Tildi and her friends have almost completed their quest to find a dangerous magical book and lock it up where no one can use it for harm. But now Tildi has fallen into the clutches of a radical group called the Scholardom, who believe that only humans are pure. They want to magically change all centaurs, dwarves, werewolves, and other half-human creatures to be completely human. If they gain control of the magical book, it would be disastrous. Tildi is the only one who can touch the book, so she is at the center of all their plans.

I enjoyed the way that all these little threads from plot began to come together in this second book of the duology. The adventure is really exciting and complex as Tildi bounces in and out of trouble. I liked seeing some character development for her as she gains more confidence in her magical abilities and as she works through her grief for the loss of her family.

The writing is really fun and whimsical, but there is also a lot of violence as different magical battles take place throughout the story. It has a good balance of serious themes and light-hearted scenes throughout the book.

The magical setting has all this weight of history behind it. You get the feeling that Tildi is just a very small little blip in all the history of the other characters, because she is so very young compared to the wizards and elves and dwarves who might live for centuries or even longer.