Queen’s Peril by E.K. Johnston

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I want to start this off by saying I am not a huge fan of Star Wars. I have nothing against it, I am just not a person who knows a ton about it. So I was really curious how I would like this book, considering it is set in the Star Wars universe, which I do not know a lot about, and how much I would feel like I understood it.

This book is about 14-year old Padmé, the newly elected queen posing as Amidala. Panake, her Royal Guard, has found her a handmaid, a girl names Tsabin. Tsabin looks very similar to Padmé, which is the reason Panake chose her. Panake’s plan is for Tsabin to be Padmé’s body double, in case of any danger that may arise. However, Padmé points out that having only one double wouldn’t work very well, as it would be suspicious if the “queen” was left all alone. Because of this, Panake agrees to try and find more doubles. Eventually, he finds 4 more doubles, and Padmé and the group start to get closer. Padmé plans to host a summit, and she informs Senator Palpatine of her plan (spoiler alert- he’s evil). The girls later sneak out to a party, and Sabé ends up having to pretend to be Padmé because Padmé gets glitter on her hand that won wash off. Sabé then gets mad at Padmé because Padmé offended Harli while posing as Sabé, and Harli got angry with Sabé. But will the girls be able to bond together as true danger approaches? Read the book to find out!

I ended up really liking this book, for multiple reasons. First of all, I think Padmé’s character was similar to how a 14-year-old would act, and I think the author did a great job creating the characters. Additionally, the storyline was really interesting in my opinion. I was able to understand (most of) it despite not knowing a ton about Star Wars. Last but not least, I loved that there were multiple strong female characters in the story, but it wasn’t mentioned too many times that they were girls. I liked the fact that they were powerful as a female, and it wasn’t their biggest characteristic. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Star Wars, books about adventure, and books with strong female characters. 

Spellhacker by M.K. England

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At first, when I went through the Spoilers page, I thought this book was about a hacker. It was called “Spellhacker,” so I assumed that there would be someone spelling the word “hacker.”

Nope. Kind of close, but not really.

The first page is called “The Periodic Table of Maz.”

Maz is magic, and it used to be an abundant natural resource. But when a mysterious plague sweeps the world, maz becomes contaminated. Anyone who touches it will contract the plague and perish in a few days’ time. The illness, known as the spellplague, kills thousands of people, creating thousands of orphans. A company called the MMC (Maz Management Company) steps up and creates homes for the orphans. In addition, they figured out how to filter out the contaminant from the maz to make it usable again, meaning that they have control of the maz and are able to charge ridiculous prices for it.

The story opens in Kyrkarta, ground zero of the spellplague. Diz, the protagonist, and her best friends, Remi and Jaesin, are plague orphans who have spent the majority of their lives without parents. None of them have very warm feelings for the MMC, even though the MMC gave them homes when they had no homes. The three of them combined have almost no money. Desperate, they decided to start an illegal maz siphoning business together with their wealthy friend Ania.

After two years of the siphoning gig and not getting arrested, Jaesin, Remi, and Ania decide that they want to move on with their lives and relocate to the city of Jattapore. Diz doesn’t want to leave her home of Kyrkarta, so she will stay behind while her friends abandon her. The four of them take on one final job, which is where we open. When they deliver the stolen maz, their client finds something strange in one of the vials. It’s an eerie violet color that is apparently a new strain of maz. Nicknamed Maz-15, it is much more valuable than the common strains of maz.

Somehow, later that night, a new client comes to Diz to ask her for a large amount of Maz-15 and will pay an incredibly large sum of money. Willingly, Diz accepts the job in hopes that her friends will stay with her in Kyrkarta. But Diz doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into.

When Diz and her friends try to siphon out the maz, a second spellplague is released. Maz-15 may have darker origins than Diz and her friends originally thought. Now it’s up to Diz, Remi, Jaesin, and Ania to find out why a second spellplague is released before it’s too late.

I really loved this book. I will say, the beginning is a bit boring, but once you get a few chapters in, it starts to become quite interesting. M.K. England does a wonderful job of telling the story with emotion. I don’t think I would have found this book without the Spoilers page, so thank you for showing me such a great
book!