Seven Wherewithal Way: Into the Faerie Realm by Samantha-Ellen Bound

“Wherewithal has fallen.
When their beloved home comes under siege, the Wherewithal crew flee through the portal to the Realm of Fae. Behind the walls of the Faerie Market, they search for ways to stop the increasingly powerful Red Cap from achieving Realms-wide domination.
But Red Cap's army is growing stronger. Old and new enemies are rising, the Realms are in disarray, and Celeste's powers are gone - maybe for good. With a battle on the horizon, and the lives of all those she loves at risk, Celeste will require every bit of cleverness and cunning she has picked up from the Realms for this last fight.” 

From the introduction which described a wardrobe portal to another realm, the story had me intrigued. Was the story going to be a Narnia like tale? Immediately, a multitude of characters emerged alongside Celeste and I was grappling to identify each. Not having read any of the previous books in this series, I feel that I was initially challenged by the sheer quantity of different characters, many of whom had appeared in previous installments. In the beginning, I struggled to keep track of each character, their role in the story, their connections to others, and their special talents or abilities. On occasion, I was uncertain as to whether the author was describing an individual or a group of characters due to the pronouns used. Despite my difficult start, as the story unfolded and I got to know the characters, I found the book to be an engaging read. 

Having been introduced to the Percy Jackson books by previous students, and enjoyed the links to mythology in Riordan’s series, this was similar and made it appealing to me. Other Percy Jackson fans may well enjoy this series too. (True confessions, though…I had to do some research as I read, in order to identify the mythological context of the characters mentioned in this book.)

As the story ended, I was totally invested and pleased to see the ways in which Celeste had grown and the sisters had come to respect one another. The end of the book was a satisfying conclusion to the series but certainly leaves the way open for future adventures.

My only advice to other readers would be…to make your life easier, read the Seven Wherewithal Way series in order!

Themes: Fantasy, Courage, Friendship, Mythology, Growing up.

Jo Schenkel