We return to the realm of Fantasy Kingdom, this time with a new adventure regarding the Witches. Spoilers ahead.
The royal family is once again up against a new threat, this time it's the Witch of Flames, Pirea, who is threatening Yara's rainforest kingdom as she keeps trying to burn it down. The princesses and their friends will have to work to together and think cleverly in order to come up with a solution, because brute force doesn't work against this enemy.
Overall this was a good installment in the series, I had a blast reading it. The stakes were high with not one but eventually two kingdoms being under siege by Pirea and her magic forces, and I really liked how most of the characters got a focus in this book.
I complained in my review of the last installment that I thought the cast was becoming a bit too big for it's own good, but here this has been fixed. Most characters have an actual part to play in the story and there are never too many characters together at once to the point it becomes confusing who is who. This book does have a pretty large cast of side-characters, but they're used far more effectively here than in the last book.
Another think I like better than the previous installment is that the characters don't feel as stupid in this book. Last book there was an issue of our heroes at times acting a bit stupid by making dumb decisions. Thankfully this was rectified in this book. I can only really fault Yara for hesitating to kill Pirea once she has her where she wants the Witch, but again I can see this being a fleeting moment of mercy, it's not like she's actively being pacifistic to the point of stupidity. And then Pirea gets the upper hand anyways, so Yara didn't have much time when she had Pirea at her mercy, anyways.
It also works because, at least in this book, brute force just doesn't really work against the enemy. Pirea is super powerful (water being her only weakness) and her forces are strong and at some points too much for our heroes to handle, so the only way they have to think more cleverly to defeat the enemy. Which is nice, I especially liked how Diamante managed to think up a solution for the serpent-dragon enemies by plugging the caves through which they travel. An idea that perhaps sounds a little silly in concept, but it actually works. So that was neat to see. I also liked how Pirea was shown to have a more human side in the end, even if it was super briefly. She's not just a bland villain.
I also just gotta say that in these books I have absolutely fallen in love with Diamante's cave kingdom as a location, based on the illustrations and descriptions. It's just such a cool concept to have an entire underground kingdom and whenever we travel to this location I just get super excited because it's executed so well. If we were to spend an entire book down there I wouldn't be complaining. The other locations are cool as well, don't get me wrong, but Diamante's kingdom is the place to be for me.
Overall a very strong installment in the series! Can't wait to get to the next one.
Rating: 4/5
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