February 27, 2024 by Bloomsbury Children's Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Olivia Hayes lives in the magical realm of Arden, to which Claire and Sophie traveled in The Unicorn Quest books. She lives with her Nan, who is a Tiller and runs a magical apothecary. Olivia tries to help, but since she has no magic and is often distracted, she sometimes makes rather large mistakes, like accidentally turning the mayor into a giant mushroom! She's surprised to find that she's been invited to a new magical academy in the city of Lumin, but she only has three days to get there. She hopes that this would give her the opportunity to finally find some shred of magic, but despairs of getting Nan's permission, or a way of traveling to the city. When her sister Laurel returns from her training with the news that she has been hired to be a healer in Lumin and has asked to bring Olivia as her assistant, Oliva sees a way to attend the school. Unfortunately, the Dandiloon (hot air balloon contraption) that the girls use for the voyage runs into bad weather when Olivia is reading rather than paying attention, and crashes. The Ambrosia potion that Laurel is taking to the school gets lost, and Olivia sets out to find it while Laurel repairs their vessel. Surprisingly, Olivia comes across a unicorn! She hopes to take it back to Laurel's school, but when she tries to capture it by holding on to its horn, she falls into a sinkhole. Luckily, Laurel hears her and rescues her, and Olivia barely makes it to her school in time. She ends up being given Spinner training, which is odd given her Tiller family connections, but that is where her talents seem to lie. She makes some good friends, like Tourmaline, who is learning about Gemming and is useful to consult about history, as well as different kinds of magic. There is someone who is trapping unicorns, and the school is impacted by the problems that this causes. At some point, Olivia strongly suspects that Laurel is the culprit, and she is even arrested. Things are more complicated than that, and Olivia finds herself playing a larger role than she ever imagined in the problems with the unicorns. One of the students has come from another world, and when things become especially dire, Olivia finds herself embarking on a new adventure that will certainly take at least one more book to complete.
Strengths: Olivia is an appealing character because she, like my middle grade readers, doesn't have any magic. This gets her into all kinds of trouble, but her persistence in getting to Lumin City and attending the school despite her Nan's objections will definitely be of interest to middle grade readers who secretly believe that they, too, have hidden magic. It's a very exclusive school, operating for a very short time, and intricately involved in the larger political schemes being affected by the unicorns, putting Olivia and her friends in a good position to save their universe from destruction. Having Laurel supposedly involved in illicit activity is intriguing, and the twist that this takes is quite good. Fans of The Unicorn Quest will be eager to get their hands on this book!
Weaknesses: I expected that one of the characters, who is revealed at the end as coming from New York City, would have been from The Unicorn Quest series, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I'm a little unsure if this book takes place after that series or before it. Unicorns seem to be as rare in Olivia's world, so maybe it takes place around the same time? I also didn't follow the thread of the war between the guilds and how this impacted the unicorns, although it did seem to be something I remembered from the other books.
What I really think: This had a lot of delightful magic, and some very solid academy details about classes, different kinds of magic, and even some potions, so this will be very popular with young readers who harbor a secret desire to have their own unicorn. I just sort of wished that the story had been happier, and not the unicorn fantasy/dystopia it ended up being, because I read it on a very gray, cold day. Have even our fantasy adventure books become this dire?
Weaknesses: I expected that one of the characters, who is revealed at the end as coming from New York City, would have been from The Unicorn Quest series, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I'm a little unsure if this book takes place after that series or before it. Unicorns seem to be as rare in Olivia's world, so maybe it takes place around the same time? I also didn't follow the thread of the war between the guilds and how this impacted the unicorns, although it did seem to be something I remembered from the other books.
What I really think: This had a lot of delightful magic, and some very solid academy details about classes, different kinds of magic, and even some potions, so this will be very popular with young readers who harbor a secret desire to have their own unicorn. I just sort of wished that the story had been happier, and not the unicorn fantasy/dystopia it ended up being, because I read it on a very gray, cold day. Have even our fantasy adventure books become this dire?
No comments:
Post a Comment