The Incredibly Adventures of Puggie Liddell by Karen Mueller Bryson Review

About Karen Mueller Bryson

Dr. Karen Mueller Bryson is an optioned screenwriter, produced playwright and published novelist.

She is the author of several romantic comedy novels for adults and is the creator of Short on Time books, a series of fast-paced and fun novels readers can finish in one sitting.

The Incredibly Awesome Adventures of Puggie Liddell is Karen’s first novel for young people.

For additional information about Karen Mueller Bryson, visit her website: http://www.ahorsewithnoname.com

About The Incredibly Awesome Adventures of Puggie Liddell

History made fun! In this fast-paced and action-packed time travel adventure, the wise-cracking whiz kid, Puggie Liddell’s modified Gameboy activates a time travel portal and he lands in the 1890s with his sibling rival, annoyingly prissy teen sister, Gigi, who thinks history is like-totally-gross.

The kids must learn to work together to find a time travel portal back to the present before the eccentric scientist, Nikola Tesla, or his arch nemesis, inventor Thomas Edison, can steal the Gameboy and use it to complete a death ray machine, an invention powerful enough to disturb the very fabric of space-time and create an instantaneous world disaster.

Read an Excerpt:

A bead of sweat poured down 12-year old Puggie Liddell’s chubby cheek as he trudged through a dark and dense forest. Before he knew what was coming, an ax flew past his face, barely missing his pug nose. Puggie took aim and jabbed his sword toward the mid-section of a hideous green ogre that was now towering over him. The ogre leapt out of the way and snarled at Puggie. The beast swung his ax towards Puggie’s head but Puggie ducked and the weapon only grazed his mop top. Then Puggie swung a leg into the air and Karate kicked the ogre in the shin.

More angry than hurt, the ogre grabbed Puggie by the collar and lifted him off the ground. As the boy tried to wriggle free from the ogre’s vice-grip, his sword tumbled to the ground. Puggie experienced a brief moment of panic before he prepared to kick the ogre again but a knocking sound distracted him.

It was Puggie’s prissy sister, Gigi, 14, knocking on her brother’s bedroom door. When her knocking was met with no response, she barged into Puggie’s room.

“Puggie,” she yelled as she slapped her sibling’s arm.

Puggie removed his virtual reality goggles and glared at his sister. “I could have killed that ogre,” he said. Puggie hated being distracted mid-videogame, especially when he was in the middle of a battle he thought he could win. And even more especially when it was a video game he developed himself.

“You’re such a loser fanboy,” said Gigi.

“I’m not a fanboy,” said Puggie. “I’m a video game designer.”

“You’re a geek,” said Gigi.

“And to what do I owe the honor of your presence?” Puggie asked.

“Class trip, remember,” she replied.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen downstairs, the sibling’s father, Mr. Liddell, 45, was preparing breakfast. Since the death of his wife five years ago, Mr. Lidell made a point of cooking his kids an exceptional breakfast every morning before driving them to school. He hoped in some small way it would help them miss their mother a little less.

As Mr. Liddell flipped a pancake in the air, a hand snatched it mid-toss. Puggie stuffed the pancake into his mouth, grabbed syrup from the counter, and took a big a swig of the stuff.

“We own plates,” said Mr. Liddell.

To which Puggie replied, “I’m trying to save natural resources. Washing dishes by hand wastes three gallons of water a minute; twice as much if you leave the water running while scraping the dish. Dishwashers typically waste fifteen gallons of water a load.” Puggie generally had a quick comeback for every remark and a clever answer to every question, even the unanswerable ones.

Gigi hurried into the kitchen and made a show of snatching a plate from the cabinet. She waved the dish in Puggie’s face, then placed a pancake on it and loaded it with syrup.

“Want some more pancakes with that gallon of syrup?” Puggie said to his sister, who was still pouring.

Puggie plucked another pancake from the pile, crammed it into his cake hole and added a gulp of syrup.

When Mr. Liddell flipped the final pancake onto the stack he said, “You kids need to eat a good breakfast. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

Puggie and Gigi merely glared at each other.

My Thoughts:

Tesla Time is the first book in The Incredibly Awesome Adventures of Puggie Liddell series by Karen Mueller Bryson. It is a fast (90 pages) fun read for tweens. The story involves time travel where Puggie and his sister Gigi find themselves in the 1890's where they must find a way to get back to their time to save their world from an eccentric scientist who is out to create a death ray machine. Along the way they find historical characters and events such as the Chicago World's Fair and the Civil War. I enjoyed this book and intend to pass it on to my grandson!

To read more about the book and author go here:   http://www.ahorsewithnoname.com

I received a copy of this book for review and was not monetarily compensated for my review.