The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Calling on Dragons

Series: Enchanted Forest Chronicles #3

Author: Patricia C. Wrede

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Retelling

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review:

A Princess’s work is never done–not even when she becomes a queen! Princess Cimorene is now Queen Cimorene … and she’s faced with her first queenly crisis — the Enchanted Forest is threatened with complete destruction! Those wizards are back — and they’ve become very smart. (Sort of.) They’ve figured out a way to take over the forest once and for all … and what they have planned isn’t pretty. With a little help from Kazul the dragon king, Morwen the witch, Telemain the magician, two cats, and a blue, flying donkey-rabbit named — what else? — Killer, Cimorene might just be able to stop them. And some people think that being a queen is easy. -summary from Goodreads

I think this book is the best one in the series so far. It had more of an emotional impact than the first two, which I really enjoyed!

This book is told from Morwen’s perspective (which I adored), and it was wonderfully written. Morwen can also understand her cats, which means we got some of their thoughts too.

A quick note: Morwen’s cats’ names! I love them! Their names are Murgatroyd, Fiddlesticks, Miss Eliza Tudor, Scorn, Jasmine, Trouble, Jasper Darlington Higgins IV, Chaos, and Aunt Ophelia. I think all of these names are amazing and now I have to get nine cats and give them these names!

Speaking of the cats, I think they were a wonderful addition to the storyline. I think they added that extra something to the story. They were also able to explore the story in ways the human characters couldn’t. All of the cats had distinctive personalities, which I also liked.

Morwen is a wonderful narrator. She was always an interesting character, but in this book, we get to know her more. She knows a lot about magic and the world in general, so it was nice to come back to this world with a more experienced narrator. Also, she was an adult, which is refreshing for a middle grade book.

Telemain, Kazul, and Cimorene all made their appearances. They were in most of the book, and they all went on an adventure together. Mendenbar was also in the book, but very little of it, which was kind of disappointing. As I said, Kazul was in this book, but she was more temperamental this book, which felt a little out of character.

A fire witch was introduced which continues the world building. I think Wrede did a really good job of building this world over the course of the series and doing it in an intriguing, fun way. The other character introduced in this book was Killer, the bunny turned giant bunny turned giant donkey turned giant blue donkey turned giant blue donkey that hovers over the ground turned giant blue donkey that hovers over the ground with wings. He was also perpetually hungry. He went through a lot and always offered some humor, though at times he was a little irritating.

The ending was really good. There was a bit of a cliff hanger, and you are forced to wonder how the characters are going to fare in the next book. It was an emotional ending, too, which I liked. There was more of a gravity in this ending than the previous endings.

The wizards were also back. The politics that have been developing the past two books came to a head and we get to see the effects of the constant strain between wizards and everybody else.

Calling on Dragons was an adventurous third book to the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, with new and old characters, disagreements coming to a head, and a shocking ending!