Welcome to the November 2nd review stop on the blog tour for Calla by Christina Bauer, organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Don’t forget to follow the rest of the tour for 6 more reviews and a giveaway! (More on that at the end of this post.)
Christina Bauer is no stranger to this blog, as I’ve featured her on two other occasions during the Quasi Redux tour and the Baculum cover reveal blitz, but this is the first time I’ve read and reviewed her work. Now I’m regretting not volunteering to review on the previous tours! Christina’s writing is an absolute joy to read!
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About the Book
Calla
Pixieland Diaries Book Two
by Christina Bauer
Published Published 28 July 2020
(Kindle)
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Page Count: 222
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“I swear on Beyonce you should read Bauer’s books because I love them so much I can’t even. I’m going to stop gushing now.” – Literary George
Big news in Pixieland! The Blue Fairy is sending our fave pixie, Calla, and her crush, Dare, on a mini-quest. Unfortunately it’s an adventure that requires a lot of togetherness. We’re talking tons of touching, people.
Blue believes that since Calla and Dare are just friends, then this situation shouldn’t be awkward.
It’s totally awkward.
A 45,000+ word diary written by Calla
“I absolutely love Christina Bauer’s style, full of action, intense scenes, and characters that will test one’s imaginations to the max!” – Tome Tender Book Blog
PIXIELAND DIARIES
1. Pixieland Diaries
2. Calla
3. Dare
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK
My Review
My Rating: 5 Stars
I received a complimentary review copy of Calla from author Christina Baeur in exchange for an honest review through Goddess Fish Promotions as part of my participation in the blog tour for this title. Thank you to both Christia Bauer and Goddess Fish Promotions for the opportunity! This has not swayed my opinion; my thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Calla is the story of a budding queen of the Summer Court who thus far has had no luck in gathering or pranking her royal subjects, as any good faerie queen should be able to do. There’s also this curious energy-draining issue with her misbehaving magical scepter, Sammy. Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that Calla has earned the affection of Winter Court prince Darius (Dare) and his mother isn’t happy about it. So when Calla finds herself on the Gargoyle King’s sh*t list, and her father and one loyal court member Ivy go missing, what’s a queen to do? Enter into an inter-court betrothal oath and go off on a grand rescue adventure with her betrothed, of course!
I absolutely adored every moment of this book! I can’t decide if Calla’s just really young or if all faeries are eternally immature in this version of the fae world, but this reads like a preteen girl playing queen and I love it. We do eventually reach a chosen one/rite of passage moment when Calla comes into her own, but for a good half of this book she’s delightfully naïve and full of unfounded optimism.
This book is written in diary entry format -kind of. Chapters start with a “dear diary” entry but flow into first person, present tense narration of the story as it’s happening. I’m glad it does, because books that stick to the true diary format tend to end up with very passive feeling characters, and that’s not the case here. Calla is a lively, active, growing heroine, even if it sometimes feels like there’s nothing but cotton candy between her ears. (And I’m convinced that’s all that’s between Ivy’s ears. Or maybe it’s Cheeto dust. You’ll get the reference when you read it, I promise!) The only part of the diary entries as chapters format that throws me off is sometimes a new chapter will start, and thus a new diary entry, but it doesn’t feel necessary. No time has passed between the end of the previous entry and the start of the next one.
Prince Dare is cute and endearing but turns into a bit of a damsel in distress as the adventure progresses. I definitely liked him best in the beginning when he was visiting Calla in “ghost” form. Their interactions at this stage, aided in no small part by Dare’s noncorporeal presentation, reminded me quite strongly of interactions between Babette/Varanus and the ghost of her fiancé Korbinian in G. D. Falksen’s Ouroboros Cycle novels. A young man with jokes to spare who can’t be seen or heard by anyone other than his lover, who has to pretend she doesn’t hear and see his nonsense when in the presence of anyone else in the land of the living lest they think her mad. The whole “Ghost Dare” presentation in Calla made me hope something like that would take place in front of Calla’s skittish court. Perhaps in book three?
All in all this was a fantastically fun and whimsical read, and I absolutely recommend it to any fan of the fantasy genre looking for something light and entertaining. Whether Calla charms or annoys you, the plot moves quickly and the story is unique. Love her or love to hate her, Calla will take you on an adventure you’ve never been on before, and it’s one you won’t soon forget.
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK
About the Author
Christina Bauer thinks that fantasy books are like bacon: they just make life better. All of which is why she writes romance novels that feature demons, dragons, wizards, witches, elves, elementals, and a bunch of random stuff that she brainstorms while riding the Boston T. Oh, and she includes lots of humor and kick-ass chicks, too.
Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.
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Giveaway Alert
One lucky follower of the tour will receive a fairy forest journal (US only)
Tour Schedule
October 12: Natural bri
October 19: Unabridged Andra’s
October 19: Fabulous and Brunette
October 26: Books in the Hall
November 2: Westveil Publishing
November 2: Kit ‘N Kabookle
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thanks for hosting!
You’re welcome!
So happy that you enjoyed the book! Calla sends her best wishes 🙂 – Christina Bauer, author
Aww, thanks!
Sounds like a delightful read to be shared, I enjoyed following the tour and learning all about it, thanks for sharing it with me and I hope the tour was a success! Thanks WestVeil Publishing for sharing the review with me!
You’re welcome, thanks for visiting!
This sounds like a very good book.