Enjoyable story

The book wasn't what we expected (I thought a self-harming father was a bit strong for a childrens book), but we ended up really enjoying this story. Flora and her family grow on you, and the story is never predictable.
Hoping to see the sequel on Audible soon.

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1 person found this helpful

Delightful and dark around the edges

I thought this was a very charming tale set in an interesting and unique new world. The story is told in a light-hearted and humorous way, but Flora is dealing with way too much responsibility for even a resourceful 14 year old to cope with. This darkness, fear, and frustration adds depth to the characters and gives what might have been just a frothy fantasy some teeth.

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Banished Blue Butlers and Other Oddities

When your house has 11,000 rooms it seems utterly unfair that you are sleeping in a broom closet. Even a very nice, cozy broom closet. However, with the butler banished Flora's house is not in the best of shape. The potty disappears sometimes, the front door won't open, and the elevator once kidnapped her father for a week. Nevertheless, when she is running late to return a library book she dares the elevator. The elevator kidnapps her too and takes her to the library where she meets the banished butler. Before she knows it she is forging signatures, planning daring rescues, and sneaking into abandoned houses to steal words of power. She has a limited amount of time to rescue herself and her butler all before her mother gets home. And in the middle of all of this she has to get a dress made and invitations sent out for her birtday party!
I really really wish the second installment, Flora's Dare, had been put out on audio!

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3 people found this helpful

Surprising and fun

I expected a book about a girl living in a big magical house with magical servants, wandering through charmed rooms - but the story is much more complicated, interesting and unique than that. The story has dark streaks (alcoholic/neglectful parents, addiction and hunger)embedded in a lush story that frequently brought forth the idea of jungle for me. There is, of course, magic of the conventional, spell-casting kind, but the story itself is a sort of magic. The only reason this gets 4 instead of 5 stars is that it all ties together a bit tidily for me - but it is, after all, a children's book.

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7 people found this helpful

Looks like I have some books to order

I listened to 'Prophecies, Libels, and Dreams' recently and got hooked into the world of Califa. Unfortunately Audible doesn't have the second or third book in the Flora Segunda series so I'm going to order the physical copies. Honestly, this first book could easily be a stand-alone as it closes very well and leaves you feeling satisfied with the ending.

My only complaint is that there seems to be a production issue where a chapter will end and then without a seconds pause it will begin the next chapter. It's a bit jarring and annoying but other than that I enjoyed this book a lot.

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1 person found this helpful

I wanted to like it...

Any additional comments?

I liked the idea of the story, but it was rather slow and the world building was lacking for a fantasy story. My big problem, though, was the reader. Her narrative voice was too

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Whimsy with soul

It's a fantasy YA novel different from any other I've read.
Despite its delightful whimsy, it deals with some very harsh issues.
Flora Secunda is the daughter of a great general (her mother )who is a workaholic and absent most of the time, and a war hero (her father) so debilitated by his prisoner of war internment he has retreated into drinking and madness. The last of a crumbling, great lineage and certainly not the best, 14 year old Flora has been left trying to maintain the family and take on the responsibilities of the adults who aren't there for her.
Obviously, she gets into trouble. And what wonderful trouble it is. Flora has ideas of her own about what she wants for her life. She doesn't want to be a solider like all the family before her, she wants magic and adventure like her ranger heroine Minimo.
Flora, her best friend (fashionably dressed partner in crime) Udo, and her red dog manage to find all the magic and adventure they can handle.

Absolutely recommended for any age.

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2 people found this helpful

Please find another narrator

I have read this book before and love it. The this particular narrator ruins the experience all together. I could not even listen to it because her Narration was so off putting to me. The voices are ridiculously exaggerated and not fitting to the characters or description of their tone. It’s actually very distracting from the story itself. This book is for young adults, but even considering that, the narration is much too juvenile- taking away from the experience of such a fun read.

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Really Weird

So I should preface this with saying that I really enjoyed the story, which is why I gave it a pretty good review. I will say though, that if I was the editor in charge of this book, I would not have stood for the way it was written. It's so weird and choppy and feels unnatural, but the most uncomfortable part is the word choice. It does the weird thing some kids' books do and has a somewhat strange combination of really simple vocab and pretty complicated vocab, but it also just... has a lot of really unconventional choices. I suppose I would feel less weird about it if I was reading it as an kid, since many of the words it does choose are the more "fun" sort, but I feel like I would still find it rather forced.

I really wish the narrator could pronounce Spanish, considering how much there is in this book. It hurt every time she mispronounced "tamale" and made what I assume to be "Papi" sound like "Poppy." The whole Spanish language and partial culture thing made the story way more interesting to me, though being from the Americas, the combination of this and all the blonde-haired blue-eyed characters was jarring. It was also really good as far as "girl power" is concerned, since not only is there a female main character, there seems to be not even a vestige of sexism in the entire story. Even words like "dainty" and wanting to be well-dressed and clean does not have the sexed stigma it has in our society. That was quite refreshing.

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