Reviews by Tag: magic

Staff Review

Three Hands for Scorpio

By Andre Norton
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Anne G
Feb 21, 2020

     Three Hands for Scorpio is the last adult book for young adults of Lifetime Grand Master of Fantasy, Andre Norton, who passed away on March 17, 2005 after a long and extremely fruitful career.  Her magically detailed world-building skills, upright, against-all-odds characters, and fast pace will be sorely missed.  Tor rushed a copy of this book of women-of-steel into print, so that the 93-year-old author could see it before she died.  It is the last manuscript she penned alone, and has an action-packed storyline.  

Staff Review

Trickster's Choice

By Tamora Pierce
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Anne G
Dec 11, 2019

     I previously read Trickster's Choice with courageous teenage girls a little over a decade ago, and I wanted to revisit it.  I had forgotten just how easy it is to get drawn into Aly’s adventures which cause her to become a slave as a girl, and I am so glad to have revisited because it was similar to visiting with an old friend.  This is the story of Alianne Cooper, who wants to be a girl spy, and is the daughter of Spymaster Cooper and the famous Lioness of Tortall and champion of the throne.  Certainly Tamora Pier

Teen Review

Haunting the Deep

By Adriana Mather

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jul 31, 2018

After surviving one curse, Samantha Mather never imagined having to combat another. She keeps having vivid dreams of being a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic. Meanwhile, strange artifacts have been appearing around town, as well as visions of spirits who went down with the ship. Even stranger, her close friends have begun acting strangely, and the spring ball has been suspiciously themed after the Titanic.

Teen Review

Piper

By Jay Asher

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 17, 2018

Everyone knows the story of the pied piper right? How a mysterious man came into town and lured away all the rats by playing his pipe. But the townspeople refused to pay him, so he stole away all the children that night and they were never seen again. Right? But this book tells a different story. One you never expected.

Staff Review

Spellbook of the Lost and Found

By Moira Fowley-Doyle
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
May 15, 2018

If you don't close your mouth, a fly will fly in, and then you'll have to swallow a spider to catch the fly, and then a cat to catch the spider, and then a dog to catch the cat, and then a goat to catch the dog, and then a cow to catch the goat, and then a horse to catch the cow, and then a lost soul to catch the horse.

Enchanting. Atmospheric. Mysterious. (a lost soul to catch the horse) Lush. Gritty. Suspenseful. There are so many good words I can think of to describe the beguiling collection of words that is this book. Dark. Mature. Sensual.

Teen Review

The Great Hunt

By Wendy Higgins

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 25, 2017

When a dangerous beast begins to terrorize the kingdom, fear panics the citizens. But soon a proclamation is sent out: kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of the king’s hand in marriage. Princess Aerity understands her duty to the kingdom, but she can not bear to marry a complete stranger, until a mysterious young hunter catches her eye. She can’t deny her attraction to him, or his strange resentment against her. As they both continue to surprise each other, Paxton’s perilous secrets he has so meticulously buried begin to surface.

Teen Review

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

By Jack Thorne

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 23, 2017

Nineteen years after the end of the Harry Potter series, Harry is still struggling to put the past behind him and be a good father to his 3 children as well as work at the ministry of magic. His youngest son, Albus, is struggling too, with the burden of a family legacy he never asked for. But as darkness lurks still in the wake of Lord Voldemort’s destruction, father and son must learn to accept their differences and disappointments to defeat it.

Teen Review

How To Hang A Witch

By Adriana Mather

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
May 18, 2017

Samantha Mather has just moved to Salem, Massachusetts, the site of the infamous witch trials. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, the man responsible for the trials. So she almost immediately becomes the target of a group of girls called the descendants, a new generation of the witches persecuted during the trials. She soon discovers she is at the center of an ancient curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. She must find a way to work with the descendants and an angry ghost to stop a deadly cycle and history from repeating itself.

Teen Review

The Cabinet of Wonders

By Marie Rutkoski

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Apr 10, 2017

Petra’s father has been summoned to Prague by the prince to build the world’s finest astronomical clock. But when he returns home blind with the prince having stolen his eyes, she knows she must steal them back. Along the way, she discovers hidden talents and finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem.

I love books with strong, spunky heroines. And The Cabinet of Wonders has one of the spunkiest heroines out there.There is a charm to her that draws you into her world and keeps you there right beside her as she has adventures through life.

Teen Review

The Storyspinner

By Becky Wallace

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Mar 13, 2017

Johanna lives in a world where nobles plot their way to the throne, willing to do anything to become ruler. They are fighting over the throne of the princess who is supposed to be dead. Nevertheless, there is a quest to find her by a race of people with magical abilities, and they are not the only ones looking for her. Bodies of dead girls are turning up at every corner, and they all look exactly like Johanna.

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