Such a cute book! I especially like how Buddy comforts children and Mom uses Buddy as a tool (wow that sounds cold, but it's a good thing I swear!) to get children to open up about things they don't necessarily want to tell adults.

I quite liked how the author managed to bring other critters into the story, for a change. Typically, we only see other dogs or Cat with No Name. In this book, though, we meet a monster! Really a reptile with an interesting backstory. And while Buddy eventually solves the case, the humans are still in the dark about a lot of the details. :-D

I feel it necessary to point out that this series, while I feel they can stand alone, are wonderful in their bits of over-arcing details. In the first few, Buddy is looking for his old family and struggling with his identity (being renamed Buddy from King). In the last few there are plenty of hints dropped about the school being haunted by Agatha and, in this book, we get some resolution to that case. It's wonderful!

So Septimus may not have been the main character, but he and the rest of the characters from the previous books are all here playing their parts. And it's wonderful. It's not often that you get a sequel series that includes previous characters having grown up a bit and still being amazing.

I can't wait to read the next two.

But also, Tod is delightful. Following her story of going to be great.

Not my usual kind of book, but damn. That was a good read!

I accidentally started reading this book earlier when I added it into my library and was checking to make sure the formatting was okay. (It was an Amazon freebie and sometimes those are just error-riddled word vomit.) While skimming the first bit, I suddenly realized I had read the first five chapters. And didn't want to stop! It was incredible! I quickly loaded it onto my ereader (and phone just in case) and continued reading it!

I don't even know how to describe the book... The main character is very vocally political, to the point that it gets him in trouble - liberal, a conspiracy theorist, a wanna-be prepper, and also a history teacher who teaches both "government propaganda" history and "real" history. (By the way, I love a good chapter title and these are good. First chapter? "White Slaves Get Sunburnt")

The other main character is Brittany, but she doesn't show up for a while. She's essentially what gets James pulled into the trouble that encompasses most of the book. I love her character and, while I hate what she's been through, I love her ability to overcome it.

For all that I didn't intend to read this book today and really only chose it because I thought it was dystopian or post-apocalyptic (based on the name and the fact that I was reading multiple descriptions at once - plus the start of the book makes it seem like the end is coming soon, but that's just his paranoia), it was incredible and I finished it quickly because it was just that good.

Did Jim Knee drop a hint that we're on earth earth!? Maybe just really far in the future?! Because wow.

"But this time, all turned out egg-xactly as it should."

This was such a fantastic conclusion to the book series. But also, I would totally be cool with it if it continued again.

A sweet story all about found and chosen family. It was recommended by the library app and it was delightful.

A fun extra book with little magyckal bits and bobs of the world of Septimus Heap. I enjoyed it immensely.

This story was enjoyable, but also very difficult to get into. I'm down for unbelievable stories, but make it believable unbelievable - not "I'm thirteen but walking in a casino" because no you aren't.

The magic tricks and chemistry explosions were delightful.