basement of her school, Marina is adjusting to her life with the consequences of the changes she made in the portals.  Marina is now a senior in high school and making college plans.  However, Marina  has a new history teacher, Mr. Martel who might derail her plans to never go back through the portals.  Mr. Martel has secrets and plans of his own concerning the portals and plans to drag Marina back through to help fix his own mistakes in the portals. 

Yesterworld is the second book in the Down World series and I highly recommend reading the books in order to understand the portals and how they work.  Yesterworld picks up soon after the events in Down World where Marina is trying to adjust to the changes she caused while in the portals.  Marina believes that she stopped the portal to the corrupt Down World from being created. She soon learns from Mr. Martel, or rather Adam, that the Down World still exists and that his friend is trapped there.  Yesterworld is action packed, suspenseful and full of surprises.  It was interesting to see how Marina's current timeline was altered by her trips through the portals.  The introduction of Adam's character brings another layer into the story and creates an unexpected relationship.  I was a little unsettled by Marina and Adam's relationship;  however, the portals do have that effect.  I was glad to learn about how the portal formed and how they were tied to events during World War II.  The creation of the portals also explains how the Down World became controlled by the Russians.  The changes Marina and Adam made in the portals this time seemed to have caused even more changes, even though they fixed a bigger issue.  I can't wait to see what happens next for Marina.