magic

Book Review: The Revenge of Magic

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 3 Comments

38724516._SY475_The Revenge of Magic is the first book in a new series by James Riley, author of the Story Thieves books. It’s action-packed and highly entertaining.

Fort Fitzgerald and his father are touring the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC when a giant monster bursts from the ground and attacks the city. Fort gets away safely, but his father is not so lucky.

A few months later, Fort is invited to a top-secret school where kids are being trained to wield destructive magic and healing magic against the “old ones.” He’s eager to fight back against the creatures who took his father, but he may not get the chance. Some of his teachers seem to want him to fail, he’s not sure which of his new classmates he can trust, and he keeps hearing a mysterious voice in his head.

I recommend this book to kids who like magic and mystery. Larrabee liked it too–and he also recommends the second book in the series, The Last Dragon.

Book Review: The Dark Lord Clementine

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 6 Comments

ClementineThe Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz is a charming and original fantasy for middle grade readers.

Twelve-year-old Clementine Morcerous is the only child of the Dark Lord Elithor. She lives all alone with her father in Castle Brack and spends her days learning dark magic and tending to the fire-breathing chickens and the poison apple orchard on the silent farm.

Then, her father is cursed by the Witch of the Woods. As he grows weaker, more and more tasks fall to Clementine. She has to keep the castle running all by herself, satisfy the Council of Evil Overlords’ Dastardly Deeds quota, and try to save her father’s life. In the process, though, Clementine makes friends for the first time in her life and starts to question whether she even wants to be a Dark Lord.

This story has many of the elements you’d expect in a fantasy, such as witches, knights, villagers, a Lady of the Lake, and a unicorn. And it has unexpected elements too. My favorite is the Gricken, the Morcerous family grimoire that has been transformed into a chicken and lays spells in the form of eggs.

Larrabee and I both recommend it!

Book Review: Love Sugar Magic

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 11 Comments

29918993._SY475_

Anna Meriano’s Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble is a delightful fantasy full of family, friendship, magic, and baking.

Eleven-year-old Leonora Logroño is the youngest of five sisters. Her family owns a bakery, Amor y Azucár Pandadería, in Rose Hill, Texas.

Leo wants to help with the preparations for Dia de los Muertos, but her family insists that she wait until she’s fifteen. She sneaks into the bakery to see what she’s missing and learns her family’s secret. Her mother and sisters are brujas!

Not wanting to be left out, she smuggles her family’s old recipe book home in her backpack and starts experimenting with her own baking magic. When she tries to solve her best friend’s problem by baking cookies with a love spell, though, she finds that magic sometimes has unintended consequences.

The magical adventure continues in the next book in the series, Love Sugar Magic: A Sprinkle of Spirits, and another one is expected next year. Larrabee and I enjoyed the first two and are looking forward to the third book.