Here's a book I grabbed off the shelves when I really only came for Big Swiss. Every time I'm in a book store, I look for the books I want a copy of that I don't have yet -- books by Kingfisher, the Emily Wilde series, Foz Meadows. I'll get them all one of these days, but that might end up being online shopping. These aren't well-stocked authors apparently.
I read the author's note before getting into it, and found out it's meant to be a children's book. Strange that she published under Kingfisher when she's got entire adult series under the same name. I worried that a children's book meant the wittiness I love about Kingfisher would be somehow not there, but I worried for nothing, it was there.
I'd also hoped that maybe just maybe the setting was the same as in the Paladin/Clockwork series... but it wasn't. The wizards are suspiciously like miracle workers, and the city-states are suspiciously like those in Paladin. Even the Duchess seemed suspiciously like the Dowager (who's only really mentioned by name, and with a lot of distance from the characters in Paladin, so who knows what she's really like in proximity).
Mona was a character I could like. Honestly all the main characters in Kingfisher's books are relatable and likeable, the only exception being Swordheart (and who knows if the audiobook had a great deal to do with how unlikeable they were, but I suspect a tremendous deal). For how consistently I like her main characters, there's got to be something about them all that are kind of same-ish. Could it be a bad thing craft-wise? For instance, Mona is always very aware of her limitations, and she has zero delusions about how heroic and grand she could actually be. No delusions for a fourteen-year-old seems almost unrealistic, actually. Another fantasy with teenage heroes would always take themselves entirely seriously. And why not? As ambitious as teenage heroes are, their ambitions work out, the world takes them seriously, they have no reason to believe they can't do anything. In that sense, Mona is ridiculously realistic about her scope as a singular young person. At the end where she's angry about being forced to be a hero because the adults responsible didn't do anything to stop evil, there's something so mature about that that I don't think real teenagers are. Certainly as a teenager, everything felt like my fault or my responsibility, even when they really weren't. It was strange to read Mona reiterating how fourteen she is and how limited she is by being fourteen, but I didn't hate it. Even if it's not realistic.
While in the middle of reading, when I still had the idea that maybe if I didn't enjoy it every last bit I could return it to the bookstore, I was reading while eating (big mistake) and got food on it. And oops I guess I can't return it (the terms stipulate that it must be pristine). I think I'd still keep it, even though I don't know if I liked it enough to ever reread it. I'm just an uncritical Kingfisher fan, maybe any book by her is worth keeping.