The Black Shard, Victoria Simcox’s fast-paced, intricately woven sequel to The Magic Warble, takes Kristina Kingsly and her schoolmates back to Bernovem … and into a thrilling, often dangerous adventure.

Kristina’s stay at summer horse camp is horrible to say the least, and it’s all because Hester and Davina are there as well, making her life miserable. When Hester’s cruel prank goes terribly wrong, it’s actually what sends the three girls back to the magical land of Bernovem. In Bernovem, Kristina is very excited to see her former friend, Prince Werrien. When he invites her to sail with him on his ship to his homeland Tezerel, putting it simply, Kristina can’t refuse.

Reunited with her gnome, dwarf, animal, fairy friends … and best of all, Werrien, things seem like they couldn’t get any better for Kristina. But when Werrien becomes fascinated with an unusual seeing stone, the “Black Shard”, Kristina is haunted by a ghostlike old hag. Struggling against suspicion, guilt, illness, and ultimately the one who wants to possess her soul, Kristina will see it’s in her weakest moment that she will encounter more strength than she has ever known.

A few months ago, I had the chance to read and review Victoria Simcox’s first book in this series called The Magic Warble. I was excited to learn that there was a sequel to this book called The Black Shard. I was curious to see what was going to happen next to these characters.

One thing that I liked is that the characters are a little bit older in this book. Since they are older, they can be some more romance in the story. The relationship that Kristina and Werrien start to have in this story is so cute! A majority of this story take place on a boat, named after Kristina. There is sort of a little courtship going on during this whole book. I am excited to see what Ms. Simcox does with this couple.

Once again, many of the plot twists really surprised me. Many of them did not occur until almost to the end of the story. There was one twist that definitely surprised me! My only disappointment is that this book ends on a total cliffhanger. I went to turn the page and the book was over! I need to know what happens next! Hopefully, the third book will be finished soon!

If you are looking for a fun book for your middle-elementary school children to read or even a fun book to read as a family. The Black Shard and the first book in the series The Magic Warble are great ones to check out.