This review was requested by the author.
Pippa Gardener would have never thought that she would have to split her attention between the fairy world and the human world but here she is. An assignment from the fairy world: Find Queen Mab’s long lost son all while juggling a trip to New York City with her classmates. Her quest of finding him is derailed by teenage hormones, earthquakes, and geysers but that is nothing compared to the fact that she has no idea what to do once she finds him. On top of it all, the fairy world is preparing for a fight but will they be fighting on the same side?
When I finished reading Into the Fairy Forest, the ending had me looking forward to reading the next book, Rise of the Hidden Prince. I was expecting it to be just as good as the previous book but unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. I wouldn’t say that Rise of the Hidden Prince was a huge disappointment but I was slightly disappointed when I was done reading it.
The main reason for my disappointment were the plot holes/contradictions in what was happening. There were two plot holes that I was able to catch and unfortunately both of them came early in the book which led to a poorer reading experience as I was always on the lookout for more rather than focusing on reading the book itself. I am not going to specify what the issues were but I will briefly describe them. The first issue was a contradiction in the age of a character. The character themselves claimed to be 15 years old but later on another character said that this character was 16. As there was no reference to a birthday between these two statements, this is a very clear contradiction that left me confused. The second plot hole was a pretty major one. Pippa, the main character knew the name of a character that was yet to be introduced to us, the readers. Since Pippa is the protagonist and we follow her throughout the story, there shouldn’t be a situation where she knows something that the reader has not even heard of. These plot holes made me slightly distrust what I was reading, which made me an extra vigilant reader, which made it harder for me to enjoy the story.
On a brighter note, the balance between action and exposition held up really well much like the previous book. There was a lot happening in this book and never ever did I feel like I needed to take a break nor did I ever hope for some slower scenes or faster scenes. Additionally, I found the plot to be a little less predictable this time. Even though I was able to predict a couple of things before they happened, the pre-climatic twist caught me by surprise. It had never occurred to me that a certain character would act that way, especially given the way that the character had been acting previously. I really enjoyed the fact that I was unable to call that twist because I pretty much predicted everything else in this story.
Speaking of characters behaving in unexpected ways, let’s talk about character evolutions. This book definitely had more character development than Into the Fairy Forest. I mentioned in my review of Into the Fairy Forest that I found the characters to be a little flat. I didn’t feel that way this time. I was able to see how Pippa and Phoebe and Pan and Vincent had all changed because of what they had experienced in the previous book. In fact, this book had more descriptions of character development and I actually got to see a few characters evolve throughout this book. Seeing this evolution was a breath of fresh air as one of my criticisms for Into the Fairy Forest was that the characters felt flat and their evolutions actually helped round them out.
Another thing that I really enjoyed was seeing the new characters that were introduced in this book. From Vero to Vati to Aaron, all of them were entertaining and their introductions were unique. Each of their introductions fit their personalities perfectly, which is why I wish I had gotten to see more of them. I did not get to read enough interactions between them and Pippa or any other character for that matter. I really wanted to see more of Vero. I was hoping and praying for more scenes with Vero but unfortunately my wishes were not answered. I really hope I get to see more of him in the next book!
I’ve saved the best for last so let’s talk about that ending. Well actually, before we talk about the ending, we need to talk about the climax. I found the climax of this book to be a little on the boring side. It wasn’t as exciting as I had been expecting given that Into the Fairy Forest had an action filled climax. The climax to this book was much more tame in comparison but the ending of the book totally made up for the slower climax. The ending is an absolute cliffhanger. After reading that ending, I need to get my hands on the next book and I need to know what happens. Which is really unfortunate for me since the next book isn’t even out yet… Alas, that is life.
Overall, I am going to give Rise of the Hidden Prince 2 stars. The main reason for this is the plot holes. There are a lot of things that I can forgive but plot holes are not one. If it hadn’t been for the character development, the unpredictable twist, and the ending, my rating for this book would have been lower. The ending and the twist were really able to redeem this book from being one of the worst books that I had read this year. I genuinely thought that I would be giving this 0 or 1 star(s), when I was about 30% done with it but the ending was too good and I have to give this book one more star for it. I really look forward to reading the next book in the series.
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