This is a wonderful young adult fantasy.

Although in places the story is a bit far fetched for me, overall this was really enjoyable.

The characters are well developed and with plenty of twists in the plot it makes of an easy read.

A fun read. I didn't know anything about this story when I started, and this is the first time I've heard of the author, but I ended up enjoying the story and characters!

I loved the representation in this book. However, the execution left me disappointed. There were small things that annoyed me but I continued. However the fact that the main character's disability is kind of cured just put me off. Why could we not continue to have a deaf main character exploring a fantasy world?

The 13th key is a YA fantasy novel, first in a series. Noah Chord is deaf. But one day she meets a cat and she can hear the sounds that cat makes. At first she thought it was a hallucination but then Noah the same cat again, only now accompanied by a mysterious boy called Emir. Emir tells her he is from another world that faces a great peril and he came to ask Noah to save his world as she is prophesied to do it.
One thing I really liked was that Talisker, the world in need of saving, was made of music. And everything in it was also made of music. That concept was fascinating to read about.
But I really didn't like a few things. Like I already mentioned, Noah is deaf and I really liked to see this representation in a YA novel. But not even 10% into the book her disability gets cured by means of magic. Which seriously pissed me off. So that is something to keep in mind if you were thinking of picking up this book.
Another thing was the fact that Noah takes her best friend with her to Talisker. That's lovely and all,but the girl tells her mother that she is going to a magical land in order to save it from an evel wizard,and her mother is just like Okay honey,have a nice trip. I mean,really? What kind if a mother is she? This thing rubbed me the wrong way.
The story itself was fairly interesting, but those two things as well as an unnecessary romance took away my enjoyment of the book.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

From my 10 YO daughter: I absolutely loved this book!! From the brave main character, Noah, to the description of the world she gets to travel to, Talisker, and her loyal dog (sorry say no more here because I don't want to give away any spoilers) I've enjoyed her journey and her quest to stop Blood Magic (no more spoilers - I promise!).
A 5 stars reading for older children who won't be squeamish about kissing and relationship!

What immediately grabbed me about this book was the main character, Noah. Girl with a traditionally male name? My catnip! A budding fashion designer? Heck yeah! Hard of hearing and unapologetic about it? Sign Me Up.

Unfortunately, my interest in Noah wasn't enough to distract me from frequent grammar missteps and odd sentence structure. I believe that with a further copy-edit and a rewrite, this book would be phenomenal. It's just not there yet.