Unlocked Book 8.5 (Keeper of the Lost Cities)

This book was SO good! I love that the hardcover book has tons of full-color illustrations where you can see many of the popular characters! The Novella was really good as well! I liked how it jumped back and forth between Sophie and Keefe’s POV each chapter. Overall definitely worth the price!

Very interesting!

The book was amazing, with cliffhangers and dramatic endings to chapters. Here is a short summary; Sophie and conciler Orilie open Kenrcks catch and discover——- I can’t tell you! Keffe wakes up and something goes terribley wrong! 😖 the power is so much for Keefe that he does something drastic. Meanwhile Sophie does something crazy too. And I also loved all of the recipes, pictures, and info for Keeper of the lost Cities. But seriously 😒 not cool with that cliffhanger😭😭😭. Bye the book! It is super duper amazing!!! Sorry for all the typos 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️. Anyways, the book is amazing, it is my favorite book series! If you buy it WARNING ⚠️ it will have cliffhangers that will keep you up all night! not kidding. 😳. I highly recommend this book, so buy it! personally I would prefer this book to Roblox!!! I know I am crazy, but the book was just that amazing 🤩 thank you for reading this even though it is super long!

I love all of the KOTLC books. Team Foster Keefe forever! I just wish I didn’t have to wait so long between books.

I spent some time debating what to give this book, and I settled on a four because I really like the author's previous works. But this book itself is more of a three. I'll start with the good stuff. I liked the character biography- to some degree. More on that in the criticism segment. I enjoy being reminded of the character's roots, who they were at the very beginning. I often feel disconnected from the character's essence as the plots get more and more tangled. I can't wait to try out some of the recipies on my own. And the novel segment was also really good. I enjoyed getting inside of Keefe's head and comfirming his major crush on Sophie. For the record, I was Team Keefe all along. Fitz was a little too perfect, and I thought Sophie's crush on him was pretty superficial, and mosty based on looks. Shannon made a good point in this book that when he was angry, he tended to lash out at his friends and family. And I really can't imagine Sophie in a relationship like that. They made good friends, but romantic partners? Nope. Dex was also a good and loyal friend, but again, Sophie's boyfriend? It would fall apart as fast as Fitzphie did. Keefe was perfect because he showed a vulnerable side, someone to care about, not just a friend. And of course, once Dex was out of the picture as a romantic partner, I was positive it was Keefe. Fitz was never my romantic pairing choice, for reasons stated above. Now, criticism. This book could have been written in two month, tops. There is very little book, only sixteen chapters long compared to over a hundred in the last book. Most of it was character bio, background on the Lost Cities, that sort of thing. It was entertaining, but you do not need a year to pull together short biographies of the characters and tell us about the Lost Cities. AND THAT ANNOYS THE HECK OUT OF ME. What would have been better was an actual ninth book, maybe pull this up on the side with a few short stories instead of sixteen chapters that you need to read to get to the next book. That was my big complaint. And also, like many people, I'm beginning to feel frustrated with the lack of closure. These are BIG books. This is a LONG series. And yet we have very little progress. The entire series is beginning to drag with slow plots, too many side characters (Have you tried counting them recently? There are a LOT of side characters), and less and less to fight for. As the dark secrets keep getting uncovered, the good guys get less and less appealing and with little progress to speak of, it's becoming a chore to read. And it would be easy to stop reading (these books come out a year apart, anyway) and come back when it's over for a smooth, consecutive read. Edit: If Shannon sees this nearly a year later, I’ve been doing some thinking and concluded one of the best ways to bring back the series is have Sophie brainwashed and join the Neverseen for an extended period of time. I’m talking most or at least half of one of these GIGANTIC books. It would bring Keene back, be a twist big enough to potentially turn the series around, and set up some really interesting conflicts. Unfortunately, my opinions have not changed. This series was interesting. It was a selling point of the book that the “good guys” were constantly being defeated by the bad guys. Same for how the “good guys” had done awful things (and in some cases still were, such as discrimination against the Talentless). But I’m tired. Your readers are tired. If I may use a fancy metaphor, you are a ship adrift at sea. You need to pick a direction and find your course. I still belive that Shannon Messanger can turn my opinion around with a fantastic ninth book, but in the meantime, I REALLY need some new books. I can't seem to find any more good books after reading The Oncoming Storm (a series) by Marion Blackwood, because those books are absolutely amazing and gave me a favorite book in nearly a year (though it does have swear words) and totally reset my book standards and I'm rambling. The point being, I read an awesome book and I can't find any more. So while Shannon Messanger's books still live up to my new standards, only time will tell… Happy reading!

This book is a great installment to the series! All the bonus information for the first half of the book is really interesting, and I am definitely going to make some of those recipes! As for the story part, other than the fact that it is half the size of the usual books, it is amazing, and reveals a lot of information! I really recommend buying this book. Though one quick thing, how, HOW, could Shannon Messenger end off with such a cliffhanger!!!!!!!!!!! I know I said this already, but this book is a really good book, with tons of fun things about KOTLC, and I really, extremely, positively, recommend buying this book. And in case anyone was wondering, because I saw a review that was complaining about this, for the pre-order bonus prize pack, it says "while supplies last", and also, " allow 8 to 10 weeks for delivery". This implies that the prize pack doesn't come with the book, and will come later. Also, the actual story part is halfway through. People were complaining there was no actual story, but it is really just found after the bonus 8.5 material. READ THIS BOOK! IT IS SO GOOD!

My daughter's favorite book series in 2026 so far

This novella was even better than I thought it would turn out to be, and exceeded my expectations. Many people are saying they can't believe this took a whoke year of work, and that it isn't worth it, but I think it was completely worth the wait and the quality amazing! I get it was a let down for those expecting a full or mostly full novel, but even then, the last 20% of the book (the novel part) was great. The artwork is extraordinary, the sections "written" by certain characters were fun, and I can't wait to try out the recipes! I give this a four star because the novella had very important informtion and was fun, but I feel like it could have happener way earlier in the series and still have been good. Becase of the slight "dragging-on" of this series in general, I gave it stars. But don't let that stop you from getting it! This series is such fun, interesting, and light read, and some of my favorite books -- this novella inluded!

okay, so I have to start this with I love this series it's my fav series my home my safe place my comfort series everything. I read a lot of the comments and they said that there is no map in the paperback version of the book however I have one it's at the end of the book. mine is also paperback I live in turkey I also expected there to not be any map but there was a map. so wanted to start off like that. the book was amazing with cool activities, an iggy clouring page, fotografs of the characters (and sokeefe), all the character's profiles, and much more. Shannon Messenger is by far my fav author and it will stay that way. she is an amazing author and the books have the best worldbuilding I have ever seen. the pages of the book are long and I love that. the pages also pass so fast as if I read 50 pages. I was pretty sad there were only 264 pages of the real story but the whole point of unlocked is because there would be cool activities diary of the wimpy kid and dork diaries have that kind of book but I didn't say anything. the book was great and can't wait for book 9 stellarlune to arrive it's already out I live in turkey like I said so I have to wait more than a week to get I won't SURVIVE anyway I hope you guys like kotlc. I also think that 8 and up can read there are ships but 8 and up can read and i think there in the age.

Must read after the first 8 books and before book 9 as it contains crucial information. Really fun guide to Sophie’s world. There are recipes to bake, a coloring page, quizzes, notes from lovely Shannon (author) lists of inventions, food, medicine and more from the keeper world. And extra Keefe content

I’m crazy about all of the keeper of the lost cities books. Well written and very engaging. A great read!

Delivery was timely as promised. But we realised that the pages were not in the correct order. Could it be a publishing glitch? Why were the portraits in the book at pages 369 onwards instead of 225 right after the lists of portraits on pages 223 & 224? Anyone else experienced this?

My daughter loves it