Brandon Mull - Five Kingdoms (retail epub)

Sixth-grader Cole Randolph and his friends (including his crush, Jenna) are whisked away from their ho-hum lives in Arizona to the magical world of the Outskirts, a place that “lies between wakefulness and dreaming, reality and imagination, life and death.” Upon their arrival in the Outskirts, Cole’s friends are quickly captured by slavers, but he escapes and sets out on an epic quest to rescue them. As a stranger in a strange land, however, Cole can’t manage on his own, and soon he has met a bevy of unlikely friends—many of whom have magical abilities—as well as enemies who are bent on exploiting Cole and his new friends for their own gain. Everyman Cole doesn’t know much about the fantastical, flying-castle-filled Outskirts, but he’s ready for adventure and eager to learn. Mull’s ample world building only adds even more dimension to Cole’s noble quest. Mull has a built-in audience for this new fantasy adventure series, and fans of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series will not be disappointed.