Chuyển đến nội dung chính

The Queen's Secret (Rose Legacy book 2), by Jessica Day George

The Queen's Secret, by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury, May 14, 2019), continues the story begun in The Rose Legacy.    I just read through my review of that one, and was struck by this bit:

 "Me being me, I actually liked all the part before the action and adventure gets going best--orphans exploring new homes and learning to ride is right up my alley!  But I can generously appreciate that many readers do, in fact, enjoy Plot, and so I don't begrudge the wild ride and the political intrigue.  The magic of horse/human communication is something that works better for a child reader; the larger political framework, with hints of imperialism, is more interesting to the adult reader than the love story between girl and horse, but less emphasized in the story."

And so on to The Queen's Secret, which is much more about what is happening in the kingdom, and less about horse love (though that's still here!), and of course Thea, the main character, now has a home and horse and a family.  She doesn't get much time to enjoy them though.  A sickness has been spreading through the kingdom, with many deaths, and most of the people think the horses are to blame.  The kingdom itself is on the brink of war with the kingdom of Kronenhof.  Thea and her friends Jilly and Finn are doing what they can to help, acting as couriers of medicine and news.  Then Thea's evil mother shows up again, and the plot takes a fast tight spin with a set up for a third book that might well be the most plot filled of the series!

Along with Thea, we, the readers, see more of the history of the kingdom in this second book, and more of what the Queen is up against in her efforts to change things (the King is not part of these plans....).  Much of this book is a story of frustration--the set-back of the sickness, with the reluctance of people accept help from the horse couriers is hard on the characters!  But as the book opens up to a bigger story toward its end, there's the promise that change for the better might actually happen (if, of course, war can be averted and Thea's evil mother doesn't keep up her nefarious meddling, which she almost certainly will be doing!).

My only complaint about this instalment of the series is that me being me, I would have like to have stayed longer in the old manor house in the isolated village that's a library/museum, with chapters about the kids sitting around reading books and looking at stuff instead of just the few lovely pages we got, and I wish that one particular part of the ending had been different (I had to skim bits of the ending because of not want to be pained).

That being said, and my own personal feelings set aside, this is a solid fantasy series with strong girls and women, lovely horses, tangled histories and families, and strong friendships. 

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher


Nhận xét

Đăng nhận xét

Popular Posts

The Wind Eye, by Robert Westall, for Timeslip Tuesday

This week's Timeslip Tuesday book is an older English one-- The Wind Eye , by Robert Westall (upper MG/YA 1976, still in print).  Westall's work ranges from picture books to adult, often exploring how the past hits the present in dark and mysterious ways.  Which is what happens in The Wind Eye.... It begins when a family, comprising a mother and her teenaged son married to a father with two daughters (one a young teen and one a little girl), setting off to the northeast coast of England to stay in the old house the father has just inherited.  They are not a happy family.  The kids get along fine, but the parents are not getting on well at all. And then the past and the present collide.   St. Cuthbert still is a real person to the people of this part of the Northumberland coast, and he becomes so to the kids as well when they find a boat that travels back to his time, taking them out to the island that was his retreat from the world.   Along the way, there's...
Đăng nhận xét
Đọc thêm

Conjured

by Sarah Beth Durst Eve is a girl placed in a special witness protection program that concentrates on people like her who can do magic.  They protect her and other strong magic-weilders from a mysterious serial killer who has been targeting people like them.  However, Eve cannot use her magic without blacking out and having visions of the Magician and the Storyteller, and she has no memory of her life before the witness protection, except for a few flashes here and there.  Often, when she blacks out, she'll lose days, weeks, or even months of her memories.  All she knows is that she is very important to the people trying to catch the serial killer, and they need her to remember her past. The plot developed slowly, but not in a bad way.  It took a while to figure out what was going on, but figuring it out was interesting.  The memory loss was done pretty well, and the characters were consistent and distinct.  Three of the characters - Aiden, Topher, and...
Đăng nhận xét
Đọc thêm

The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away, by Ronald L. Smith (review and interview)

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ronald L. Smith at Kidlitcon back in 2015 (PSA--come to Kidlitcon 2020 in Ann Arbor next March!).  His first middle grade book, Hoodoo, a tale of supernatural horror in the south, had just been published, and I enjoyed it very much ( my review ).  I likewise enjoyed The Mesmerist (2017), about kids fighting evil in 19th century London ( my review ).  I never reviewed Black Panther: the Young Prince (2018)….someday I will.  So in any event, I was very excited about his most recent book, The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away (Clarion Books, February 2019). This is the story of an air force kid, Simon, son of a black mom and a white dad, who's obsessed with aliens.  He's convinced owl-like aliens have arrived, watching and experimenting on humans.  His family has no time or patience for aliens, so Simon is alone with his fears of the Grays, as he calls them.  When something very strange happens on a camping trip with hi...
Đăng nhận xét
Đọc thêm