“The Forgotten Sisters” image courtesy goodreads.com

“Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters” by Shannon Hale; pub date Feb 24, 2015; ISBN 9781619634855; Grade Level: 4-8

Going by all the books I’ve previously read by Shannon Hale, including the two previous Princess Academy books (“Princess Academy” and “Palace of Stone“) or her wonderful Books of Bayern series, I was thinking I would really enjoy this book as well, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Ms. Hale has an uncanny ability to create strong, intelligent, and resourceful characters that make you root for their success. Miri, the star of this series, is put to the test of being sent out into a remote swampland to refine members of the royal family to make the girls acceptable for a marriage that would avoid war. (Of course, she’s not supposed to tell them that!) What she finds are three wild girls who hunt and roast rats – and caymen – for food. After arriving Miri starts wondering about the mystery of who exactly Astrid, Felissa, and Sus are while participating in Hale’s believable landscape…and this is the best part of all her books: Ms. Hale shows you, not tells, so that you feel as though you are learning the same swampy survival lessons as Miri.

Rife with action, humor, suspense, [some] romance, and likeable as well as unlikeable characters, this is definitely a great addition to the Princess Academy series that I imagine numerous tween/teen girls and guys (because many of the male characters are great, too) will devour.

Thank you once again, Shannon Hale.