Wanted by Betsy Schow
In the sequel to Spelled, can Robin Hood's daughter, Rexi, stop the Wicked Witch from finding Excalibur?
Fairy-Tale Survival Rule No. 52:
No matter how difficult the obstacles or all-powerful the evil villain, one can rest assured that the hero of the story never dies. The sidekicks though...they should be worried. Rexi Hood is proud to be an outlaw. After all, she's the daughter of the infamous Robin Hood. But sidekick? Accomplice? Sorry, that wasn't in her story description. Yeah, she and Princess Dorthea of Emerald have been inseparable since they teamed up to fight the wickedest witch. But if Rexi doesn't figure out how to break the curse that binds them, forget being overshadowed by the spirited princess, Rexi's going to become a Forgotten, wiped from the pages of Story and reduced to a puddle of ink.
Not happening. No way in Spell.
Rexi's plan? Steal the sword Excalibur and use its magic to write her own tale. But Gwenevere has opened a new Academy of Villains in Camelot and danger lurks behind every plot twist. And you know how it goes in Story: keep your friends close and your enemies closer...
I wanted to like this book because I thought the first one was pretty good even if I wasn't overly fond of the character Rexi from Spelled who is now the main focus in Wanted. A good chunk of the book is so slow I kept putting it down, grabbing some coffee to perk up, then hit it again because I was determined to see it through. Thankfully towards the end it finally got good enough it kept my attention but it would've been nice if a larger percentage of the book was that way. One of the biggest problems is Rexi herself who you just want to slap and tell her to get over herself already and stop being such a self-centered, spoiled, brat. But since Schow wrote her like that in order to create this story I guess we wouldn't have a book, or at least this one, if she didn't act like a toddler but that might've been a good thing.
The first book was so good it set the bar pretty high and this definitely fell short which is probably why it was harder to get through and more disappointing it wasn't better. Schow has already shown us what she's capable of writing so I know this could've been better especially since the promise of that greatness was right there at her fingertips. Everyone has an off day I guess...
*synopsis and picture from amazon.com