Good, not great

Could have been better, wasn't bad, some really great ideas but just a little dull and slow in places.

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Brilliantly silly

This is very Pratchett esq in the best way. You get intrigue, character, action and bread. A great way to imagine a wizarding world where creativity and determination is key. Definitely worth a listen.

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Cookie monster(s)

An enjoyable read, Mona is a compelling down to earth character, although the secondary characters are somewhat on the edge of stereotypes.
The story is predictable but well written and entertaining. Sometimes there were anachronism that pulled me out of the story a bit-especially the term cookie. But that is my British sensibilities.
The narrator had a good range of voices, but wasn’t convincing as a 14 year old girl, that was the main let down for me.

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Engaging adventure for all ages!

This is the first T. Kingfisher book I have read/listened to. I really like her writing style. It's fast and witty. Perfect for a middle grade book imo. I loved the creative ways the Mona's magic could be used and she was along with the rest of the cast great. The narrator's performance was top notch too. Maybe I was a bit "too old" to be mesmerized by the story but I had a great time listening to it and am definetly gonna check out the rest of her books.

Bob ftw!

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Narration was interesting....

Nice story, which kept me engaged. I did spend the first third trying to work out what accent the narrator had. It was very distracting. Her voice was vaguely annoying, but I stuck with it because I liked the story.

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1 person found this helpful

Charmingly Delightful

Low pressure fiction makes for a nice comfort read. Well written & well read by the performer

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Engaging characters, bit slow to get going

This isn’t a deep book - it’s heroine is 14, and it’s told entirely from her perspective, but she’s an engaging young thing who ends up having to deal with far, far more than you should at that, or any, age. It takes a while to get going and some of the events that transpire are a tad obvious, and some I thought obvious didn’t happen, so what do I know?! The latter part did pick up pace and it then rattled along to a rather good conclusion.

However, I was surprised to hear it read in UK English, by an American narrator. The narration, and Mona, are read in a rather cut-glass RP (received pronunciation) that, to be fair, the narrator holds well, but to my UK-English ears it sounded a bit carefully over-annunciated. Others characters came from all over, a bit of Irish, a bit of Australian, a bit of generic-rustic-yokel (think Sam Gamgee in the LotR films), and sometimes it was all a bit of a blend. I didn’t get why Mona, raised from a young age by her aunt and uncle, spoke so differently to them, and far more like the ruling classes. Mona is a baker, an ordinary girl, and no one else from her family, or the others we meet that she knows, speak that way. I thought I’ d get used to it, but I didn’t, and it nagged at me all the way through.

I’m not a young adult, or even an older child, so I’m not the target audience here, and I’m not criticising the story - it’s good, the characters are utterly engaging, the lesson that grown ups can’t always fix things is well learnt, there’s a battle at the end that is rather bloodless (lots of whacking and hitting), and,

SPOILER

just in case these things bother you,

someone you get to know as the book progresses dies. And it’s sadly done.

But the accents annoyed me. I mean, American author, American narrator - why go England-English?

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3 people found this helpful

Loved it

Really good performance rof a really good book. I binge listened it. Definitely recommend

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Great cozy fantasy

Engaging characters and well read. Charming and funny, it keeps you reading. Would recommend it.

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1 person found this helpful

Great fun

Don’t expect literary brilliance but a great story, with humour and it rips along. A diverting listen

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