Rating: 4 stars
Cover Rating: 4 stars (I like these covers significantly more than the old ones.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: January 22, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page Count: 416 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads
Sequel to: Inside the Shadow City and The Empress's Tomb
Kiki Strike is headed back to Pokrovia to claim her rightful place as Princess. There are a few complications on the way there though and she winds up kidnapped. Now it's up to the Irregulars to help her out. They will need a concoction that can cure female baldness and a way to get it there. Meanwhile it seems like some of the girls are too busy thinking about their love lives to take things as seriously as they should be. The group needs to get their heads right and stick together if they all plan on making it out of this situation as friends and still alive.
More Kiki Strike books are needed. It's a shame there are only three. These girls, though sometimes obnoxious, are very exciting. Kiki Strike is a phenomenal character and in this story we get to see that she is in fact a teen girl and not always a super hero. I also love her little footnotes in this story. Footnotes always make me love a book a little bit more.
Unfortunately we have to see Ananka being a failure at life again. She just isn't as loyal as the other irregulars. It seems like, while she is a great narrator she is a pretty crap friend. Even if she doesn't follow through with all her evil thoughts, the intentions are there.
The other thing that bugged me is the timeline. (Maybe it's just because I have an ARC, I'll have to check a finished copy and I will revise it if it is different.) Ananka mentions that she has been a member of the Irregulars for six years, but she's only fifteen. She became a member when she was twelve, so the math simply doesn't add up. I was excited when she mentioned that she'd been a member for six years, because that would mean the books were following real life's time passage(just about) since the first book came out in 2006. But...that doesn't seem to be the case, especially with the talk about the incidents in The Empress's Tomb happening a few months prior to this story.
I will neve not fall instantly for a boy named Etienne and I entirely blame Stephanie Perkins. It's a great name and just instantly brings to mind yummy parisans boys. ;)
If you are a Betty fan, this is the book for you. In this novel we get to see what other tricks the master of disguise has up her sleeve. And...it does not disappoint.
Definitely, definitely check out this series. If you haven't read the first two books, you don't even have to in order to dive right into this one. Ananka gives you a brief history on the adventures in the preface so you'll be able to jump right in. Of course, you'll probably want to read the other two first, because they are full of awesome espionage and such.
First Lines:
"There are plenty of impatient people in this world who will pick up a book and thumb past it's preface. You should be proud you're not one of them."
Favorite Line:
"'As usual, you smell like goat.'"
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