Name: Castle of Shadows
ISBN: 9780547744469

Ellen Renner

A feisty eleven-year-old princess embarks on a dangerous mission to find her missing mother, uncovering dark secrets inside and outside the castle walls.

Castle of Shadows

In a world of secrets, nothing is what it seems...

Sarah Sammis

Castle of Shadows by Ellen Renner follows Princess Charlotte, aka, Charlie, as she does whatever she can to track down her missing mother. A letter recently found is her only solid clue.

That missing letter is the crux of the book. Things do really take off when Charlie finds it but it doesn't come until about a third of the way through the book! The first third is wasted on Charlie's neglect: being poorly feed and poorly dressed. The reasons behind her treatment, though, is never adequately explained except to show that the bad guys are bad!

So while the book does eventually pick up speed, by the time it does, I was already bored with Charlie and her world. While her kingdom is clearly inspired by Victorian England, it has it's own history and customs that are for the most part ignored in lieu of highlighting Charlie's own humdrum life as a semi-prisoner within the castle.

There's a sequel, City of Thieves.

Castle of Shadows

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