Title: The fantastical exploits of Gwendolyn Gray.
Author: BA Williamson.
Format: E-ARC (Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley).
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press.
Page count: 271.
Release day: April 28th 2020.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy.
Rating: 2 stars.
*This is book 2 in the series!*
What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)
Heroes never return from adventure unchanged, and Gwendolyn Gray knows this better than anyone. She faces a new darkness within herself with no help or comfort from her friends Sparrow and Starling. On top of that, the City is only getting worse. When the Faceless Gentlemen return to menace her again, Gwendolyn escapes to the lands of the Fae. But even the dreamlike Faeoria holds dangers that even she could never have imagined. Gwendolyn must learn to master her magic and manage her internal struggles if she ever hopes to defeat the villainous forces that control the City, find Sparrow and Starling, and save the people she loves.
Rating:
Characters: 5/10
Atmosphere: 4/10
Writing: 5/10
Plot: 4/10
Intrigue: 3/10
Logic: 5/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
Average: 4.1 (which means 2 stars!)
My thoughts:
I read book one, The marvellous adventures of Gwendolyn Gray, last year and quite enjoyed it. It was a fun and quick read. So when the publisher asked me if I would liked to read the sequel I of course said yes!
But unfortunately I was a bit disappointed in this one.. It felt a bit all over the place and I feel like there were too many storylines going on so they all felt a bit ‘underdeveloped’.
I book one Gwendolyn saves her city from something she imagined (if I remember correctly), and while saving this city she makes to friends, Starling and Sparrow.
In this book we went to a different world, we did that in book one as well, but from there we travelled to other worlds. Then Gwendolyn has to learn magic, gets kidnapped, has to save places again. There was just a bit too much. I really did not understand this magic, it was barely explained, and when we start to learn about it, this part is already over again..
I did really like that Sparrow and starling came back in this book, made it more related to the first book!
Just because the storylines were so rushed and because of thar confusing. I was just not very compelled to picking the book back up after I put it down.
Something I mentioned in my review for book one is that I had a hard time ‘classifying’ this book. I just have no idea if this book is Middle Grade or Young Adult. It feels a bit too childish for Young Adult, but some parts just don’t feel like Middle Grade. So I guess this is really an ‘in-between’ book.