Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Shadow Compass

🖋️ 🧭 💀 🔮

by Philippa Leathley

★★★★★

Things I loved:

🖋️ Destiny tattoos with dark secrets

🕶️ The mysterious League of Shadows

💨 Wind bikes and wild inventions

🐺 Aunt Mag’s fierce, fearless energy

🧤 Faith’s sneaky pickpocket skills

📖 The adorable enchanted book

At a glance

✍🏼  Author: Philippa Leathley

🎨 Cover artist: Artem Chebokha

📅 Release Date: 29th January 2026

📚 Book type: Chapter, 368 pages

🌟 Reader level: Confident, ,8+

Dive Deeper

Review

I preordered Inkbound and the Shadow Compass by Philippa Leathley straight away because I absolutely adored the first book. A tattoo that reveals your destiny is to murder—how could anyone resist a story like that?

In this latest perilous adventure, Mettie is drawn into a hidden underground world full of shadows, danger, and secrets that threaten everything she holds dear. When it seems there’s only one way to stop the dark forces at work, Mettie makes the bold decision to join the League of Shadows, despite her family’s warnings. Before long, events take a dangerous turn and the threat of murder feels closer than ever.

I loved how familiar characters return and continue to play an important role, from the unbreakable Aunt Mag to the kind Captain and the adorable enchanted objects. Alongside them, new characters bring even more mystery, tension, and action to the story.

The setting is once again completely enchanting and bursting with imagination. From wind bikes and magical kitchen inventions to houses being condemned to darkness, the world of Inkbound feels rich, vivid, and unlike anything else—I’d love to visit it!

I think I may have even preferred this book to the first, with its twists and turns, gripping suspense, and Mettie’s rebellious adventures alongside Faith and Sundar. I’d highly recommend it to fantasy fans, lovers of rebels, and anyone who enjoys dark magic and thrilling adventures.

Blurb

In the future, the most underestimated person on the planet may be the only one who can save it.

The year is 3897, and life on Earth is a neon dream, all flashing lights and buzzy noise – and no one remembers that behind the illuminated shell above them there's a night sky filled with stars.

As she turns 11, neurodivergent, freckled Astrifer Nova is nothing like her sporty, high-achieving twin brother, Blaze. And on the day of her Work Path Allocation ceremony which determines the course of her life, she is crushed when she gets assigned to something as boring as the sock factory.

But all is not as it seems, and as she uncovers layers of hidden truths all around her, Astrifer discovers that the world is bigger than she ever imagined – and that it’s up to her and a motley crew of new friends (including one from very far away) to challenge the status quo. Turns out, their differences may be exactly what the planet needs…

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