fantasy

Book Review: Rose Daughter

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Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

Rose Daughter
by Robin McKinley

4 out of 5 stars

When her father loses all his money, Beauty and her sisters move with him to remote Rose Cottage, where Beauty learns to cultivate the beautiful roses in the garden. Her father gets lost in the forest and meets the terrifying Beast, who demands that Beauty must come to stay in his palace in payment for a stolen rose. Beauty thinks that if she could just get the Beast’s rose garden to bloom again, the curse on the palace would be broken and she would be free. But the magic is very cunning and tricksy. Time doesn’t flow in the same manner. The space around the palace is distorted, and even the furniture and decorations in the vast rooms keep changing. Beauty must find her own inner magic before she can defeat the evil sorcery that keeps them both prisoners.

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Book Review: Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy

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Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy (The Children of the Red King, #3)
by Jenny Nimmo

5 out of 5 stars

Charlie encounters an invisible boy, Ollie, and gets his friends to help figure out a way to rescue him from the dark attics of Bloor Academy. Ollie was made invisible by a magic blue boa snake, and imprisoned in the attics by the evil headmaster of the school. Meanwhile, Belle, a mysterious and beautiful new girl, has arrived at school. She seems to be very chummy with Charlie’s mean aunts, so Charlie knows she must be up to something evil. Charlie’s Uncle Paton leaves on a mysterious journey to “stop someone from coming”, but Charlie thinks that perhaps that someone is already among them.

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Book Review: City of Fire

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City of Fire by Laurence Yep

City of Fire (City Trilogy, #1)
by Laurence Yep

2 out of 5 stars

Scirye vows revenge on the dragon that killed her sister, and she is joined in her quest for revenge by Leech, whose friend was also killed, and Bayang, a dragon disguised as a human. This unlikely crew start on the trail to find the evil dragon, Badik, and they end up as stowaways on a plane to Honolulu to track him down and retrieve the priceless artifacts he stole.

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Book Review: Alkrem

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Alkrem by Marta Palazzesi

Alkrem
by Marta Palazzesi, Christopher Turner (translator)

4 out of 5 stars

On his birthday Theo discovers that he was abandoned as a baby by Alkrem wizards trying to save his life from the Archemist government who imprisoned and executed all the Alkrem years before. Theo was adopted by Chimius, who raised him as an Archemist wizard in Paris. The Archemists hate the Alkrem and blame them for the constant war against Negato monsters that roam the countryside. At midnight on his birthday, Theo’s magic animal companion appears on his doorstep, confirming that he is indeed an Alkrem wizard. His animal companion is a ferocious and powerful Fire Fox, a rare animal even among Alkrem. The Archemists get wind of an Alkrem boy in the city, and Chimius is arrested after being wounded by a mysterious wizard named only the Shadow. Now Theo and his Fire Fox travel to the secret city of the Alkrem, hoping to find the only magic item that can cure Chimius’s wounds, the legendary and dangerous Alkrexa, a weapon that also has the power to heal.

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Book Review: A World without Princes

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A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani

A World Without Princes (The School for Good and Evil, #2)
by  Soman Chainani (Goodreads Author), Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator)

3 out of 5 stars

Sophie and Agatha are back at the School for Good and Evil, except now the schools are divided between boys and girls. The girls want to make the boys their slaves, and the boys want to kill Sophie because they blame her for all the changes in the fairy tale world. Agatha wished that she could have Tedros as her prince, and Sophie will do anything to keep them apart. Sophie tries so hard to be good, but will her witchy evil side come out despite Agatha’s friendship?

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Book Review: The Cloud Kingdom

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The Cloud Kingdom by Máire Zepf

The Cloud Kingdom
by Máire Zepf (Goodreads Author)

5 out of 5 stars

This circular collection of fairy stories is set in the framework of a girl who makes a deal with the fairies after they kidnap her cat. If they return her cat, she agrees to read them a story every week. Each story leads into the next, as the characters in the current story begin to tell another story which leads us into the next chapter, similar to the story structure of The Thousand and One Nights.

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Book Review: Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

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Charlie Bone and the Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister (The Children of the Red King, #2)
by Jenny Nimmo

5 out of 5 stars

Henry has been magically thrown forward in time from 1916, and the evil Bloor family want their revenge on him. Charlie Bone and his friends have to find a way to return Henry to his own time, or at least get Henry away from the Bloors.

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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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