Super fun and sweet middle grade adventure. Giada comes from a family of healers, but she struggles with wanting to carry on their tradition. She feels more of a kinship to the goddess Diana and her animals than to Apollo's healing arts, and she wants to use her magic to help animals in need. While struggling with the courage to tell her parents how she feels, she starts seeing bad omens, gets in a fight with her brother, and ends up discovering that something is going very wrong, not in the future, but right now.
The book starts out with Giada in school, but the adventure takes off from there and very little time is spent in the classroom at all. Her quest takes her all across her city, and into the dark world of the Stregha de Malochio, and out onto the moonlit seas. I love the mix of modern world with magical creatures. Gelato and talking cats is a winning combination.
The ending comes on super quick, but there's both satisfying resolution and a door open for Giada's story to continue.
The book starts out with Giada in school, but the adventure takes off from there and very little time is spent in the classroom at all. Her quest takes her all across her city, and into the dark world of the Stregha de Malochio, and out onto the moonlit seas. I love the mix of modern world with magical creatures. Gelato and talking cats is a winning combination.
The ending comes on super quick, but there's both satisfying resolution and a door open for Giada's story to continue.