By James Riley
4RBooks: 5/6, grades 4-8
Amazon rating: 4.8/5, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 4.46/5
Common Sense Media: not rated or reviewed
373 pages
Synopsis:
May (Cinderella) is hiding in home of her evil stepmother and stepsisters, unable to leave without the evil queen knowing. Jack, now seen as a traitor, is still in the service of the evil queen with his sister Lian. Philip has returned to his kingdom with Penelope where he is bored and longing for more adventures. The three former friends all want to fix things and bring peace and happiness back to the free kingdoms.
May escapes and his soon captured by the evil queen who wants her to follow in her footsteps and rule the kingdom. Philip tries to rescue May, but then must hurry home to save his kingdom from invading giants. Jack goes back in time to learn the details of the queens one weakness and who can help to defeat her.
Everything eventually leads to a final war between the people of the free kingdoms including the Sea King and the ocean creatures at his command against the evil queen, her goblins, and her dragons. Jack can only hope that he gets back in time to defeat the queen before she puts everyone under her control, and to save Philip and May, too.
Parental Guidance: low
Fairy tale violence.
A revisit to one of the scenes from the first book that is a little cringey in
light of the “me too” movement, May being carried by dwarves to be
presented to the Huntsman.
Recommendation:
This third book in the series (Half Upon a Time, Twice Upon a Time) is a fitting and entertaining end to the story. It is action-filled with many twists, turns and surprises. Though you assume from the beginning that it will be a happy ending, even fractured fairy tales, there are unexpected events that keep it interesting until the last page.
Since the characters are on their own separate adventures there isn’t as much of the annoying bickering that inundated the first and second books. The characters have their flaws, but are loyal, creative, and fight for what they believe in.
Most of chapters in the book flip between each character’s story. This might be confusing for children who appreciate more direct and straightforward story arcs. When Jack’s story start jumping back in time, that also becomes a section that could be difficult to follow for some readers.
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