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Rialto
A standalone mystery from a New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author set in a contemporary world tinged with magic, in which two sisters spend summer vacation in a small town in the shadows of abandoned amusement park that is not what it seems.
Ivy and Dahlia Vicar know this summer’s trip to visit friends in Rialto, Missouri, is going to be different from their usual family vacations.
Twelve-year-old Dahlia, an artist who lives with anxiety, is looking forward to something new. Rialto, after all, has its own abandoned theme park! But mystery-loving, fourteen-year-old Ivy is struggling with how to be the right kind of big sister to Dahlia, and longs for the way things—especially vacations—were when they were younger.
In Rialto, it quickly becomes clear that this vacation will also be different in totally unexpected ways. For one thing, the town stands in the middle of an improbable forest that, according to local legend, swallowed it overnight decades before. Then there are Dahlia’s even more improbable sightings of impossible creatures—a giraffe with antlers and a leopard with wings. And there’s their new friend Remy, whose family inherited the house they’re all staying in from an aunt who left bequests for local friends that Remy must personally distribute.
When he enlists Ivy and Dahlia to help deliver these gifts, they find themselves drawn into a mystery going back to the time when Rialto Park was still open. And it begins to seem that, if they are going to help Remy solve it, they will have to find a way to believe in magic.
Ivy and Dahlia Vicar know this summer’s trip to visit friends in Rialto, Missouri, is going to be different from their usual family vacations.
Twelve-year-old Dahlia, an artist who lives with anxiety, is looking forward to something new. Rialto, after all, has its own abandoned theme park! But mystery-loving, fourteen-year-old Ivy is struggling with how to be the right kind of big sister to Dahlia, and longs for the way things—especially vacations—were when they were younger.
In Rialto, it quickly becomes clear that this vacation will also be different in totally unexpected ways. For one thing, the town stands in the middle of an improbable forest that, according to local legend, swallowed it overnight decades before. Then there are Dahlia’s even more improbable sightings of impossible creatures—a giraffe with antlers and a leopard with wings. And there’s their new friend Remy, whose family inherited the house they’re all staying in from an aunt who left bequests for local friends that Remy must personally distribute.
When he enlists Ivy and Dahlia to help deliver these gifts, they find themselves drawn into a mystery going back to the time when Rialto Park was still open. And it begins to seem that, if they are going to help Remy solve it, they will have to find a way to believe in magic.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 2026
About the author
Kate Milford
17 books1,176 followersKate is the author of THE THIEF KNOT, GREENGLASS HOUSE, GHOSTS OF GREENGLASS HOUSE, BLUECROWNE, THE LEFT-HANDED FATE, THE BONESHAKER, THE BROKEN LANDS, THE KAIROS MECHANISM, and the forthcoming THE RACONTEUR'S COMMONPLACE BOOK (February 2021).
Originally from Annapolis, MD, Kate now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband Nathan and son Griffin and their dogs, Ed and Sprocket. She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture (www.nagspeake.com).
Originally from Annapolis, MD, Kate now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband Nathan and son Griffin and their dogs, Ed and Sprocket. She has written for stage and screen and is a frequent travel columnist for the Nagspeake Board of Tourism and Culture (www.nagspeake.com).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
June 29, 2026
Less magical than I thought it would be, but I still would have loved to have a book like this as a child. The mental health representation was absolutely fantastic and I appreciate that themes like anxiety and depression were portrayed so extensively in a middle grade novel. The characters were very well-developed and thus their whole situation felt all the more real to me. At first we follow the sisters Dahlia and Ivy on their way to the small town of Rialto. Their relationship is a bit tense right now, because they first have to learn how to deal with Dahlia's recently diagnosed mental health issues. The story focuses both on people who are directly affected and on people who have to live with the diagnosis of a loved one. The entire family is very considerate and thoughtful of mental health issues and just when I thought that it's getting too much, it was actually addressed that one can also overdo it with carefulness. Everyone is adapting to a new situation – not just regarding mental health, but also with the sisters slowly growing up and changing their interests. There clearly went a lot of thought into writing these characters and they felt fully developed before the actual story even began. The whole family visits Rialto and stays with some old friends and their son, Remy. The town is very mysterious by itself – the legend is that it got swallowed up by a forest overnight – but things get even stranger as Remy is tasked with taking care of a bequest. His late aunt left letters and objects for a whole group of people, and now Remy, Dahlia and Ivy visit everyone and learn the truth about the mysterious town little by little. At the same time Dahlia swears that she saw multiple fantastical creatures on the way here and also that there was movement in the long-abandoned Rialto park. It's been empty and broken for decades, but it very much still feels like the heart of Rialto. I was hoping for more magical theme park vibes, but the story turned out to be more of a mystery. It really takes its time and only unfolds slowly, which I thought quite unusual for a middle grade novel. I'm actually unsure how well this book works with the target audience. I would recommend it for the representation alone, but in the end it's really not as magical or adventurous as the cover suggests. It also focuses a lot on the story of the adults that happened some 40 years ago and I think I would have preferred a dual timeline with all the characters being young. On the other hand, everything was described in a detailed way so that it was easy to follow the story and to imagine the places. Especially the different little shops were so nice to read about, because they were inspired by the old theme park attractions. I also loved that creativity and hobbies played such a big role in this book. The story is about art and crafts and music and storytelling and everything connects with each other and is meaningful in its own way. So while I did expect quite a different read, I was not disappointed with the story I actually got here. Would recommend.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | Clarion Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | Clarion Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
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June 14, 2026
A book in which...things happen. Sort of.
A book in which...there are characters. Almost.
A book in which...mysteries are solved. Kind of.
A book in which...love blossoms. We are told.
Which is, in essence, the big problem with this book: it's all telling and no showing. We keep getting told how wonderful and magical Rialto was, but until the final 20 pages we don't get any glimpses of it -- and even then, it's remarkably unimpressive compared to the build-up. The author spends so much time explicitly reminding the reader of all these OTHER wonderful books (The Last Unicorn, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Hound of the Baskervilles, etc.) which just means her work winds up unfavorably compared to those.
And don't believe the blurbs enticing you to read this. It's all a lie -- this is mainly a book about tedious interpersonal drama, painfully-2020s approaches to mental health (which, amusingly, have been shown to INCREASE mental illness, but the author seems ignorant of that), and an author who seemingly can't think of more than two types of characters.
The most galling part is that I know Kate Milford is a good writer. Greenglass House was great. But this book feels like Milford is actively working to not write a good book. Like she's trying to write a meandering tiresome slog of a book full of characters who are either paper-thin or thoroughly-unsympathetic.
It doesn't help that part of the theoretical resolution is a self-satisfied lecture about how stories always have been and always should be updated for (*ahem*) modern audiences. She insists that nostalgia is a lie -- that thinking things could ever have been better before is really just nostalgic self-delusion because things are always better now than they were before -- which oddly contradicts the very finale of her novel.
A leaden "thud" of a novel, lifeless and grey.
A book in which...there are characters. Almost.
A book in which...mysteries are solved. Kind of.
A book in which...love blossoms. We are told.
Which is, in essence, the big problem with this book: it's all telling and no showing. We keep getting told how wonderful and magical Rialto was, but until the final 20 pages we don't get any glimpses of it -- and even then, it's remarkably unimpressive compared to the build-up. The author spends so much time explicitly reminding the reader of all these OTHER wonderful books (The Last Unicorn, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Hound of the Baskervilles, etc.) which just means her work winds up unfavorably compared to those.
And don't believe the blurbs enticing you to read this. It's all a lie -- this is mainly a book about tedious interpersonal drama, painfully-2020s approaches to mental health (which, amusingly, have been shown to INCREASE mental illness, but the author seems ignorant of that), and an author who seemingly can't think of more than two types of characters.
The most galling part is that I know Kate Milford is a good writer. Greenglass House was great. But this book feels like Milford is actively working to not write a good book. Like she's trying to write a meandering tiresome slog of a book full of characters who are either paper-thin or thoroughly-unsympathetic.
It doesn't help that part of the theoretical resolution is a self-satisfied lecture about how stories always have been and always should be updated for (*ahem*) modern audiences. She insists that nostalgia is a lie -- that thinking things could ever have been better before is really just nostalgic self-delusion because things are always better now than they were before -- which oddly contradicts the very finale of her novel.
A leaden "thud" of a novel, lifeless and grey.
Want to Read
April 22, 2025i need this
update: KATE PLEASE I NEED THIS
update, again: KATE I’M BEGGING YOU
update, somehow, again: my sanity is unraveling
update, once more: it’s been years since i’ve had a new roaming world book and i’m losing my mind
update: KATE PLEASE I NEED THIS
update, again: KATE I’M BEGGING YOU
update, somehow, again: my sanity is unraveling
update, once more: it’s been years since i’ve had a new roaming world book and i’m losing my mind
May 30, 2026
This is going to be lengthy but I hopefully that will provide the nuance necessary to help future readers decide if this is a good choice for them!
I've been reading Kate Milford for a long time, starting with Greenglass House in 2014. I've reread that particular story several times and I love it so, so much. I've also kept up with the sequels, some of which stand alone quite well, with varying levels of love for different books. I was so excited to hear that Rialto was a stand-alone mystery/adventure story and I loved the cover and knowing it would be about a theme park...so many of my favorite things! I was ready to love this story and I went in expecting to be blown away.
From the beginning I really struggled to connect with the two main characters—sisters Ivy and Dahlia, two years apart from each other. The story was told from their different POVs, yet I often had trouble remembering whose POV the chapter was in and at times both sisters' thoughts or feelings seemed to be told even though we should have only been in the head of one of the characters. Even though there were big differences between them (different ages, one with very clear anxiety/depression) their voices and dialog often felt too similar to me.
Clearly the slow build was intentional in this story, but my goodness was it slow. I finally felt invested around 50% through the book, and then around 80% (page 400) like maybe everything was going to click into place for a big payoff. Unfortunately, the ending was not satisfying for me and utilized a lot of info dumping.
I wanted more theme park and less adults! There were so many characters in this book, and all but 3 of them were adults. So many names, so many people called by their first names sometimes and last names other times. So many adults making decisions and giving advice and moving the story forward. It felt cluttered and I just wanted to be with the 12 and 14 year olds! And then the park seemed like it was going to play a huge role, but it ended up just being the thing everyone talked about without ever getting there until the very end. And even then, the story ended with more a "they'll be time to explore later" moment instead of getting to experience the park. This was so disappointing, especially based on the cover and the expectations of a theme park mystery.
In the past I've loved the way Milford incorporated so many realistic challenges into her stories, especially adoption and belonging. She ambitiously tackled mental health in this one, and while I do think there was some very realistic and beautiful moments, it also felt heavy-handed because it was repetitive.
Finally, every big reveal or twist seemed either wildly improbable or painfully obvious. I do believe that this book was trying to do some really fun things, but the execution didn't land for me. When I read the author's note I felt like I really did understand what Milford was trying to do here, and yet I also felt like what she intended did not come across in the actual story.
I really think I gave Rialto a fair chance and that my critiques here are as objective as possible. Of course, I see many five star reviewers felt differently than me; I'm glad this book is finding the right readers. And now I'm ready to reread Greenglass House :P
My updated Kate Milford rankings: 1. Greenglass House 2. The Thief Knot 3. Bluecrowne 4. Raconteur's 5. Ghosts of Greenglass House 6. Rialto 7. Left-Handed Fate
I've been reading Kate Milford for a long time, starting with Greenglass House in 2014. I've reread that particular story several times and I love it so, so much. I've also kept up with the sequels, some of which stand alone quite well, with varying levels of love for different books. I was so excited to hear that Rialto was a stand-alone mystery/adventure story and I loved the cover and knowing it would be about a theme park...so many of my favorite things! I was ready to love this story and I went in expecting to be blown away.
From the beginning I really struggled to connect with the two main characters—sisters Ivy and Dahlia, two years apart from each other. The story was told from their different POVs, yet I often had trouble remembering whose POV the chapter was in and at times both sisters' thoughts or feelings seemed to be told even though we should have only been in the head of one of the characters. Even though there were big differences between them (different ages, one with very clear anxiety/depression) their voices and dialog often felt too similar to me.
Clearly the slow build was intentional in this story, but my goodness was it slow. I finally felt invested around 50% through the book, and then around 80% (page 400) like maybe everything was going to click into place for a big payoff. Unfortunately, the ending was not satisfying for me and utilized a lot of info dumping.
I wanted more theme park and less adults! There were so many characters in this book, and all but 3 of them were adults. So many names, so many people called by their first names sometimes and last names other times. So many adults making decisions and giving advice and moving the story forward. It felt cluttered and I just wanted to be with the 12 and 14 year olds! And then the park seemed like it was going to play a huge role, but it ended up just being the thing everyone talked about without ever getting there until the very end. And even then, the story ended with more a "they'll be time to explore later" moment instead of getting to experience the park. This was so disappointing, especially based on the cover and the expectations of a theme park mystery.
In the past I've loved the way Milford incorporated so many realistic challenges into her stories, especially adoption and belonging. She ambitiously tackled mental health in this one, and while I do think there was some very realistic and beautiful moments, it also felt heavy-handed because it was repetitive.
Finally, every big reveal or twist seemed either wildly improbable or painfully obvious. I do believe that this book was trying to do some really fun things, but the execution didn't land for me. When I read the author's note I felt like I really did understand what Milford was trying to do here, and yet I also felt like what she intended did not come across in the actual story.
I really think I gave Rialto a fair chance and that my critiques here are as objective as possible. Of course, I see many five star reviewers felt differently than me; I'm glad this book is finding the right readers. And now I'm ready to reread Greenglass House :P
My updated Kate Milford rankings: 1. Greenglass House 2. The Thief Knot 3. Bluecrowne 4. Raconteur's 5. Ghosts of Greenglass House 6. Rialto 7. Left-Handed Fate
May 7, 2026
A slower paced story than what I usually like, but one of the best representations of anxiety that I’ve ever read. It’s handled so well, and also addressed what it might be like for a family member to deal with the change in their loved one after developing anxiety. It also positively portrayed therapy and displayed examples of coping mechanisms very naturally. The story, while slower paced, was absolutely magical and I greatly enjoyed all three of the protagonists and the eclectic cast of supporting characters. Dahlia and Ivy’s parents are highly supportive (and both alive 😂) and I also appreciated the depiction of Remy’s mixed family and how he was working through grief. A lovely book all around!
May 10, 2026
Rezension folgt...
May 14, 2026
Well, Kate Milford has been one of my favorite authors since I was 11, so this book was really sweet and nostalgic. I loved the setting and characters, and the references to her other books (especially Reconteurs’s Commonplace Book!!) were AMAZING. Admittedly, the mystery’s conclusion felt a little…eh to me, but everything else made up for it haha. Also, the book dealt a lot with anxiety and how families might deal with mental health. Mental health content isn’t normally my cup of tea, but I felt like it was approached in a very realistic and appropriate way that gave me a new perspective. I also think it was sweet how the characters were facing different sibling relationships and changing traditions, which really hit hard after my first year at college. There was SO much I loved about this book and I could go on and on, but I’m sure it will be one I revisit many more times.
Thanks for the book Annika ☺️🫶🏻
Thanks for the book Annika ☺️🫶🏻
June 19, 2026
Rialto fell flat for me, which I hate because like so many others the cover and the description really drew me in so I had high hopes.
I think the main problem for me was that for the first 3 hours of the audio book the main focus of the story is Dahlia’s anxiety and how she and her family cope and address it. 3 hours is a longtime to devote almost exclusively to personal/family drama when readers are looking forward to fantasy and mystery. I’m not sure I know many middle schoolers who will stick with it long enough to get through that first part.
I did enjoy the descriptions of the mythical creatures, the focus on the importance of stories, and the friendship between all three of the children. I also appreciate that the book showcased healthy supportive families.
I think the main problem for me was that for the first 3 hours of the audio book the main focus of the story is Dahlia’s anxiety and how she and her family cope and address it. 3 hours is a longtime to devote almost exclusively to personal/family drama when readers are looking forward to fantasy and mystery. I’m not sure I know many middle schoolers who will stick with it long enough to get through that first part.
I did enjoy the descriptions of the mythical creatures, the focus on the importance of stories, and the friendship between all three of the children. I also appreciate that the book showcased healthy supportive families.
April 16, 2026
**My thanks to HarperCollins Children’s Books for providing me with an advanced review copy via NetGalley**
5 stars
This is an excellent middle-grade fantasy novel that I would recommend to young readers and adults alike. There’s a marvelous sense of wonder in every page of the novel as the trio of protagonists explore the town of Rialto, the house in which they’re staying, and the familial relationships of the fantastic people they encounter.
Rialto is a small midwestern town that was swallowed up by woodland sometime in the eighties; the woods have grown so thick that the town’s beloved, possibly magical amusement park is now entirely inaccessible through the trees. Never mind that such sudden and dense growth is botanically impossible, that’s the reality that siblings Ivy and Dahlia encounter when they and their parents drive down to stay with family friends and their son Remy, who have recently inherited a house in Rialto from the mysterious but evidently much beloved Aunt Jess. Aunt Jess left Remy a task in her will: to hand out bequests to her friends and neighbors, and in so doing solve the mystery of what caused Rialto’s amusement park to close. Remy, Ivy, and Dahlia are eager to set about solving a real-life mystery, and their intrigue only grows when they start witnessing creatures and occurrences that are nothing short of magical.
I love the world of Rialto. The small town itself has a fascinating and endearing history as a haven for traveling entertainers and storytellers, and the world the town inhabits is made rich with folklore. The worldbuilding is inventive and a delight to explore. But what I love most of all about this book are the values it engenders. When I was young, I read a lot of fantasy books meant for children in which the child protagonists encounter a seductive magical world which they are encouraged, overtly and subtly, to keep a secret from their parents and guardians. By contrast, the magical side of Rialto is a world built upon kinship and the strengthening of community bonds via history-telling. Ivy, Dahlia, and Remy are not only allowed and invited to tell their parents about the magical encounters they have, they are explicitly urged to do so, and to bring their parents into the magic—or, in Remy’s case, bring them back into the magic—of Rialto. Rialto is at its core a novel about the magic of community, and that value shines so brightly and warmly throughout every inch of the pages.
5 stars
This is an excellent middle-grade fantasy novel that I would recommend to young readers and adults alike. There’s a marvelous sense of wonder in every page of the novel as the trio of protagonists explore the town of Rialto, the house in which they’re staying, and the familial relationships of the fantastic people they encounter.
Rialto is a small midwestern town that was swallowed up by woodland sometime in the eighties; the woods have grown so thick that the town’s beloved, possibly magical amusement park is now entirely inaccessible through the trees. Never mind that such sudden and dense growth is botanically impossible, that’s the reality that siblings Ivy and Dahlia encounter when they and their parents drive down to stay with family friends and their son Remy, who have recently inherited a house in Rialto from the mysterious but evidently much beloved Aunt Jess. Aunt Jess left Remy a task in her will: to hand out bequests to her friends and neighbors, and in so doing solve the mystery of what caused Rialto’s amusement park to close. Remy, Ivy, and Dahlia are eager to set about solving a real-life mystery, and their intrigue only grows when they start witnessing creatures and occurrences that are nothing short of magical.
I love the world of Rialto. The small town itself has a fascinating and endearing history as a haven for traveling entertainers and storytellers, and the world the town inhabits is made rich with folklore. The worldbuilding is inventive and a delight to explore. But what I love most of all about this book are the values it engenders. When I was young, I read a lot of fantasy books meant for children in which the child protagonists encounter a seductive magical world which they are encouraged, overtly and subtly, to keep a secret from their parents and guardians. By contrast, the magical side of Rialto is a world built upon kinship and the strengthening of community bonds via history-telling. Ivy, Dahlia, and Remy are not only allowed and invited to tell their parents about the magical encounters they have, they are explicitly urged to do so, and to bring their parents into the magic—or, in Remy’s case, bring them back into the magic—of Rialto. Rialto is at its core a novel about the magic of community, and that value shines so brightly and warmly throughout every inch of the pages.
April 27, 2026
Absolutely beautiful book. I adore the new characters, the world, the descriptions, the amount of love poured into every single detail and every relationship. I just know my childhood self (the most anxious and sensitive kid ever, who also happened to obsess over anything steampunk, magical, or circusy) would have felt so connected to this story. And as an adult I still do! And, as a long time fan of Raconteur's Commonplace Book (and Jessamy Butcher specifically), this was! Devastating! Aaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!! Can't recommend this enough. Cried! Profusely! 10/10!
April 26, 2026
rialto is an intricate and intriguing mystery wrapped in a sweet family story about mental health, grief, and traditions.
unless you are a long time fan of jessamy butcher.
in which case this book is completely devastating.
unless you are a long time fan of jessamy butcher.
in which case this book is completely devastating.
November 14, 2025
Kate Milford is a master of her craft. Readers new to Milford’s work will find a wholly original world that works as a stand-alone novel, but those travelers already familiar with the Roaming World will find nods and references to earlier works that will make them feel right at home. I would have adored Rialto as a kid, and as an adult fan of Milford’s work found no shortage of things to love.
Milford seamlessly blends a magical mystery with the story of tween sisters navigating their changing relationship. Rialto is filled with heart and warmth and Milford’s signature magic. I could not have loved this book more.
Milford seamlessly blends a magical mystery with the story of tween sisters navigating their changing relationship. Rialto is filled with heart and warmth and Milford’s signature magic. I could not have loved this book more.
May 8, 2026
Long review coming... also eventual secondary read / deep dive.
Rialto by Kate Milford (2026) (April 2026) is described as a "...standalone mystery ... set in a contemporary world tinged with magic, in which two sisters spend summer vacation in a small town in the shadows of abandoned amusement park that is not what it seems." It is a standalone in the same sort of way that Small Gods by Terry Pratchett is a standalone novel. Even back in 2018 when I first heard about Rialto I said it wouldn't be a complete standalone as "none of her books are complete standalones."
Since 2018, Rialto sat on GoodReads as a title, a brief description, and a publication date that was always a couple years in the future, first being 2020, then 2022, and then no longer listed with an expected date. I feel like this book was one of those magical items or places that can only be reached by not trying to reach it. After accepting that Rialto wouldn't be published and removing it from my lengthy wishlist did it appear with cover art, a longer description, and a verifiable publication mere months away.
The book opens with Ivy and Dahlia Vicar in the backseat nearly to their destination of Rialto, Missouri. Ivy, 14, and Dahlia, 12, had a tradition of playing a I-spy game for points during these family car trips. Each point would equal one penny which they would be paid at their destination for some fun spending cash. There is a whole playbook with points. This, year, though, Dahlia would rather have time for herself and her deep thoughts as she is recently diagnosed with anxiety.
The family trip, this time, is two fold. The first is to help a family friend with her aunt's estate. The natural assumption the sisters make is the aunt recently died. The second part is research into the Rialto amusement park which closed in 1987 and has become completely over run by trees.
At that basic description, Rialto does sound like any of the dozens of middle grade books I've read in the last two decades. We have sisters trying to stay close despite one of them now living with anxiety and needing regular therapy. We have a recent family death (albeit extended family here). We have a parent with a project that will keep her busy even if the girls themselves might not be too interested in it. We have an abandoned site with a history so far removed that the girls parents were young children when it happened. All these things together are mundane tropes fairly common in contemporary middle grade fiction.
If a reader has never read a Kate Milford book before, Rialto will seem very much like a standalone mystery with some magical elements. For anyone who has read her other books, there are breadcrumbs that start being sprinkled in once Felix Noctiluca shows up to let them into the aunt's house. He is a fireworker from Arcane: a doubleheader reference to both Boneshaker (2010) and The Broken Lands (2012).
From there the book becomes a game of hide and seek. What other references are peppered through out? How does Rialto relate to both Arcane and Nagspeake? I'm not going to list all the Easter eggs here; that will be a future project.
What I will say, I thoroughly loved the book. Sometimes a book one has been waiting for for nearly a decade will disappoint. Not Rialto; it surpassed my expectations, even as predictions of mine came true. It has also inspired me to do a deeper re-reading of all the books much as I have with the Oz books. When I do re-read them, I plan to keep spreadsheets and flowcharts to see how everything fits together.
For right now, though, go read this book. Even if you have't read anything else by Milford, go read this one. It is a delightful standalone. It is utterly magical and full of delicious word play.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/com...
Siblings Rural Labyrinth CC3399
Rialto by Kate Milford (2026) (April 2026) is described as a "...standalone mystery ... set in a contemporary world tinged with magic, in which two sisters spend summer vacation in a small town in the shadows of abandoned amusement park that is not what it seems." It is a standalone in the same sort of way that Small Gods by Terry Pratchett is a standalone novel. Even back in 2018 when I first heard about Rialto I said it wouldn't be a complete standalone as "none of her books are complete standalones."
Since 2018, Rialto sat on GoodReads as a title, a brief description, and a publication date that was always a couple years in the future, first being 2020, then 2022, and then no longer listed with an expected date. I feel like this book was one of those magical items or places that can only be reached by not trying to reach it. After accepting that Rialto wouldn't be published and removing it from my lengthy wishlist did it appear with cover art, a longer description, and a verifiable publication mere months away.
The book opens with Ivy and Dahlia Vicar in the backseat nearly to their destination of Rialto, Missouri. Ivy, 14, and Dahlia, 12, had a tradition of playing a I-spy game for points during these family car trips. Each point would equal one penny which they would be paid at their destination for some fun spending cash. There is a whole playbook with points. This, year, though, Dahlia would rather have time for herself and her deep thoughts as she is recently diagnosed with anxiety.
The family trip, this time, is two fold. The first is to help a family friend with her aunt's estate. The natural assumption the sisters make is the aunt recently died. The second part is research into the Rialto amusement park which closed in 1987 and has become completely over run by trees.
At that basic description, Rialto does sound like any of the dozens of middle grade books I've read in the last two decades. We have sisters trying to stay close despite one of them now living with anxiety and needing regular therapy. We have a recent family death (albeit extended family here). We have a parent with a project that will keep her busy even if the girls themselves might not be too interested in it. We have an abandoned site with a history so far removed that the girls parents were young children when it happened. All these things together are mundane tropes fairly common in contemporary middle grade fiction.
If a reader has never read a Kate Milford book before, Rialto will seem very much like a standalone mystery with some magical elements. For anyone who has read her other books, there are breadcrumbs that start being sprinkled in once Felix Noctiluca shows up to let them into the aunt's house. He is a fireworker from Arcane: a doubleheader reference to both Boneshaker (2010) and The Broken Lands (2012).
From there the book becomes a game of hide and seek. What other references are peppered through out? How does Rialto relate to both Arcane and Nagspeake? I'm not going to list all the Easter eggs here; that will be a future project.
What I will say, I thoroughly loved the book. Sometimes a book one has been waiting for for nearly a decade will disappoint. Not Rialto; it surpassed my expectations, even as predictions of mine came true. It has also inspired me to do a deeper re-reading of all the books much as I have with the Oz books. When I do re-read them, I plan to keep spreadsheets and flowcharts to see how everything fits together.
For right now, though, go read this book. Even if you have't read anything else by Milford, go read this one. It is a delightful standalone. It is utterly magical and full of delicious word play.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/com...
Siblings Rural Labyrinth CC3399
May 20, 2026
Set in a world that feels grounded in reality, with subtle nods to real places and events, this story is a magical mystery at its core. The idea of travelling to the fictional town of Riato to explore an abandoned theme park is such a compelling premise. Paired with a visit to a friend’s family following a bereavement, it adds an extra layer of intrigue right from the start.
I really loved this book. I initially thought it might feel a bit young for me, but it actually reads in a much more mature way. The relationship between sisters Dahlia and Ivy - growing up and gradually growing apart - was portrayed with real emotional depth.
Themes of mental health, grief, and tradition run throughout the story. I especially felt for Ivy at the beginning; she doesn’t fully understand what’s happening with Dahlia and feels pushed aside, when all she really wants is to remain close to her sister.
The writing is beautifully descriptive, and I loved seeing the bond develop between Remy, Ivy, and Dahlia. Their journey felt like one big shared adventure.
Some readers might find the opening a little slow, but I personally enjoyed the pacing and the gradual build-up. Even the car journey scenes were engaging - the author’s descriptive style made me feel like I was right there with them.
A great discovery, and perfect for younger readers (around 11–16), though I definitely enjoyed it as an adult too.
I really loved this book. I initially thought it might feel a bit young for me, but it actually reads in a much more mature way. The relationship between sisters Dahlia and Ivy - growing up and gradually growing apart - was portrayed with real emotional depth.
Themes of mental health, grief, and tradition run throughout the story. I especially felt for Ivy at the beginning; she doesn’t fully understand what’s happening with Dahlia and feels pushed aside, when all she really wants is to remain close to her sister.
The writing is beautifully descriptive, and I loved seeing the bond develop between Remy, Ivy, and Dahlia. Their journey felt like one big shared adventure.
Some readers might find the opening a little slow, but I personally enjoyed the pacing and the gradual build-up. Even the car journey scenes were engaging - the author’s descriptive style made me feel like I was right there with them.
A great discovery, and perfect for younger readers (around 11–16), though I definitely enjoyed it as an adult too.
May 14, 2026
Rialto is over 400 pages long, but when I say I was immersed, I was FULLY in it. It’s middle grade, but the world felt so magical, cosy, and full of wonder that I honestly think this is the kind of book that could spark a lifelong love of reading in younger readers.
At the centre is this abandoned theme park wrapped up in mystery, impossible creatures, adventure, intrigue, and small-town secrets. The atmosphere is this perfect mix of whimsical and abandoned, and the creatures themselves are imaginative, magical, and cute rather than scary.
The pacing is slower, but in a dreamy, immersive way rather than dragging. It gives you time to really sit in the world and with the characters, and I loved that.
What really stood out to me though was how beautifully it handles anxiety and grief. The anxiety representation felt so natural and thoughtful, with coping mechanisms and therapy woven in without ever feeling preachy. And the grief running through the story feels really human and profound.
I also loved the changing relationship between Ivy and Dahlia as they grow older and navigate their feelings, alongside Remy dealing with his own grief. There’s this lovely feeling throughout that everyone’s lives are intertwined, people know each other’s histories, and the town itself feels alive.
The descriptions are gorgeous and the whole book just feels incredibly warm and loving somehow.
Honestly, I absolutely loved it.
At the centre is this abandoned theme park wrapped up in mystery, impossible creatures, adventure, intrigue, and small-town secrets. The atmosphere is this perfect mix of whimsical and abandoned, and the creatures themselves are imaginative, magical, and cute rather than scary.
The pacing is slower, but in a dreamy, immersive way rather than dragging. It gives you time to really sit in the world and with the characters, and I loved that.
What really stood out to me though was how beautifully it handles anxiety and grief. The anxiety representation felt so natural and thoughtful, with coping mechanisms and therapy woven in without ever feeling preachy. And the grief running through the story feels really human and profound.
I also loved the changing relationship between Ivy and Dahlia as they grow older and navigate their feelings, alongside Remy dealing with his own grief. There’s this lovely feeling throughout that everyone’s lives are intertwined, people know each other’s histories, and the town itself feels alive.
The descriptions are gorgeous and the whole book just feels incredibly warm and loving somehow.
Honestly, I absolutely loved it.
May 5, 2026
Rialto is a middle-grade fiction novel that I knew I would love the moment I read the blurb! Thank you to Novel Tours and Haper Collins Children’s Books/Clarion for providing an advance copy to review.
𝙈𝛄 2 ¢𝓮𝞰𝒕𝐬: FANTASTIC fantasy! An excellent read for adults young at heart as well as children.
This story was fantastic in every way. The world building was lovely, and the characters absolutely charming. I loved the emotional voyage of discovery our three young main characters were on. The sisterly bond of Dahlia and Ivy was real, powerful, and wonderful to see.
The plot was magical, and as magnificent as the cover. The lines of fantasy and reality are blurred and true magic permeates this idyllic summer. Every secondary character has true character and they were all used to propel the story, providing foreshadowing for the reader and clues for the kids to follow.
The themes of friendship, independence, mutual reliance, resilience, trust, and more really make this an impactful story for young people. It shows through emotional context how to deal with anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and when to take a step toward the unknown. The children show great independence without making the adults seem inept or unnecessary—I usually find the opposite and dislike books water the adults down to irrelevant bystanders.
My favorite thing about the entire story was the music. The author has woven music through this book in a way that made me feel like I could hear it. I imagine it could become an incredible audiobook!
I felt like a kid again as I read this story, and it brought back the feeling of catching fireflies in the summer evenings and seeing fairies among the dragonflies during the day. I long to visit Rialto, and can only hope that whatever waits beyond this life is as wondrous as the crossing awaiting the Roamers!
𝙈𝛄 2 ¢𝓮𝞰𝒕𝐬: FANTASTIC fantasy! An excellent read for adults young at heart as well as children.
This story was fantastic in every way. The world building was lovely, and the characters absolutely charming. I loved the emotional voyage of discovery our three young main characters were on. The sisterly bond of Dahlia and Ivy was real, powerful, and wonderful to see.
The plot was magical, and as magnificent as the cover. The lines of fantasy and reality are blurred and true magic permeates this idyllic summer. Every secondary character has true character and they were all used to propel the story, providing foreshadowing for the reader and clues for the kids to follow.
The themes of friendship, independence, mutual reliance, resilience, trust, and more really make this an impactful story for young people. It shows through emotional context how to deal with anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and when to take a step toward the unknown. The children show great independence without making the adults seem inept or unnecessary—I usually find the opposite and dislike books water the adults down to irrelevant bystanders.
My favorite thing about the entire story was the music. The author has woven music through this book in a way that made me feel like I could hear it. I imagine it could become an incredible audiobook!
I felt like a kid again as I read this story, and it brought back the feeling of catching fireflies in the summer evenings and seeing fairies among the dragonflies during the day. I long to visit Rialto, and can only hope that whatever waits beyond this life is as wondrous as the crossing awaiting the Roamers!
May 31, 2026
i think this book was done a major disservice by its marketing because "abandoned magical theme park" is such an immediately catchy premise but this is. not really about an abandoned magical theme park. its about a town haunted by an abandoned theme park and it is about the way we keep culture alive through folklore and it is about grief and overwhelming guilt and fighting your way back to a culture you've grown distant from and fighting your way into a room no one thinks you belong in. it is such a beautiful book but if you go in waiting to go to the abandoned magical theme park you Will be disappointed.
all this to say kate milford worldbuilding queen i love you so much. jess butcher still character of all time. also yeah it felt slightly heavy handed reading now but i just know i would have killed to read such a perfect depiction of anxiety and mental health issues as a kid so i have to let it slide
all this to say kate milford worldbuilding queen i love you so much. jess butcher still character of all time. also yeah it felt slightly heavy handed reading now but i just know i would have killed to read such a perfect depiction of anxiety and mental health issues as a kid so i have to let it slide
May 15, 2026
My favourite thing about this book is the mental health representation. It offers great coping strategies and normalises therapy. It’s such an important issue for children to learn about and I enjoyed how it was portrayed.
I really enjoyed how the issues with the sisters were written and dealt with as well.
The world building in this story was done really well. I enjoyed the theme park setting and all the mystery and magic.
As an adult, I did enjoy this book, however, it is aimed at middle school children and I think they may struggle with it as it is quite long, slow paced and has lots of themes to keep up with. I think high school age may be more appropriate.
Overall, this was a 4⭐️ read for me.
I really enjoyed how the issues with the sisters were written and dealt with as well.
The world building in this story was done really well. I enjoyed the theme park setting and all the mystery and magic.
As an adult, I did enjoy this book, however, it is aimed at middle school children and I think they may struggle with it as it is quite long, slow paced and has lots of themes to keep up with. I think high school age may be more appropriate.
Overall, this was a 4⭐️ read for me.
May 5, 2026
On paper this is exactly my kind of book but the excution was just.. meh. It left me wanting more from it than what I got. I didn't feel fully brought in to the world - it was like parts of the world the author didn't know or didn't know how to show/explain to us so it just wasn't and I still don't know what even happened to make the park overgrown.
May 31, 2026
I love a good middle grade book!!! This one about an amusement park. The Carnie in me approves!!!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Beautiful.
Stunning.
Magnificent.
Brilliant.
Poignant.
Breathtaking.
Full review to come.
Let's start with a story.
When I was a kid, I lived in the corner house on a crossroads of an old neighborhood. Diagonally from me, behind the house, one street west, was a Mom & Pop grocery store. One street east and two and a half blocks north was my Grandma's house. If I walked into the middle of the street and looked due east I could see my elementary school, the same school my Dad and his brother and sisters attended when they were kids. But the most important location was three streets east and two and a half blocks south.
The library.
When I was a kid, I remember my Dad started having part of the summer off and he'd plan day trips to the library. We'd have breakfast, get our bags ready for our books and set off. I remember we would choose a different route sometimes, skip a turn and go longer down a street, things like that, but we would always end up walking through a street that felt like tunnel of trees and it would be one more left and the library was on our right. We'd get water at the fountain and my Dad would leave us in the kid's section, saying to choose some good books, come find him when we were ready and then we would go home for lunch. It would be somewhere between three or four hours to sit in the library, searching the shelves and choosing the best spot to settle in and read. I'd pull books off the shelves, trying to find something, changing my mind every trip about what I wanted to read. I'd read everything by Mary Downing Hahn, Betty Ren Wright, Lynn Reid Banks, James Howe, Bruce Coville. Wandering around, I remembering finding a biography on Louisa May Alcott that I'd never seen before and I'd found several shelves consisting of every Oz book by Baum that the library had collected for decades.
Some books were new, others were so old they creaked when they opened and laid splayed out without my having to hold the book, the smell of old paper lingering for hours after I put the book away, the pages so yellowed they were almost brown. I made it a point to try anything I found but back in the 90s, it wasn't easy for me to find the right book I was really looking for, something with the right balance of real world situations and a little bit magic and mystery. I was too anxious to try asking at the public library for help finding a book and my school librarian had too many kids to focus on. Eventually I moved on, finding great mysteries to read, science fiction and fantasy and horror while reading the assigned books for school. But, ever since then, I have wandered into the middle grade section of various bookstores, still looking for that right book, that book that childhood me was searching for so long to find. That's what I was doing, maybe a dozen years ago now, when a particular title caught my eye.
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford.
I picked it up, a paperback, and noticed The Broken Lands, a hardcover, right next to it. I stared at the artwork, my eyes moving this way and that, seeing things here and there that would make sense once you'd read the book but I didn't know that then. All I knew is that the artwork called to me, the synopsis hooked my attention. I took them home and started to read and it was then that I felt that I'd done it. I'd found a book that I would have ADORED when I was a kid. My whole personality would have been that book. I would have carried it around everywhere, reading it so many times, memorizing passages just from the act of reading it time and time again. I've bought and read every Kate Milford book since. I'm planning to read them to my kids when they're older. Because some of that need to find brilliant middle grade books is to make sure my kids don't have trouble finding books that appeal to them. These are the books I wish I'd found, so now I have them to hand to my kids when they want to try them and I can't wait to give them Kate Milford's books. Milford writes kids that feel real, that have trials to overcome and a world that they have to look at just a little bit differently to solve the mystery. The kids are treated with respect, never looked down on, or dismissed. The adults in these books pay attention to the kids, they listen, they try to learn. All together, each book has been lovely, and brilliant, and astounding. I LOVE Kate Milford books so when I saw that there was a new book, Rialto, ready to be published, my heart leapt into my throat. I had to read this book, end of story, and you want to know the best part?
It was magnificent.
Rialto starts with following Ivy and Dahlia Vicar, on their way to Rialto, Missouri for a family vacation to visit friends. The sisters are currently a little at odds with each other. Dahlia is dealing with anxiety and is looking forward to a new destination to try for their trip, which comes with an abandoned amusement park that their Mom is interested in researching for a book. Ivy is trying to understand how to be the big sister that Dahlia needs while longing for the times when they were younger and the traditions that they had in the past. Once they arrive in Rialto, it is obvious that things are going to be very different for their vacation. The town looks like it was swallowed by a forest and stories say that the town woke up one morning to find that the trees had grown up around them overnight. While driving through the town Dahlia spots a giraffe with antlers and after meeting Remy and his family, who own the house they will be staying in, she sees a leopard with wings through the window. Remy and his family inherited the house from their Aunt Jess, who has left bequests for Remy to give to her friends now that she has gone. Remy decides to ask Ivy and Dahlia to help with the bequests and the trio start to realize that there is a mystery to solve about the town that goes back to when Rialto was still open to visitors. In order to solve the mystery, they must believe in the magic that seems to be in the town that was swallowed by a forest and has strange creatures roaming its streets.
There is so much in this book, so many things that make it yet another brilliant Milford book and yet more at the same time. Greenglass House has held the title of favorite Kate Milford book for quite some time but Rialto might have just knocked it from its place of honor. Ivy felt so familiar to me as a kid who loved to solve riddles and mysteries and her trying to understand her sibling who has started to change in ways that are difficult for Ivy to accept. As soon as it was revealed that Dahlia had anxiety and was seeing a therapist, I was completely invested in these girls and their story. I loved the things that Milford added for Dahlia, the fact that she had methods to deal with her anxiety when she was out in public, the fact that she needed to retreat to her room and have time on her own to deal with the way the day unfolded and how it affected her sense of well-being. I loved that Ivy had a hard time accepting this new normal, how she wanted to cling to the way things were and how she needed her parents to help her with understanding how to be what Dahlia needed.
I also LOVED the fact that Mr. Vicar had his own social issues that made him able to understand Dahlia and how the fact that he had his own issues meant that Mrs. Vicar knew what to do to help both of them or when to give them space. This was a family unit that was in tune with each other. It was believable that these parents made an effort to understand and help their kids and that Ivy and Dahlia never doubted the support they would get from their parents. When Dahlia started to see the amazing things hiding in Rialto, I was excited to see how quickly her logic had her reasoning the existence of magic and how she made the decision to believe that there was something more to the town. It made sense that Dahlia would be the character to get the ball rolling for the magic of the book and I loved how Ivy, in trying to support her sister, was brought along for the ride and evolved as well.
On the other side of the characters is Remy, his parents and everyone else in town. These are the characters that know the ins and outs of Rialto, they've grown up in the town and some of them know everything about the town. Remy is the perfect character to bring Ivy and Dahlia into the world of Rialto. He knows SOME of the truth but he knows things in the sense of stories that have been handed down, the legends that make up the place. He knows some things, he's seen the animals that Dahlia has seen, but at the same time he's been kept at a distance in the town because he's not a resident. His belief in the sisters to be the best companions for him and his quest endeared him to me. I loved how quickly he became Ivy's number one supporter in asking her for help with the clues and knowing how she could solve the mystery. Remy's parents were also supportive and I liked how they defended the kids as they worked on the mystery. There's a scene with Bailey, Remy's dad, and some of the residents of the town where he backed up the circumstances up to that point and how the kids were involved that just made me want to stand up and applaud. He had no doubt in his son and his son's new friends and he was in their corner and I loved every parent in this book, seriously, the reveals about the town and how these adults helped the kids just made me want to be just like those parents. I'm too old to say I want to be Ivy and Dahlia when I grow up but I'll settle for being any combination of the four parents in this book.
The mystery was engrossing from the start. The idea that this town had been swallowed up by a forest and that no one was able to enter the Rialto amusement park again was so intriguing, I wanted to know everything about it. Which is good because Milford does not skimp on the world development, on the stories that surround the town and the people that are in this place. I've tried to think if there was anything I had questions about once the book was done but I honestly believe that anything and everything I questioned or wanted to know was revealed and answered over the course of the book. It's a sign of great writing and a great story when I can get to the end of the book and feel like the whole thing was complete. If there is ever a story that can branch of from something in this book though, I will try my hardest to be first in line to read it. The mystery itself deserves to be discovered by the readers that try this book so I won't delve further into it. Once the reveals are made, I was a self-declared number one fan of this book. I'm older, so I had my suspicions about the reveals that ended up being right but it still felt perfect with everything the book gives to the reader.
I have loved every Kate Milford book I have read. I have a signed copy of The Left-Handed Fate and a numbered and signed copy of Bluecrowne. I have waited years for another Kate Milford book and I will continue to look for a new book every year until we readers are given another book. I am a fan for life of Kate Milford's books and I hope that more readers find their way to these novels. I'm counting down the days until my kids are old enough to sit and listen and imagine while I read them these books.
Rating on my scale: 10 STARS!! This is one of the best books I've read in recent years. I know when I sit down with a Kate Milford book, I will be enthralled and Rialto did not disappoint. Read this book if you like mysteries with magic and characters that can change and make changes and defeat evils and triumph.
My thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins Children's Books and Kate Milford the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
Stunning.
Magnificent.
Brilliant.
Poignant.
Breathtaking.
Full review to come.
Let's start with a story.
When I was a kid, I lived in the corner house on a crossroads of an old neighborhood. Diagonally from me, behind the house, one street west, was a Mom & Pop grocery store. One street east and two and a half blocks north was my Grandma's house. If I walked into the middle of the street and looked due east I could see my elementary school, the same school my Dad and his brother and sisters attended when they were kids. But the most important location was three streets east and two and a half blocks south.
The library.
When I was a kid, I remember my Dad started having part of the summer off and he'd plan day trips to the library. We'd have breakfast, get our bags ready for our books and set off. I remember we would choose a different route sometimes, skip a turn and go longer down a street, things like that, but we would always end up walking through a street that felt like tunnel of trees and it would be one more left and the library was on our right. We'd get water at the fountain and my Dad would leave us in the kid's section, saying to choose some good books, come find him when we were ready and then we would go home for lunch. It would be somewhere between three or four hours to sit in the library, searching the shelves and choosing the best spot to settle in and read. I'd pull books off the shelves, trying to find something, changing my mind every trip about what I wanted to read. I'd read everything by Mary Downing Hahn, Betty Ren Wright, Lynn Reid Banks, James Howe, Bruce Coville. Wandering around, I remembering finding a biography on Louisa May Alcott that I'd never seen before and I'd found several shelves consisting of every Oz book by Baum that the library had collected for decades.
Some books were new, others were so old they creaked when they opened and laid splayed out without my having to hold the book, the smell of old paper lingering for hours after I put the book away, the pages so yellowed they were almost brown. I made it a point to try anything I found but back in the 90s, it wasn't easy for me to find the right book I was really looking for, something with the right balance of real world situations and a little bit magic and mystery. I was too anxious to try asking at the public library for help finding a book and my school librarian had too many kids to focus on. Eventually I moved on, finding great mysteries to read, science fiction and fantasy and horror while reading the assigned books for school. But, ever since then, I have wandered into the middle grade section of various bookstores, still looking for that right book, that book that childhood me was searching for so long to find. That's what I was doing, maybe a dozen years ago now, when a particular title caught my eye.
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford.
I picked it up, a paperback, and noticed The Broken Lands, a hardcover, right next to it. I stared at the artwork, my eyes moving this way and that, seeing things here and there that would make sense once you'd read the book but I didn't know that then. All I knew is that the artwork called to me, the synopsis hooked my attention. I took them home and started to read and it was then that I felt that I'd done it. I'd found a book that I would have ADORED when I was a kid. My whole personality would have been that book. I would have carried it around everywhere, reading it so many times, memorizing passages just from the act of reading it time and time again. I've bought and read every Kate Milford book since. I'm planning to read them to my kids when they're older. Because some of that need to find brilliant middle grade books is to make sure my kids don't have trouble finding books that appeal to them. These are the books I wish I'd found, so now I have them to hand to my kids when they want to try them and I can't wait to give them Kate Milford's books. Milford writes kids that feel real, that have trials to overcome and a world that they have to look at just a little bit differently to solve the mystery. The kids are treated with respect, never looked down on, or dismissed. The adults in these books pay attention to the kids, they listen, they try to learn. All together, each book has been lovely, and brilliant, and astounding. I LOVE Kate Milford books so when I saw that there was a new book, Rialto, ready to be published, my heart leapt into my throat. I had to read this book, end of story, and you want to know the best part?
It was magnificent.
Rialto starts with following Ivy and Dahlia Vicar, on their way to Rialto, Missouri for a family vacation to visit friends. The sisters are currently a little at odds with each other. Dahlia is dealing with anxiety and is looking forward to a new destination to try for their trip, which comes with an abandoned amusement park that their Mom is interested in researching for a book. Ivy is trying to understand how to be the big sister that Dahlia needs while longing for the times when they were younger and the traditions that they had in the past. Once they arrive in Rialto, it is obvious that things are going to be very different for their vacation. The town looks like it was swallowed by a forest and stories say that the town woke up one morning to find that the trees had grown up around them overnight. While driving through the town Dahlia spots a giraffe with antlers and after meeting Remy and his family, who own the house they will be staying in, she sees a leopard with wings through the window. Remy and his family inherited the house from their Aunt Jess, who has left bequests for Remy to give to her friends now that she has gone. Remy decides to ask Ivy and Dahlia to help with the bequests and the trio start to realize that there is a mystery to solve about the town that goes back to when Rialto was still open to visitors. In order to solve the mystery, they must believe in the magic that seems to be in the town that was swallowed by a forest and has strange creatures roaming its streets.
There is so much in this book, so many things that make it yet another brilliant Milford book and yet more at the same time. Greenglass House has held the title of favorite Kate Milford book for quite some time but Rialto might have just knocked it from its place of honor. Ivy felt so familiar to me as a kid who loved to solve riddles and mysteries and her trying to understand her sibling who has started to change in ways that are difficult for Ivy to accept. As soon as it was revealed that Dahlia had anxiety and was seeing a therapist, I was completely invested in these girls and their story. I loved the things that Milford added for Dahlia, the fact that she had methods to deal with her anxiety when she was out in public, the fact that she needed to retreat to her room and have time on her own to deal with the way the day unfolded and how it affected her sense of well-being. I loved that Ivy had a hard time accepting this new normal, how she wanted to cling to the way things were and how she needed her parents to help her with understanding how to be what Dahlia needed.
I also LOVED the fact that Mr. Vicar had his own social issues that made him able to understand Dahlia and how the fact that he had his own issues meant that Mrs. Vicar knew what to do to help both of them or when to give them space. This was a family unit that was in tune with each other. It was believable that these parents made an effort to understand and help their kids and that Ivy and Dahlia never doubted the support they would get from their parents. When Dahlia started to see the amazing things hiding in Rialto, I was excited to see how quickly her logic had her reasoning the existence of magic and how she made the decision to believe that there was something more to the town. It made sense that Dahlia would be the character to get the ball rolling for the magic of the book and I loved how Ivy, in trying to support her sister, was brought along for the ride and evolved as well.
On the other side of the characters is Remy, his parents and everyone else in town. These are the characters that know the ins and outs of Rialto, they've grown up in the town and some of them know everything about the town. Remy is the perfect character to bring Ivy and Dahlia into the world of Rialto. He knows SOME of the truth but he knows things in the sense of stories that have been handed down, the legends that make up the place. He knows some things, he's seen the animals that Dahlia has seen, but at the same time he's been kept at a distance in the town because he's not a resident. His belief in the sisters to be the best companions for him and his quest endeared him to me. I loved how quickly he became Ivy's number one supporter in asking her for help with the clues and knowing how she could solve the mystery. Remy's parents were also supportive and I liked how they defended the kids as they worked on the mystery. There's a scene with Bailey, Remy's dad, and some of the residents of the town where he backed up the circumstances up to that point and how the kids were involved that just made me want to stand up and applaud. He had no doubt in his son and his son's new friends and he was in their corner and I loved every parent in this book, seriously, the reveals about the town and how these adults helped the kids just made me want to be just like those parents. I'm too old to say I want to be Ivy and Dahlia when I grow up but I'll settle for being any combination of the four parents in this book.
The mystery was engrossing from the start. The idea that this town had been swallowed up by a forest and that no one was able to enter the Rialto amusement park again was so intriguing, I wanted to know everything about it. Which is good because Milford does not skimp on the world development, on the stories that surround the town and the people that are in this place. I've tried to think if there was anything I had questions about once the book was done but I honestly believe that anything and everything I questioned or wanted to know was revealed and answered over the course of the book. It's a sign of great writing and a great story when I can get to the end of the book and feel like the whole thing was complete. If there is ever a story that can branch of from something in this book though, I will try my hardest to be first in line to read it. The mystery itself deserves to be discovered by the readers that try this book so I won't delve further into it. Once the reveals are made, I was a self-declared number one fan of this book. I'm older, so I had my suspicions about the reveals that ended up being right but it still felt perfect with everything the book gives to the reader.
I have loved every Kate Milford book I have read. I have a signed copy of The Left-Handed Fate and a numbered and signed copy of Bluecrowne. I have waited years for another Kate Milford book and I will continue to look for a new book every year until we readers are given another book. I am a fan for life of Kate Milford's books and I hope that more readers find their way to these novels. I'm counting down the days until my kids are old enough to sit and listen and imagine while I read them these books.
Rating on my scale: 10 STARS!! This is one of the best books I've read in recent years. I know when I sit down with a Kate Milford book, I will be enthralled and Rialto did not disappoint. Read this book if you like mysteries with magic and characters that can change and make changes and defeat evils and triumph.
My thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins Children's Books and Kate Milford the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
June 6, 2026
I was surprised at how moved I was by this book and the two sisters at the center. On its surface it is a mystery about how a town came to be hidden in trees and how the people of the town keep its secrets. But at its core it is about a girl who is struggling with anxiety and depression and is fighting her way out of it and her sister who doesn't know how to help her. That the author was able to weave those two things together without making it seem like an after school special is especially impressive.
While I was reading it, it made me think it would pair well with "Circus Mirandus" and that I should really be recommending that book a lot more as well.
While I was reading it, it made me think it would pair well with "Circus Mirandus" and that I should really be recommending that book a lot more as well.
April 24, 2026
Another absolutely brilliant Kate Milford. No one does world building - and world-intertwining - like she does.
May 13, 2026
I know this may be an enormously unpopular opinion, but this book was a huge flop for me. The sheer length of 480 pages makes this a daunting read, especially for middle schoolers, but after reading 240 pages, I finally gave up and skimmed the rest. It is SO wordy and lacks serious editing. And there are so many themes and stories being addressed that it is easy to get lost and confused. In one chapter, we're attending an entire online therapy session with one of the characters who has anxiety, and then, in the next minute, we're talking about bequests, fantasy, trees taking over a town, new characters being thrown in every few pages, and a storyline that just ambles. Even at the end of the book, questions and themes are left hanging. I just feel like the author tried to cram too much into one book, with really ineffective editing.
April 9, 2026
This book is fantastic! I love the sense of magic and wonder created within. The setting is enchanting! I was drawn by the stunning cover and the story did not disappoint. In Rialto, we are transported to a small town in the middle of the woods that is home to an abandoned theme park with a magical mystery. It is absolutely wonderful!
The characters are fantastic as well. I really enjoyed the fact that the character who struggles with anxiety is presented as already having coping because she has been struggling with anxiety for a while and has been in therapy. She’s learned to set boundaries, take time when needed, practices grounding exercises, and so on. I think seeing a character with established coping skills is awesome in a book for this audience. I also love that she could check in with trusted adults.
Overall this book was great! I am excited to share this one with my kids!
The characters are fantastic as well. I really enjoyed the fact that the character who struggles with anxiety is presented as already having coping because she has been struggling with anxiety for a while and has been in therapy. She’s learned to set boundaries, take time when needed, practices grounding exercises, and so on. I think seeing a character with established coping skills is awesome in a book for this audience. I also love that she could check in with trusted adults.
Overall this book was great! I am excited to share this one with my kids!
October 12, 2025
Kate Milford does not disappoint. She has created an entire world, much as she did in the Greenglass House series, that enchants the reader and draws them in. This is a book I didn’t want to end because it is so beautifully written. But I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next! In addition to the beautiful imagery of art and music and fiber crafts and writing, I also gathered helpful information about anxiety and social anxiety.
Many many thanks to Harper Collins for the ARC.
Many many thanks to Harper Collins for the ARC.
October 13, 2025
*Received as an ARC*
So it appears a story from my favorite Storyteller has once again moved me. This story was so wondrous, so thoughtful, it was a hand-carved stamp that changed every time I put it to paper. I'll always look for magic, but sometimes it's nice to have a reminder. So glad I got to have this now, exactly when I needed it. I can't wait to hold the final copy!
So it appears a story from my favorite Storyteller has once again moved me. This story was so wondrous, so thoughtful, it was a hand-carved stamp that changed every time I put it to paper. I'll always look for magic, but sometimes it's nice to have a reminder. So glad I got to have this now, exactly when I needed it. I can't wait to hold the final copy!
April 14, 2026
** “I’ve just always been aware that here, there’s a greater-than-usual possibility of encountering something weird or wonderful or even miraculous, if I keep my eyes and my mind open.” **
Kate Milford offers a magical book with “Rialto,” a book about a magic theme park, sibling relationships, and overcoming mental health issues.
When sisters Ivy and Dahlia and their parents travel to Rialto, Missouri, to stay with their Aunt Sally, they realize there’s more than meets the eye with this strange little town. Rialto was said to have been unexplainably swallowed up overnight by a forest in 1988.
So when Sally’s Aunt Jess leaves her family her home near the abandoned amusement park, Rialto Park, the siblings come to help Sally and her husband and stepson, Remy, adjust to their new home.
But when mysterious situations begin happening, the kids try to get to the bottom of things — mysterious fantastical creatures appearing, music boxes changing the songs they play, and tales of wishes and crossings to a mysterious land.
Will they figure out what’s currently going on in Rialto, and why the forest overtook the town and theme park 40 years ago?
Milford does an incredible job of creating a magical world with characters filled with moxie, pluck and relatable struggles. She also fills “Rialto” with several great themes like depending on who is telling a story can impact the story’s meaning; there are boundaries everywhere and we just have to figure out how to find them and cross them; the weird, wonderful and magical is everywhere, if we just look; wishing is complicated; life is made up of a series of crossroads, threads twisting around them; and we must find ways to manage how we feel.
This book is quite long and does deal extensively with Dahlia’s issues with anxiety and depression, especially at the beginning of the book. Therefore, it does take a little bit to get into the story. Although this book is suggested for children ages 10 and over, I think I’d recommend it for children ages 12 and older.
Fans of series like Kiersten White’s “Sinister Summer,” Chris Grabenstein’s “Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzlers” and Amy Sparkes’ “The House at the Edge of Magic,” and even Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” will love “Rialto.”
Four stars out of five.
Clarion Books provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.
Kate Milford offers a magical book with “Rialto,” a book about a magic theme park, sibling relationships, and overcoming mental health issues.
When sisters Ivy and Dahlia and their parents travel to Rialto, Missouri, to stay with their Aunt Sally, they realize there’s more than meets the eye with this strange little town. Rialto was said to have been unexplainably swallowed up overnight by a forest in 1988.
So when Sally’s Aunt Jess leaves her family her home near the abandoned amusement park, Rialto Park, the siblings come to help Sally and her husband and stepson, Remy, adjust to their new home.
But when mysterious situations begin happening, the kids try to get to the bottom of things — mysterious fantastical creatures appearing, music boxes changing the songs they play, and tales of wishes and crossings to a mysterious land.
Will they figure out what’s currently going on in Rialto, and why the forest overtook the town and theme park 40 years ago?
Milford does an incredible job of creating a magical world with characters filled with moxie, pluck and relatable struggles. She also fills “Rialto” with several great themes like depending on who is telling a story can impact the story’s meaning; there are boundaries everywhere and we just have to figure out how to find them and cross them; the weird, wonderful and magical is everywhere, if we just look; wishing is complicated; life is made up of a series of crossroads, threads twisting around them; and we must find ways to manage how we feel.
This book is quite long and does deal extensively with Dahlia’s issues with anxiety and depression, especially at the beginning of the book. Therefore, it does take a little bit to get into the story. Although this book is suggested for children ages 10 and over, I think I’d recommend it for children ages 12 and older.
Fans of series like Kiersten White’s “Sinister Summer,” Chris Grabenstein’s “Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzlers” and Amy Sparkes’ “The House at the Edge of Magic,” and even Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” will love “Rialto.”
Four stars out of five.
Clarion Books provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.
May 21, 2026
Sisters Dahlia and Ivy are on a summer road trip with their parents, while their mother is researching a book about amusement parks. Artistic Dahlia, who has been struggling with the same anxiety their father deals with, is frustrated that older sister Ivy is not understanding what Dahlia needs--Ivy just wants everything to stay the same, with all their same traditions. She's frustrated with Dahlia in her turn, but also frustrated that she (Ivy) can't figure out how to best support Dahlia. Then they land in Rialto, a small town that apparently got swallowed by a forest overnight, as did the adjacent, now-abandoned amusement park. The sisters' mother's best friend Sally grew up in Rialto, and thanks to an inheritance from "Aunt Jess" (not sure if she was a real aunt), is now moving back with her husband Bailey and stepson Remy, who also have Rialto connections. When Dahlia starts seeing strange creatures in the town and woods--an antlered giraffe, a winged cat--they start to realize that things are...different in Rialto. What caused the woods to swallow the town and park? Why do people in Rialto talk about others "crossing over" rather than "dying"? Why do all of Jess' music boxes play the same tune--one that came from Rialto Park? The girls and Remy have a mystery to solve, and believing in magic might be the key.
Milford is known for taking obscure things and objects and crafts and more from history, and using them as a lacemaker uses pins--to wind a story around. Her stories are always intricately woven, full of vivid description and creativity, and I really wished I'd liked this one better! She does a fantastic job portraying Dahlia's struggle with anxiety, and Ivy's struggle to support her and realize that things change sometimes. But for me, the story moved at a glacial pace (it's a really long book), and could have been about half as long and had a third as many characters--I completely lost track of who was who in the crowd. Also, I think my personal taste runs to all magic, or all not--I get frustrated with stories that have only a small amount of magic, or magic that only really comes in at the end. That's just personal taste, though. Oh, and the villain was really obvious, right from the start, so there wasn't much suspense there. So, I liked this, but didn't love it, alas.
Milford is known for taking obscure things and objects and crafts and more from history, and using them as a lacemaker uses pins--to wind a story around. Her stories are always intricately woven, full of vivid description and creativity, and I really wished I'd liked this one better! She does a fantastic job portraying Dahlia's struggle with anxiety, and Ivy's struggle to support her and realize that things change sometimes. But for me, the story moved at a glacial pace (it's a really long book), and could have been about half as long and had a third as many characters--I completely lost track of who was who in the crowd. Also, I think my personal taste runs to all magic, or all not--I get frustrated with stories that have only a small amount of magic, or magic that only really comes in at the end. That's just personal taste, though. Oh, and the villain was really obvious, right from the start, so there wasn't much suspense there. So, I liked this, but didn't love it, alas.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was enjoyable and, being very honest, most of my issues with Rialto have little to do with its quality — the reason I didn’t love it is simply personal preference, which is truly a pity. I wanted to adore this one so, so much! The cover alone drew me in, and its premise has a bit of everything I enjoy: a quasi murder mystery; magic realism; an intriguing abandoned amusement park and complicated family dynamics.
My main impediment to fully immersing myself in this novel was its pacing. Rialto starts slow, intentionally so — the author is trying to build up the magic, inviting us in as if we, too, are quotidians inserted in a reality that doesn’t seem real when compared to our lived experiences. Even when taking this into consideration, the first 25% or so could’ve benefited greatly from a more thorough edit. I’d have struggled to bear with it if I wasn’t listening to it and, thinking back to my younger self, I probably would’ve just given it up in order to read something else.
Even though I didn’t particularly enjoy the therapy session being portrayed in full, I also think this novel does a great job at normalising mental illness and its treatment, portraying a very supportive family and environment — speaking from my own personal experience, reading something like this as a teen maybe would’ve helped me accept the therapeutic process earlier on in my life. The way the evolving relationship between the sisters is portrayed is also very tender, and I quite like how the author handles the topic of growing up in the narrative. All the teen-aged characters are portrayed with a lot of respect and relatability, which makes Rialto a very good bet for audiences aged 10 through 14.
I have to commend Milford for her amazing descriptions, especially when it comes to magic and art. Those were the highlights of the book for me (that and the carousel animals, of course).
Regarding to the audiobook, the narrator has a very pleasant voice. However, it gets quite monotone at times and our main characters have very little variation in tone and manner, which is a shame — especially when we see that the narrator is very much capable of performing with more gusto when it comes to other side characters.
My main impediment to fully immersing myself in this novel was its pacing. Rialto starts slow, intentionally so — the author is trying to build up the magic, inviting us in as if we, too, are quotidians inserted in a reality that doesn’t seem real when compared to our lived experiences. Even when taking this into consideration, the first 25% or so could’ve benefited greatly from a more thorough edit. I’d have struggled to bear with it if I wasn’t listening to it and, thinking back to my younger self, I probably would’ve just given it up in order to read something else.
Even though I didn’t particularly enjoy the therapy session being portrayed in full, I also think this novel does a great job at normalising mental illness and its treatment, portraying a very supportive family and environment — speaking from my own personal experience, reading something like this as a teen maybe would’ve helped me accept the therapeutic process earlier on in my life. The way the evolving relationship between the sisters is portrayed is also very tender, and I quite like how the author handles the topic of growing up in the narrative. All the teen-aged characters are portrayed with a lot of respect and relatability, which makes Rialto a very good bet for audiences aged 10 through 14.
I have to commend Milford for her amazing descriptions, especially when it comes to magic and art. Those were the highlights of the book for me (that and the carousel animals, of course).
Regarding to the audiobook, the narrator has a very pleasant voice. However, it gets quite monotone at times and our main characters have very little variation in tone and manner, which is a shame — especially when we see that the narrator is very much capable of performing with more gusto when it comes to other side characters.
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