Description:

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Brooks's magic kingdom of Landover will welcome this title, the first new book in the series since 1996's Witches' Brew. Ben Holiday's daughter, Mistaya, is now 15 and currently suspended from her private girl's school on Earth for scaring a classmate with magic. Her father—at wit's end despite having defeated many more fantastic challenges—decides to teach her responsibility by sending her to the remote royal library, Libiris. Mistaya runs away, but winds up in Libiris anyway, trying to hide in plain sight. There she discovers a suspicious character called His Eminence, a mysterious voice crying for help and a vast evil threatening all of Landover. The lighthearted story, as with the earlier volumes, can be serious without the convoluted grittiness of Brooks's Shannara saga, and there are plenty of treats for returning readers. (Sept.)
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Mistaya Holiday has some problems, and her biggest isn't that she is being expelled from Carrington Women's Preparatory. No, her biggest problem as the hybrid child of Ben Holiday, a human, and Willow, a sylph, is returning to Landover and explaining to them what she intends to do with the rest of her life. Her father's advisers suggest that he send Mistaya to the royal library, Libiris, to help with its reorganization and reopening. Before the king has a chance to offer this suggestion to his daughter, Laphroig, a local baron who resembles a frog, asks for Mistaya's hand in marriage. When she gets wind of the proposal, she flees to her maternal grandfather, the River Master, to ask for his protection. He is not happy that his crossbreed granddaughter hasn't been around to see him for over a year, and Mistaya leaves him to strike out on her own. Luckily she has many magical friends, including prism cats, mud puppies, G'home Gnomes, and Throg monkeys to help her on her quest. Brooks's fans have waited years for him to return to the magical kingdom of Landover, and they will enjoy this latest effort.—Joanne Ligamari, Twin Rivers United School District, Sacramento, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.