In The Bridge in the Fog, the third installment of the Magora fantasy series by Marc Remus, 13-year-old Holly O’Flanigan sets off back to Cliffony Academy with a black omen: she sees her own death foretold by Brian’s mother’s fortuneteller crystal ball. Despite this, she decides to return to the magical world of the painting, as she realizes that everyone in Magora is a double of a real person in Donkleywood … which means her own Grandpa Nikolas’ double might still be alive. She also learns about the Woodspeople, where her grandpa used to live in Magora, and the existence of a Bridge in the Fog, which leads back to the land of the Ledesmas. If she finds this bridge, she thinks she’ll reunite with her grandfather. She also hears rumors about the existence of Cuspidor’s daughter – and as she has no recollection of her birth parents, Holly starts suspecting that she might be this long-lost daughter and the reason why Cuspidor is after her. These three very charged story lines weave and intertwine to build the plot of the third adventure.

In this book, Marc Remus takes the reader back to a land full of color, texture and wonder. As an artist, he’s deeply familiar with the process of creation and his prose bursts into life with a whirlwind of fantasy and visual richness. The book can stand alone, as the conflict is more than enough to carry the novel from beginning to end. But reading the rest of the series first would give the reader considerably more depth and detail to all these fantastical creatures and characters. While the book is full of funny moments and creatures (such as a talking tree house and a shape-shifting troll), I’d recommend this read for middle-grade readers and up as the descriptions of the showdowns are very intense.

The Bridge in the Fog by Marc Remus is the third book in the Magora series, a great mix of children's fantasy and sci-fi, with characters that young readers will root for. Meet Holly O’Flanigan, a thirteen-year old who is in her third year at Cliffony in the fantasy painting of Magora. She is taken on a mysterious mission to find the daughter of an evil man, the Duke of Cuspidor. Accompanied by her friends, Rufus, Brian, and Amanda, she does not know that the journey will involve more than what they bargained for, with a horrible experience of the creepy ward where the Unfinished are detained, the shadowy Woodspeople, and the stunning unveiling of secrets about Holly’s grandfather. Follow Holly and her friends as she seeks answers and she unwittingly unleashes something that could destroy their world.

This is a story that will fill the dreams of young readers, a tale of magic with twists that readers won’t see coming. The sense of mystery is wonderfully developed against the backdrop of a magical and imaginary setting, constructed with powerful elements and images that will excite the reader’s imagination. The characters are well-thought out and the development is great. The Bridge in the Fog is a gripping story with surprises that make it an interesting and hard-to-put-down read. The reader is immediately addicted to the characters and can’t resist following them to the end. I enjoyed the ending of the story which is well-crafted to leave readers longing for more answers. Marc Remus has created a series and a world where young readers can take flight — entertaining and absorbing.