Monday, September 12, 2022

Amari and the Great Game by BB Alston

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I adored Amari and the Night Brother's last year. It was such a fun and fresh entry in middle grade and I couldn't wait for the sequel.

Amari is back and after a year she's gotten more comfortable with her magical status. She's racked up plenty of followers but life as a magician is far from easy. There's still people who consider her and those like her to be Unwanteds. But this year is supposed to be better than the last with friend Jayden coming to camp and Elsie back at her side.

During a meeting of the Supernatural World Congress something goes awry and they end up trapped in a time freeze. Immediately people try to shift the blame to Amari  and other magicians. It doesn't help that around this same time Dylan makes his escape. Amari and friends try to track down who did it in an attempt to shift blame off the magicians.

The League of Magicians want Amari to be their queen but the young teen isn't ready to accept all that power. This triggers a series of challenges called The Great Game as they try to force her to step up and be a leader. It's a battle to the death with Amari against Dylan. Not only is she struggling to control her powers but she's struggling still with Dylan's betrayal from the summer prior. There's no way he can be completely bad. And there's Amari's struggle to stay good despite so many obstacles being thrown at her.

This one is a little more back to business than book 1. Amari is already pretty familiar with the magic world even though there's floors of the bureau she's still discovering. And even though she's not 100% sure of herself she has people to help her along the way. Maria does what she can to assist her in training, Elsie is by her side, and Jayden is there now. Surprisingly even Lara is there to pitch her an assist after the animosity last year. Readers will enjoy piecing together the clues to solve the mystery as well as the epic battles.

The Department of Half-Truths and Full Cover-Ups was hard at work all book trying to undermine Amari at every turn. Another cool addition was the knowledge that many famous people were secretly magicians from athletes to actresses. 

That final battle is so good and the cliffhanger at the end is the perfect set up for book 3. 

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