Review: Awesome Sequel!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2013
Victoria Simcox has outdone herself with her sophomore novel, The Shard. The second book in her series was exhilarating and as enchanting as the first book. This book is written for middle graders, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and believe it is fun for all ages. I love the world and characters that the author created, but what I love most is how perfect this book is for middle grade kids. My daughter adores it! It’s so wonderful and gives me such peace of mind to know she isn’t reading anything too mature and that the content is 100% suitable for her age. Not only did my kiddo love it, but she has read it twice now, and I’m still seeing her carrying it around everywhere she goes. This does a mother’s heart good! Thank you so much for helping to make readers out of today’s tweens and teens, Victoria! Because of my daughter's devotion to this story, I’m going to turn this review over to her so you can get a real middle grader’s opinion:I love when I am able to read and finish a book within hours of starting it. This is how it was with The Shard. I am in love with this book! There are no words good enough to describe it, but I’ll do my very best.In the second installment of this lovely series, the two main characters, Kristina and Werrien, meet again in the magical land of Bernovem. Soon after, Kristina begins to feel odd and sick… . Something isn’t right, and no one knows what it could be. Kristina keeps seeing an ugly, old hag in the mirror when she looks at her own reflection, and, at one very interesting scene in the book, she sees the hag in the water and almost drowns. She soon learns that the old hag is trying to possess her soul and will not stop until she has.When I read The Warble (the first book by Victoria Simcox) I was intrigued by the storyline and knew that I wanted to read the second one soon. At the end of The  Warble, I was hoping that, in the next book, there would be a bit of romance… and I was very pleased that there was! Don’t worry - the romance is very innocent and very age-appropriate. Victoria Simcox has written yet another wonderful book, and I have fallen in love with her work all over again. There were so many pages that I marked because of a certain scene or a quote. I must have three dozen flags sticking out of the book right now.I wish I could give The Shard ten stars! I adored it that much! I think one of the reasons is because the characters were a little older in this one, and I could really relate to them.I loved this book so much that the day after I read it the first time, I read it all over again! I still read some of it every day. There were many parts in the book that had me giddy with excitement! There is so much more I could say about this amazing story, but I don’t want to give too much away!The Shard feels more intense and even more exciting than The Warble (if that’s possible), which is a big part of why I loved it so much. I needed more of these wonderful characters and this incredible book, and I was not disappointed in the least. The ending included a major cliffhanger, and I will be anxiously awaiting the third installment of this wonderful series.