Maid of Wonder (Maids of Honor)

by Jennifer McGowan

[Stephanie]

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, though I will say the first book (Maid of Secrets) is my favorite.

I was excited to read Sophia's story. Mostly because we barely get to see her in Meg's book (Maid of Secrets) and she has a slightly more important role in Beatrice's book (Maid of Deception) but that only left me wanting to know more about her. She seemed a little crazy because she would always be staring into space, and when she would speak, it was mostly in riddles. So, of course, I wanted to know what was going on in her head.

I went into this book expecting more of a historical fantasy, since Sophia is a seer and all, where as the other 2 books were more historical fiction. We get to see how Sophia learns about the future from the angels in this other realm that she is able to see into and walk and talk to the angels who hang out there. She even has this creepy dark angel... thing following her around, who seems to be protecting her.

Speaking of creepy, lets talk about Marcus. This guy who pretty much loves Sophia before he ever met her. I was not a fan of him. Marcus can also get into the angel realm and relay back what the angels are saying. He works for Sophia's uncle, John Dee. Marcus can also see Sophia in the angel realm, but Sophia doesn't know this and he pretty much spies on her the whole time and doesn't see anything wrong with it. I also didn't trust him since he worked for John Dee, who has a sketchy background to begin with. I could not comprehend why Sophia would even consider him for that reason, but she does.

And then there's the dark angel, Arc, who is conveniently always around when Sophia is in trouble, or just whenever Sophia wants to talk to him. I actually found myself wanting Sophia to get together with him, I guess I just like doomed relationships. Though the ending kind of ruined that for me too.

This book just felt a lot more different than the other two. Sophia is kind of off on her own most of the time. We don't get to see the other girls as often as we did in the other books, which is what I enjoyed most. She's trying to figure out this prophecy that was told to the Queen saying someone was going to die. Nostradamus also has a part here, but I felt like he didn't really add to the story at all.

I liked Maid of Wonder well enough, but I was just a little disappointed in it. If you've read and enjoyed the other two books in this series, I say give this book a try, but go into it expecting something a little different.