Month: January 2020

Secret Magic by Elena Paige

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: My name is Evie Everyday and I’m a witch. But all I’ve ever wanted is to be a Lamron. That’s the word normal spelled backward. Anyways, now I have the chance to go to a regular school and be a regular girl I’ll do whatever it takes to fit in.

Fitting in is easy. All I have to do is:

Keep my magic a secret Swap my favourite colourful clothes for boring black ones Suck up to scary Mrs Rogers, the school principal Keep my pet cat, bat and corncob from causing any trouble And stay away from Izzy. She’s all colourful and funny and awesome…. and not helpful for fitting in.

But when everything starts to go wrong, there’s only one way to save my new school…use magic. And only one person who can help me…Izzy!

My review: Books about witches are generally something I avoid. But this book is different because it’s for young readers. I knew it would be light-hearted and fun. Besides, I loved the colourful cover.

Young readers will love the mayhem of the main character, Evie. She’s different but doesn’t want to be. She wants what most of us want–to fit in and be accepted. As a result of this strong desire, Evie allows herself to be moulded into someone she’s not, at a significant cost to herself.

There is often a lot happening in this story. The terms weird, fun, and mayhem describe the characters and storyline the best, in my opinion. I believe young readers will enjoy what they read and will want to return to Evie’s life to see what she gets up to next.

I received a review copy of this book, and this is an honest review.

The Princess Rules by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: Princess Florizella may live in a classic fairy-tale world, but she’s no ordinary princess…

These three stories were originally published under the titles Princess Florizella, Princess Florizella and the Wolves and Princess Florizella and the Giant.

My review: I have read several books written by Philippa Gregory. I love them. When I saw this book in the library, I decided to give it a go. All the other books I’ve read were written for adults, and I realised this one is for young readers, but that never stopped me before.

The Princess Rules is three stories. A not-so-ordinary princess and her easy to get along with prince (and closest friend) tend to find trouble everywhere they go. Yes, these stories are fairy tales with a twist. They are charming and enjoyable. You’ll read about dragon, wolves and giants, and adventure at every turn. I found them to be a quick and easy read. Young children, especially young girls, will love them.

New Spring (Book 0) by Robert Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The blurb: For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a Foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, is born an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before the forces of the Shadow have an opportunity to kill him. Moiraine Damodred, a young Accepted soon to be raised to Aes Sedai, and Lan Mandragoran, a soldier fighting in the battle, are set on paths that will bind their lives together. But those paths are filled with complications and dangers, for Moiraine, of the Royal House of Cairhien, whose king has just died, and Lan, considered the uncrowned king of a nation long dead, find their lives threatened by the plots of those seeking power.

My review: My first review for 2020 and I’m happy for it to be the prequel to the Wheel of Time series, which is the series I intend to focus on this year. Of course, there will be other books read as well.

In the early 1990s, I read the first two or three books in the series (I can’t remember). To be honest, all I can remember was the name ‘Rand’ and the fact that I enjoyed them immensely.

New Spring was published long afterwards. Rand doesn’t make an appearance. However, as soon as I read two other names of characters I recognised straight away, I felt connected to the storyline. The more I read, the more that came back to me.

I was reminded that I enjoyed one of the books so much that I kept going back to it and reading sections that spoke to me. It will be interesting to see if I recognise those scenes.

The beginning of the prequel is a war scene, and I hate scenes filled with fighting. A whole chapter was not enjoyable. I had a vague knowledge of what to expect, so I kept reading. Unfortunately, some people might give up there, which would be a shame. The second chapter moved away from the war, and that’s where the story truly started for me. At that point, I was hooked. The book would have been better if it started with chapter two (and chapter one didn’t exist). But that’s just my opinion.

Besides the first chapter, the rest of the book was great. Moiraine and Lan are the two main characters. They are the two names I recognised. I enjoyed finding out where they began and how they came together. I won’t go into the storyline. Let us just say that I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the whole series.