What a fun book! Jessica Day George really knows how to hook the reader and keep them racing through the pages of her novels. Having not read the first book of this series, Tuesdays at the Castle, I worried about being a bit lost but George fills in enough details from the previous book that it wasn’t difficult to pick up the story in book two, Wednesdays in the Tower. The characters are great and diverse–from the eccentric foreign prince, the unexpected and possibly evil wizard, to the young but mature and incredibly talented princess.

Toward the end things became a bit intense and the ending will have the reader extremely anxious to jump into the next book. I read this book to screen it for my eight-year-old and even with the final chapters being suspenseful, I feel children this age can handle it and will love the story. This is a unique tale that the whole family can enjoy.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  Several (16) brief incidents including character joking about a lance shocking little girls; character jokingly gives verbal threat; reference to something that could kill; character could’ve potentially died; secondhand report of character getting shocked by armor; reference to someone trying to have characters killed; story of fantasy animals eating other animals and their riders; reference to war; secondhand reports of people dying; story of people attacked and fantasy animals killed; character smashes into a wall receiving minor injuries; character falls down and receives a small cut; characters fall and are barely hurt; fantasy animal damages rooms.

Sex/Nudity:  Few (3) brief incidents including reference to a boy who is a flirt; secondhand report of flirting; characters walking arm in arm.

Mature Subject Matter:

Reference to war.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None