Description
An elf rogue and a wizard who doesn’t know any magic are about to take on the most fearsome beast ever seen – the Golden Dragon.

Cleo and Evan again venture into the story of a book found in the magical library under their school. Still searching for their old librarian, Ms. Hilliard, they and their new librarian, Ms. Crowley, jump headlong into a fantastical story complete with dragons, elves, deep magic, and festering inter-governmental conflict. Cleo, now an elf, and Evan, now an untrained wizard, find themselves without Ms. Crowley and being commissioned by a kingdom to make peace with the neighboring Wood elves. If they can’t find Miss Crowley, and prevent the coming war, they could be trapped inside the book’s story forever. And it seems that the legendary, ruinous Golden Dragon is waking up.

Disclosure
I borrowed this book for free from our library system, it was provided for my personal use. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.

Review – Spoiler Free
I have yet to be disappointed with this series. Like most of the previous Key Hunters books, (read my review of book 1 here) it moves along pretty fast right from the beginning, it’s a big, fun story packed into a small book.

I love that, again, Cleo and Evan are directly involved in the outcome of the story (though they were ferried around by other characters a bit more in this book). There are choices they make that, had they not been there, would not have happened. Related to this, they both contribute in ways that are true to their characters – Cleo is active and impulsive, while Evan is more reserved and calculating.

Core characters continue to develop a little more, and there are some significant series developments.

While the previous Key Hunters books seem easy to follow for kids younger than the targeted age (2nd – 4th graders / 3rd grade reading level), this one is a little trickier. I think this is simply because the scope of this story is so much larger, that a few things get glossed over. It’s not anything glaring, it just requires a little more attention and thought than the previous books do. Maybe some explaining could be needed to help a younger reader understand or follow the story.

There are some questions raised at the end of the book that lead the reader to the next book in the series. There are also a few questions that I have about the Librarians who travel through the magical libraries, and I don’t think they’ll get answered. But these things don’t distract from the story at all.

Overall, this was another fun read, I would definitely recommend it. If you’re reading with a younger audience than the advertised age, I’d just anticipate having to explain a few things or adlibbing a few lines of transition. We will be continuing the series as soon as the next book comes in from the library. ( )