Review of E.L. Irwin's Lost and Found by Jeff Bailey, author of The Defect

 I just finished reading Lost and Found, E.L. Irwin’s second novel. For me, the story and characters had an intriguing aura of realism and truth. Erwin didn’t just guide her readers through the story she seemed to immerse them into the story. I find that the best writing comes from life’s experiences or from a unique knowledge of a subject. In Lost and Found, Irwin demonstrated that she possesses both. Irwin achieved two goals with Lost and Found. She created an entertaining story line for young readers and she infused that story line with a message. The message is that life is a journey of both good and bad experiences and that life goes on in spite of those experiences.

Ms. Irwin used a unique technique to develop her characters, Sage and Josiah. She introduce Sage’s character in a rush at the start of the book. Josiah’s character revealed itself slowly over the length of the book as Sage became more involved with her young counterpart. The different character development techniques worked off each other as a dance of sorts.

E.L.Irwin and Jeff Bailey

I had the pleasure of working with Ms. Irwin a few weeks ago, at the 2016 Cavalcade of Authors in Washington State. The Cavalcade is a Pacific Northwest regional event similar to The International Science and Engineering Fair. The difference is that The Cavalcade brought 1200 middle school and high school readers and aspiring authors together with more than twenty of their favorite authors for a day of lectures, workshops, signing events and photo ops.

Ms.Irwin and I were both working volunteers at the event. While the event hosted a variety of authors, I would have liked to have heard a presentation by Ms. Irwin. She was so genuine and invested as she worked with the young attendees. Seeing Ms. Irwin in action gave me insight as to how passionate she is about introducing young people to the adventures of reading.

I rate Lost and Found four and a half stars just because I would have preferred more closure on some of the story threads. I count E.L. Irwin high on my list of my favorite and most impressive people. I highly recommend Lost and Found. As a techy, I am also looking forward to Ms. Irwin’s future foray into science fiction.

Jeff Bailey

E.L. Irwin’s other book, Out of the Blue, is available from your favorite bookseller.

Read more of my bio at Jeff Bailey Bio.

Follow my blog at My Blog.

Read the first chapter of my new book The Defect (scheduled for release in May 2016) at first chapter.

Above all, continue to follow E.L. Irwin.