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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
A mysterious key unlocks a perilous adventure …
Face-changer Ista Flit has saved the magical town of Shelwich but her Pa is still missing.
His trail leads Ista to the Marsh Court, where a beautiful queen tricks runway humans into joining her endless revels.
The only way to rescue Pa is to venture inside, but as the Tide rises, so too does the Marsh Queen’s power. Can Ista, Nat and Ruby use their own magical Tide-blessings to outwit her, or will they all be lost forever … ?
It’s immediately after TIDE MAGIC: THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT.
Having found the key left to her by her Pa, Ista uses it on a door that transports her to an archway on Glass Island where a sinister man encourage her to come inside. Although Ista is able to resist, in a nearby town she discovers that others are less fortunate. The archway leads to the Marsh Court where the Spinners and their Marsh Queen host an unending revel that needs a constant stream of humans to provide entertainment. Ista also discovers Tamlin, the young boy who Alexo had asked to follow her, who lives there with his sick father.
When Ista learns that the Spinners enticed her Pa to their court, she knows that she has to rescue him, Tamlin, keen to find a cure for his father, offers to help her and tells her about the Queen’s wishing stone, which gives anyone who can touch it one wish, and a potion that may help to free Ista’s Pa. No one who goes to the Queen’s revel ever comes out, so when Ruby and Nat find their own way to Glass Island, Ista is grateful for their help. But the Marsh Queen’s power is rising with the Tide and she has never lost a wager with a human …
The second in Clare Harlow’s fantasy trilogy for readers aged 9+ (featuring Kristina Kister’s evocative illustrations) is a clever and gripping adventure about friendship and family set against the sinister Marsh Queen’s court. Ista remains interesting and resourceful and although I wish that there had been more between her, Nat and Ruby, the friendship that develops with Tamlin is believable. I am very much looking forward to the final book.
I picked this up because I had enjoyed TIDE MAGIC: THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT, which ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I was keen to see what happened next.
This book picks up immediately after THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT and sees what happened when Ista walked through the doorway opened by the key left to her by her father. All of the elements that had made me enjoy that first book - the vivid writing, clever plot and sense of pace - are here in the sequel, together with a really sinister element as Harlow brings her Spinners and Marsh Queen (think fairies and fairy queen but with an insect form) to life.
Although Nat and Ruby are here and there are some chapters told from their point of view, they very much play second fiddle to Ista’s relationship with Tamlin (a character glimpsed in THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT and who is developed much more here). One of the main themes in this book is that of family and yearning for family with Tamlin’s relationship with his father driving his actions in this book as much as Ista is driven by her need to find out what happened to her Pa.
I was particularly impressed with Harlow’s depiction of the Spinners and their court. Harlow is an evocative writer, able to produce depictions that appeal to all the senses and she really gets across the decadence and the rotten reality of it all. The Marsh Queen has a menacing, icy quality to her that makes her much more of a threat than the Governor was in the first book. Equally sinister is her brother Robin, who Ista encounters early in the story and who recognises the strength of her power and the threat that she in turn poses to them and appears to be working to his own agenda.
Harlow takes the time to build out her world and I particularly enjoyed the links back to the first book with the crystals and netting and the way that Glass Island works as a secretive community that very few in Shelwich know about. Alexo does appear in the book and there are two particularly good scenes between him, Nat and Ruby and him and Ista where Harlow makes it clear that he cares for the children but also retains secrets of his own.
It can be difficult to produce a second book for a trilogy - the pacing can sag or they fail to move the story along - but Harlow does not have this problem. This is a book that resolves some storylines while also advancing the world building and leaving open some plot lines (notably about the links between the Governor and the Marsh Court).
All in all, I thought this was a strong read and if the conclusion is as strong as the first two books, then it will be an absolute treat.
The Verdict:
The second in Clare Harlow’s fantasy trilogy for readers aged 9+ (featuring Kristina Kister’s evocative illustrations) is a clever and gripping adventure about friendship and family set against the sinister Marsh Queen’s court. Ista remains interesting and resourceful and although I wish that there had been more between her, Nat and Ruby, the friendship that develops with Tamlin is believable. I am very much looking forward to the final book.
TIDE MAGIC: ISTA FLIT AND THE IMPOSSIBLE KEY was released in the United Kingdom on 1 May 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Face-changer Ista Flit has saved the magical town of Shelwich but her Pa is still missing.
His trail leads Ista to the Marsh Court, where a beautiful queen tricks runway humans into joining her endless revels.
The only way to rescue Pa is to venture inside, but as the Tide rises, so too does the Marsh Queen’s power. Can Ista, Nat and Ruby use their own magical Tide-blessings to outwit her, or will they all be lost forever … ?
It’s immediately after TIDE MAGIC: THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT.
Having found the key left to her by her Pa, Ista uses it on a door that transports her to an archway on Glass Island where a sinister man encourage her to come inside. Although Ista is able to resist, in a nearby town she discovers that others are less fortunate. The archway leads to the Marsh Court where the Spinners and their Marsh Queen host an unending revel that needs a constant stream of humans to provide entertainment. Ista also discovers Tamlin, the young boy who Alexo had asked to follow her, who lives there with his sick father.
When Ista learns that the Spinners enticed her Pa to their court, she knows that she has to rescue him, Tamlin, keen to find a cure for his father, offers to help her and tells her about the Queen’s wishing stone, which gives anyone who can touch it one wish, and a potion that may help to free Ista’s Pa. No one who goes to the Queen’s revel ever comes out, so when Ruby and Nat find their own way to Glass Island, Ista is grateful for their help. But the Marsh Queen’s power is rising with the Tide and she has never lost a wager with a human …
The second in Clare Harlow’s fantasy trilogy for readers aged 9+ (featuring Kristina Kister’s evocative illustrations) is a clever and gripping adventure about friendship and family set against the sinister Marsh Queen’s court. Ista remains interesting and resourceful and although I wish that there had been more between her, Nat and Ruby, the friendship that develops with Tamlin is believable. I am very much looking forward to the final book.
I picked this up because I had enjoyed TIDE MAGIC: THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT, which ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I was keen to see what happened next.
This book picks up immediately after THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT and sees what happened when Ista walked through the doorway opened by the key left to her by her father. All of the elements that had made me enjoy that first book - the vivid writing, clever plot and sense of pace - are here in the sequel, together with a really sinister element as Harlow brings her Spinners and Marsh Queen (think fairies and fairy queen but with an insect form) to life.
Although Nat and Ruby are here and there are some chapters told from their point of view, they very much play second fiddle to Ista’s relationship with Tamlin (a character glimpsed in THE MANY FACES OF ISTA FLIT and who is developed much more here). One of the main themes in this book is that of family and yearning for family with Tamlin’s relationship with his father driving his actions in this book as much as Ista is driven by her need to find out what happened to her Pa.
I was particularly impressed with Harlow’s depiction of the Spinners and their court. Harlow is an evocative writer, able to produce depictions that appeal to all the senses and she really gets across the decadence and the rotten reality of it all. The Marsh Queen has a menacing, icy quality to her that makes her much more of a threat than the Governor was in the first book. Equally sinister is her brother Robin, who Ista encounters early in the story and who recognises the strength of her power and the threat that she in turn poses to them and appears to be working to his own agenda.
Harlow takes the time to build out her world and I particularly enjoyed the links back to the first book with the crystals and netting and the way that Glass Island works as a secretive community that very few in Shelwich know about. Alexo does appear in the book and there are two particularly good scenes between him, Nat and Ruby and him and Ista where Harlow makes it clear that he cares for the children but also retains secrets of his own.
It can be difficult to produce a second book for a trilogy - the pacing can sag or they fail to move the story along - but Harlow does not have this problem. This is a book that resolves some storylines while also advancing the world building and leaving open some plot lines (notably about the links between the Governor and the Marsh Court).
All in all, I thought this was a strong read and if the conclusion is as strong as the first two books, then it will be an absolute treat.
The Verdict:
The second in Clare Harlow’s fantasy trilogy for readers aged 9+ (featuring Kristina Kister’s evocative illustrations) is a clever and gripping adventure about friendship and family set against the sinister Marsh Queen’s court. Ista remains interesting and resourceful and although I wish that there had been more between her, Nat and Ruby, the friendship that develops with Tamlin is believable. I am very much looking forward to the final book.
TIDE MAGIC: ISTA FLIT AND THE IMPOSSIBLE KEY was released in the United Kingdom on 1 May 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
