Books - Review

A story from the Kingdoms and Empires, telling how Finlay and Honey Bee, together with their friends, overcome their fierce inter-school rivalry and prejudices in order to work together to rescue the children who have been disappearing without trace into the Whispering Kingdom. Can they protect their home town of Spindrift, stop the Whispering Wars and rescue the kids?

Great story, lovely characters, fabulous magic. This is actually Book 2 of a trilogy, it is preceded by The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone, which you should definitely read first. I have read it, but didn't review it here.

Esther returns to her boarding school to discover her two best friends have left and she has a new teacher - rumoured to be an ogre. Life gets even stranger when she discovers there is a new girl in her class working as an undercover spellbinder. And why does the school need additional magical protection anyway? And why does Esther keep have the dream about the turtle-shaped rock?

Great story, probably my favourite of the three.

Oscar is a normal boy from our regular world, but, at his local skatepark, he finds a secret route which takes him to the land of Kingdom and Empires. Once there he meets Imogen, Bronte, Astrid, Esther and Alejandro and finds himself involved in a quest to save the Elven city of Dun-sorey-lo-vay-lo-hey.

More fabulous adventures, magic, danger and amazing creatures. I wasn't quite sure I liked the idea of the real world overlapping with the Kingdoms and Empires though. It jarred a little with me, I think I prefer to think of it as an entirely other place. However, now I have swapped emails with Ms Moriarty herself - I find it hard to criticise!

Eliot lives in the Kingdom of Cello, and is determined to find his father who has been missing for a while, ever since he disappeared during a brutal attack by a purple colour storm. Madelaine and her mum live in Cambridge, England but Madelaine and Elliot find a mysterious crack between their worlds and start exchanging letters.

Great story, must read the other two in the series...