Another installment. Spoilers ahead.
The desert realm is under attack by the evil witch Stridoria and her werewolves, which are looking to destroy the princesses for good. The sisters will have to work together to defeat them.
Overall this is another solid installment, however by now it is starting to suffer a bit from the same traps the first arc fell into: repetition and being formulaic. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good stuff here. I enjoy the mysteries, the characters, seeing the desert realm again, etc.
But each of these books is so formulaic that it's starting to become a bit old. Arc one had a different forumula, but by now, three books into arc two, a real formula is starting to emerge as well. In each book a different witch shows up trying to attack the kingdoms (usually only one kingdom in particular). The princesses and their entourage must team up and think up a plan to stop them. An act of sympathy or kindness ends up moving the witch emotionally and disabling her powers, leaving her in a coma in her normal form. The princesses are happy. Rinse and repeat.
There's mildly different executions to it each time and of course some unique subplots, but overall it's just starting to feel very same-y. At the time of me writing this review I've also read book ten and it also still relies largely on this formula, but at least somewhat turns things upside down. Books seven through nine rely on it heavily and the quality of the books suffers for it a bit. Not that they're bad, again, they're not, but just that they become predictable and feel very similar structure-wise.
I still enjoyed reading this book, but I think that if they want to keep me invested they really should turn the formula on its head a bit and do more unique things per book.
Rating: 3.5/5
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