Defeating an evil sorceress was supposed to be the hard part. But now that Faye has succeeded in saving Celurdur from the Shadow Queen, she has an entirely different set of challenges to face. To become the first Witch of the West, she must win the favor of the country’s three wizards—North, South, and East. Their trials await Faye in the capitol. If she fails to impress these men, she’ll lose her nomination, and magic will stay strangled by archaic laws.
Alas, things are not off to a great start. Faye crashes into the capitol on the back of a dragon, feeds the wizards illegal enchanted pastries, and fails to leave a good impression. To make matters worse, there are signs that the Shadow Queen is on the move again.
The kingdom’s future depends on Faye proving herself a worthy witch, but time is quickly running out.
I was hoping for a sequel!
The story starts with a short recap of what happened in the first book and a ‘quick history lesson’ on the kingdom of Solum.
The kingdom has four territories: North, South, East, and West. Each territory has different landscapes and resources. North has snowy mountains. South has lush jungles. The East is all desert. The West has farmlands.
The first story took place entirely in Celurdur castle, in the West territory. In this story, Faye is venturing out to the capital city of Retnec, which is located in the center of the kingdom. It took me a while to realize that Retnec is ‘center’ spelled backwards.
It has already been established in the first book that Solem’s magic system is broken. For two thousand years, only the four main Wizards, North, South, East, and West, along with their male apprentices, have been allowed to perform magic. Faye hopes to change all that by becoming the first Witch of the West and opening up magic to everyone. But the other three Wizards don’t like Faye challenging the status quo. They are so set in the old ways that they see any small form of magic as a threat against them. They are afraid that anyone doing magic, especially a girl, will result in another Shadow Queen. This is what happens when fear and paranoia take over: it ruins everything for everyone.
The ghost of Wizard West has stuck around and is tutoring Faye in magic. He still cares about Faye making a good appearance, but he’s mellowed out quite a bit.
The Shadow Queen’s character was more fleshed out with details about her backstory and what motivated her to become the Shadow Queen.
Overall, this was an excellent and intense sequel. I predict that the third book will have Faye traveling off the island of Solum into the unknown.