1. Kerka’s Book. Kerka is the latest in the line of her family to undergo the journey to Aventurine and wield the Kalis sticks. She’s thrilled as it is a family honor but that adventure is dimmed by the recent loss of her mother and the distance between her and her sisters. In fact, her mission is to recover her younger sister’s voice or else, she may never recover her grief. As always, I love stories with family relationships at the center and Bozarath does a compelling job combining the fairy adventure involving animal spirtis, and tying it with the emotional core, sisters and their different ways people deal with grief and the family bonds that sustain us.

2. Sumi’s Book: Unlike Kerka, Sumi is intially skeptical of her mother’s revalation that she comes from a line of fairy godmothers. But when she ends up in Aventurine, she has to accept that its true and use her newly gifted shape-shifting powers to redeem an evil queen. Sumi was interesting as she’s a bit more flawed than previous protagonists, being dismissive of tradition and focus on superficialities and looking good rather than doing good. That’s why it was so fufilling to see Sumi undergo her character growth by the end of the mission. Plus having shape-shifting powers was an awesome way of challenging her as she’s forced to take on some slimy and ugly creatures but comes to enjoy the freedom and their usefulness in each different animal skill-set.

3. Lilu’s Book: Lilu is not a big fan of change. She’s secretly wishes her parents will get back together, so they can all move back home. She wishes her sister wasn’t so insistant on being her own person now and that they could do things together just like they used to. She especially needs her when they go to Aventurine. But Lilu goes on her fairy godmother mission alone and she fears she won’t be good enough to stop the upcoming storm as expected by the women of her line. Bozarath always utilizes the protagonist’s cultural roots to create their family stories and their specific gifts and this was no exception in regards to Lilu’s storm-weaving gift with connections to the Igbo myth of Anasi the spider. As I had no idea about these legends, it made it more fascinating. Plus the lesson of learning to stand on your own and conquer your insecurities while still staying close to your loved ones is a good one.

4. Trinity’s Book: As the last book in the series, this book had a nice callback to the previous ones as Trinity meets the Fairy Queens of previous books who mentioned their dealings with the other protagonists which Trinity is shocked that some of her friends are fellow fairygodmothers. It also looks to the future as Trinity is tasked with saving the future queen of Aventurine who was kidnapped by the cloud people. It still has the interesting cultural connection as Trinity’s Maori heritage involving kite flying is a major plot point here and there is a real sense of joy at the ending with some emotional sacrifice thrown in too. But Trinity’s journey of learning to combine magic with her realistic felt done before as many fantasy books deal with the magical-skeptical/logic focused protagonists.

5. Birdie’s Book: The book that started it all. Birdie’s book deals with family estrangement and the powerful bond of mothers and daughters and females in general that define the series. It’s a wonderful introduction to the series as Birdie’s grandmother explains the land of Aventurine and the basics of its lore and fairy godmother lineages. Plus Birdie’s task with an urgent mission to save Aventurine’s cracked core, adding danger and high-stakes that makes it all so exciting. I just enjoyed other protagonists a bit more so it’s ranked down.

6. Zally’s Book: Maybe it’s been a while since I read it but other than Zally’s mission to save a prince I don’t remember much about this book. Which is why it must be ranked last as I haven’t read Birdie and Kerka’s books in a while either but I remembered them so I suppose I didn’t feel any connection to it and Zally’s lessons.

There was supposedly a 7th one coming out called Daja’s Book but it’s been over five years so I’m doubtful it will continue which is too bad because I really enjoyed the creativity and diversity of the series putting a new spin on the magical world systems.