Ennara and the Book of Shadows

In this book, the story of Ennara continues, starting over a year after the first book, with her and Kithe now attending the specialist school to develop their magical abilities – somewhat reminiscent of Harry Potter at Hogwarts. Some of the students and teachers don’t think she should be there and go out of their way to make her feel unwelcome, making it difficult for her to make friends and work to achieve her full potential. She and Kithe live near to the school with her Aunt and her new husband, whilst most other students board at the school. Again like Harry Potter, Ennara has to put up with bullies and tricks being played on her. Sometimes her magic doesn’t go quite as planned and the results are described in a hilarious yet empathetic manner. You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out just what happens!

The story includes a delightful array of magical creatures – good and bad, the return of her other old friend, Gevin, and a new friend, Cinne, who is also talented magically. When evil rears its ugly head, these four need to work together to eliminate it. They have to explore catacombs, fight dragons and all the time work to keep to the way of light and not dark magic in an effort to destroy the evil permeating their world.

Another fantastic fantasy book that older children and the young at heart will delight in. Ennara is a lovely heroine and, working with her three friends, they continue to fight the battle for goodness over evil using their developing magical abilities. Anyone who enjoyed the Harry Potter books is likely to also enjoy this series – I wonder if it, too, will eventually become a film? I hope the next book is published soon so I can find out what happens next as, like the previous book, whilst all prevalent troubles were resolved in this book it was still left on a cliff hanger position to whet your appetite for the next story.

This is a really short novel and a very easy read, aimed at middle-graders. Once again we’re with Ennara Gaern, but this is a year on from her activities in Ennara and the Fallen Druid which I've also reviewed today. I didn't like this novel as well as I did the first one, but it was a decent read, and I have to say that I was laughing out loud at the opening chapters where Ennara accidentally creates a zombie pansy plant. That just really hit my funny bone and I could not stop laughing at this thing and its behavior and Ennara's ineffective struggles to cope with it. That, for me, made the whole novel worthwhile reading.

This novel is even more reminiscent of Harry Potter even than was the first one was: we have under-school tunnels, griffins, maps, and a quest which Ennara and her buddies must complete to save the city of Galdurlan (Gelderland anyone?!). Ennara is in school, and she has a female and two male friends, plus a female version of Draco Malfoy, and snotty teachers with whom to contend. Kithe Fontaine, her best friend since childhood, is back. Gevin Zoric returns - on shore leave from his ship conveniently in time to join them on their adventure. Fortunately the weird "love" interest between these two characters is played down significantly in this novel. Newcomer Cinne Keilmos makes up the foursome. She also has magical powers.

After finding themselves - the heroes of the previous novel - unceremoniously expelled from school, Ennara and Kithe start to realize that the "Fallen Druid" isn't quite as dead and gone as they had initially believed. He's orchestrating a take-over of the Druids who run the school, to use it as a back-door to taking charge of the whole country, and it’s up to the fearless foursome to stop him, which of course they do.

Like I said, I did not find this as entertaining as the first one - hilarious zombie pansy episode aside. That was classic, but after that it fell a little bit flat for me. I have to confess that unlike after reading the first volume, I don’t feel any compulsion to continue with this series now that I've finished this volume. I am, however, sure that it will appeal to the intended age range so I have no problem rating this as a worthy read.