fantasy

Book Review: The Ring of Five

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The Ring of Five by Eoin McNamee

The Ring of Five
by Eoin McNamee

3 out of 5 stars

Danny ends up at Wilsons Academy, a school for spies in another Lower World. They work to stop an army of Cherbs from invading the Upper World of humans. Danny makes friends among the spy cadets of the academy. Les is a thief with wings. Dixie can teleport anywhere she can see her way through. And Vandra has special healing powers. Together they learn all the skills they need to spy on the evil Ring of Five who control the Cherb army, but the most essential skill for any spy is the art of betrayal.

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Book Review: The School for Good and Evil

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The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)
by Soman Chainani (Goodreads Author),Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator)

3 out of 5 stars

Sophie and Agatha are kidnapped and taken to the School for Good and Evil where villains and princesses are trained to follow their own fairy tales. Beautiful Sophie is put in the school for evil to train as a witch, and brooding Agatha is placed in the school for good to become a princess. At first, the girls think they must have been mistakenly placed in the wrong schools, but they gradually realize that the magic can see into their innermost hearts. The girls refuse to conform to the school’s training, insisting that good and evil can be friends, but are they right? Can Sophie and Agatha continue to be friends when everything in the fairy tale world is pushing them apart?

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Book Review: DragonLight

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DragonLight by Donita K. Paul

DragonLight (DragonKeeper Chronicles, #5)
by Donita K. Paul

Kale and Bardon are excited to join their friends Regidor and Gilda on a quest to search for the lost meech dragon colony in the North. But they are dismayed to hear reports of a religious faction perverting the truth of God and forcing people to adhere to rigid rules, stealing their property, and infiltrating the government. When they are attacked by small black dragons, they know something deeper is happening, and an old legend might be awakening. As they continue to search for the meech dragon colony, they hope to find answers to these mysteries that will help to defeat their enemies.

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Book Review: Games Wizards Play

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Games Wizards Play by Diane Duane

Games Wizards Play (Young Wizards, #10)
by Diane Duane 

4 out of 5 stars

Kit and Nita are invited to be mentors to a young wizard presenting a new spell design at the Wizards Invitational Competition. But their mentee, Penn, is a flamboyant jerk and they find it difficult to be patient with him.
Dairine is mentoring a shy Indian wizard, Mehrnaz, who has a brilliant design for a spell to stop earthquakes, but Mehrnaz has very low self-esteem due to her overbearing family. Dairine encourages her to have self-confidence, but Dairine is distracted with her own problems trying to locate her missing friend, Roshaun.

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Book Review: Tales Before Narnia

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Tales Before Narnia by Douglas A. Anderson

Tales Before Narnia: The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction
by Douglas A. Anderson (Editor)

4 out of 5 stars

This collection of short stories and poems includes works that influenced C.S. Lewis or were direct forerunners of some of his ideas. The list includes G.K.Chesterton, George Macdonald, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Grahame, and Edith Nesbit. There are also works from some of Lewis’s fellow Inklings, friends and acquaintances, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Roger Lancelyn Green, and William Lindsay Gresham.

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Book Review: Midnight for Charlie Bone

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Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

Midnight for Charlie Bone (The Children of the Red King, #1)
by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie discovers that he has a magical ability to hear voices from people in pictures and photographs. His evil aunts are delighted, because now he can attend the prestigious Bloors Academy. But Charlie is not sure his new school is a nice place. He meets some good friends, but there are many mysteries at Bloors Academy, not all of them pleasant.

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Book Review: Reignited

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Reignited by Colleen Houck

Reignited (Reawakened, #0.5)
by Colleen Houck

The Egyptian gods have many rules that bind their powers, but the most important one is that none of the gods are allowed to marry each other, because any resulting child would drain the magic from the cosmos. And yet, Isis and Osiris fall in love with such a passion that they are willing to rewrite the stars to create a way to be together. Seth, the evil god of chaos, desires Isis for himself, and as he gradually gains more power, he tests his ability to unmake even a god.

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Book Review: Frogkisser

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Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

Frogkisser!
by Garth Nix (Goodreads Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars

Princess Anya goes on a quest to de-transform her sister’s suitor after he was transformed into a frog by an evil sorcerer. She must gather ingredients to make a magical lip balm that simulates true love’s kiss to undo evil spells. Along the way, she meets other transformees who beg her to change them back to their proper forms. Traveling in the company of a royal dog and a mischievous thief transformed into a newt, Anya encounters giants, good wizards, witches, magic carpets, and a host of other odd characters.

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Book Review: Silver on the Tree

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Silver On The Tree by Susan Cooper

Silver On The Tree (Dark is Rising #5)
by Susan Cooper

In this final book of the Dark is Rising series, Will and Bran team up with the siblings, Jane, Simon, and Barney to stop the rising of the Dark. Merriman is guiding and advising them, but he can’t foresee all the tricks and devilry of the Dark. Bran must recover the legendry crystal sword from the lost land, and use the sword to cut the silver mistletoe from the tree at the very moment of its flowering.

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Book Review: The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen

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The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander

The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen
by  Lloyd Alexander

Prince Jen goes on a quest to the far north to find a legendary kingdom where the laws are fair and the people happy. He is charged with six wonderful gifts to take to the ruler of the northern kingdom. But along the way, he is delayed by bandits and loses his entourage and finds himself stranded with only one servant to help him. Prince Jen must continue his journey, befriending unlikely misfits along the way – an escaped slave girl who plays the flute beautifully, a mad robber with his own moral code, and a mysterious old man who appears and disappears at whim.

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