This has to be the most delightful YA that I've read in a long time, and I have to say that Flora kicks Harry Potter's ass. He ALWAYS had to get saved and while Flora may work with her friend, she remains actively involved. Like Harry, I was a bit surprised with a few of the darker details, but have come to the conclusion that if I could handle Old Yeller as a kid, maybe they can deal with deathlies as well--its not like I was a bastion of maturity.

Despite a few nasty formatting errors (on one page near the end) the book just made me smile and I laughed out loud more than once. I'll definitely be back for more.

(Dang it--now I have to go see if Old Yeller is available on Kindle.)
Update: Why yes it is! I have a host of books I loved as a child that I will immediately start searching for! ( )

Great audio book! Very well read, especially given the fanciful and delightful language play that creates Flora's vibrant and exotic world. I do not know if I would love this book in print, because affected spelling bothers me, but it's a marvelous original adventure nonetheless. Playful, fascinating, full of mysteries to the very end. ( )

Interesting world and characters and a satisfying conclusion, but...the getting there. Yeesh. So convoluted and tedious at times that I ended up skimming most of the middle. ( )

I couldn't finish this. I made it about a quarter of the way through, it was overdue, and I just didn't care enough to request it again after I'd returned it. It's well written, and I found myself enjoying the main character, but it didn't hook my interest fast enough.

Haven't even finished this yet, but I'd put it up there with Pullman's His Dark Materials and the Harry Potter series. A smart heroine, FANTASTIC world-building (think pre-industrial California having dealings with Aztecs), and a lot of fun. ( )

Fun. Enjoyed it. ( )

Flora Segunda lives in a magical house of many rooms and wonders. But ever since her mother banished the house's magical butler, it has been falling apart. Flora is responsible for keeping it clean and taking care of the dogs, horses, and her alcoholic father who is prone to violent explosions, while her mother is away leading the country's military. One day she breaks one of her mother's rules and takes the elevator. The elevator has a mind of its own and deposits her in a part of the house that has been closed up and unavailable as long as Flora can remember. What she discovers there changes everything and catapults Flora into an adventure that will change her life forever.

Wilce has created an unusual world full of magic and adventure. It took awhile to get used to the unusual words and expressions, but the details did make the world come alive (such as the complicated system of greetings and bows that designated the relative status of the meeting parties). The characters were interesting and complex and the story had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. There was one point when the author seemed to go off on a tangent that distracted form the original story line, but in the end it turned out to be important so I was able to forgive her for the earlier confusion. I appreciated how the author had plenty of powerful female characters (Flora's mother is the general that runs the military in their country) and a spunky heroine. I recommend this book to those who enjoy young adult fantasy worlds full of magic. I will definitely continue the series. ( )

Flora is one of the best YA heroines out there. Isabeau Wilce's world of Califa and environs is highly imaginative, well thought out, and one that warrants further exploration. The narrator is charming and entirely believable. Viva Flora! ( )

I can think of no higher praise off-the-top-of-my-head than to say "if Diana Wynne Jones had written this, it could have been no better." And Ysabeau S. Wilce deserves this praise. It's very Wynne Jones-ish, but without seeming like a pale, slavish imitation--this book is thrillingly alive, as is it's charismatic, willful heroine.

I like everything about it--the distinctive setting, the authorial tone, the fleshing-out of all the minor characters (Udo is especially delightful), the plot's unfolding, the twists and turns (and no over-reliance on them)--it's all great.

And I discovered it thanks to Goodreads (a groups suggestion that I might like it), so thanks, Goodreads, for all that you do!

(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!) ( )

This fantasy sounded cool because it is set in a house with 10,000 rooms. I also liked the idea that the house has a spirit that runs it. It is definitely very creative and original, and I liked the characters, but here's a tip to the author: if you put in a house with 10,000 rooms DESCRIBE SOME OF THE ROOMS. Also, the writing style is a little too precious for my taste. Finally, never have a main character called Pappy. That is as bad as Little Women's Marmee. Please, please, call him Dad, call him Father, call him Pop, anything but Pappy. ( )

Oh my! This is a triology? So much for that.... This has been on my (physical) TBR bookshelf forever and I finally got around to reading it.

Flora Segunda (the second Flora, first one died)... is the 3rd daughter in a military family, all who take their place in the Barracks to become warriors, but unlike others in her family, Flora carries Magic.

Flora's mother is The General & very strict, no-nonsense & willful with very little if any time for her family, but is planning Flora's Catorcena (like a Quinceañera) and demands that Flora not only go to school, maker her dress, but take care of the house, dogs, stables, & Poppy as well.

Flora's father, Poppy, whom Flora has inherited her magic from, has lost his will and has fits of madness, drunkenness, rage, a rare bit of sanity.

All great houses have Butler's, but Valefor has been banished by The General and imprisoned in the Biblioteque (Library). When Flora accidentally comes across him, she pities him & allows him to draw her breathe from her in exchange for his performing his former housekeeping duties, which becomes her undoing.... As Flora assists Valefor, they both begin to fade into the Abyss and this is when Flora if forced to seek help from those adults whom society fear & her mother loathes.

While making a mess of life, Flora's friend Udo is there watching her back every-step-of-the-way.

The book had a very interesting premise & plot.... But as Flora is a child she tends to be whiny & creating problems she has no idea how to solve.

I really did not warm to any of the characters, except Udo and the Boy Pirate, who was a minor character and for some reason a major threat to The General.

I found a good part of the book at the beginning to be dully repetitive, while other parts of the book were difficult to understand.

Needless to say, I will not be reading the other two in the triology. ( )

Maybe only 4.5 stars, as I don't think I'd recommend it to you unless you had your own reasons to consider reading it. I think two things made it stand out for me - for one, Flora felt very real to me... Wilce's skill was for me to forget she's a fictional character and just enter her life. For two, I loved the scattered touches that defied cliches... she wears stays and kilts, and reads yellowbacks, and the dive down by the docks is an Ice Cream Bar, and yet there's a lot that Hispanic people can identify with so it's certainly not just British... it's a world a bit like many fantasy worlds but a little aslant any of them... original. ( )

Flora lives in a huge, crumbling house with her dogs, horses, and the mad Poppy. Her fourteenth birthday is coming up, when she'll become an adult and join the army, as all of her family has done before her. But Flora is round as a dumpling and likes reading adventure stories more than fighting, and she'd rather learn to be a sneaky spy than a magic-less soldier. When she stumbles upon the secret to her house's decrepitude, she embarks upon an adventure that will forever alter the state of her family and herself.

I loved the exuberant tone of this novel. I only wish it was more complete in itself, and less a set-up for a sequel. The world-building is excellent, and I love that for once, a YA fantasy novel is not set in some alternate-England but instead, an Aztec-influenced California. And each of the characters is fascinating: contradictory but brave Flora; her best friend, the vain but generous Udo; the tragic and exasperating Poppy; and the selfish Valefor.
( )

Really cute story about...well the subtitle says it all: "Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog." Really cute. The author is a military historian, and it shows in a very interesting way in the backdrop of the story. I recommend this one to fans of YA. It has an inspired, jaunty feel to it while still dealing with serious themes of growing up, family, and responsibility. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2305978.html

I enjoyed this more than I expected. It's quite deceptive - starts off as just another story of a teenage daughter of the local warrior ruler (slight twist in that it's her mother rather than her father) who gets into trouble by picking sides in difficult politics and trying to intervene. But about two-thirds of the way through it turns out that we have been slightly misdirected, and the story is now about Flora needing to escape from the life-threatening consequences of her own (well-intentioned) actions; and then it gets into the unexpected re-imagining of her family's own recent history, and ends very well. Points also for use of ð and þ. ( )

Originally posted at Paperback Wonderland.

I've re-read this book (and the others in this series) so many times my paperbacks are starting to look pitiful.

Honestly, I don't understand how this book isn't topping all bestseller's lists, is it lack of promotion? I really don't know and it bothers me because the universe Ysabeau S. Wilce created is so amazing, so flawless, so addictive... Her characters are just perfect, her plots -- look I'm a picky bitch and I cannot find a fault!

For the love of whatever you hold sacred, go read these books! It breaks my heart to see mediocrity topping charts while jewels like these are ignored. ( )

4th Time Reading:

This book doesn't really have the can't-put-down attribute that some of my other favorites do, so it took me a bit longer to get through it this time. But nevertheless, it -is- still one of my favorites. The world of Ysabeau S. Wilce is enthralling, but so casual. The story doesn't get bogged down with descriptions of the city or explanations of the Current or the levels of the military. It just continues on, describing the relevant things and letting you slowly form the complete image. Honestly, one of the main reasons I want to read more of the series is to find out more about Califa.

Flora also is great because she's not the typical heroine, and she's not one of the stereotypical un-heroine heroines either. She's a pudgy, lazy, pacifistic 12-year-old. But she's still pretty cool. And of course, there's Udo. And Valefor has a certain likeability as well.

And don't get me started on Hotspur. He is definitely my favorite character. I'm a sucker for tortorued souls living in dark depression. And can I just say that if there was ever a Flora Segunda movie, Gary Oldman would be the perfect Hotspur.

And the plot itself is great. Flora somehow gets into so much trouble and the fact that it's all connected makes it that much more amazing. And then you add the Dainty Pirate and Paimon and Lord Axacaya into the mix, and it's brilliant. ( )

Flora Nemain Fydraaca ov Fydraaca was the second Flora - Flora Segunda - born to her illustrious family, one of the most powerful in the city of Califa. The legacy of that other, earlier Flora - the one whose loss in the War had driven her father, Poppy, mad - hung over the great Fydraaca household, Crackpot Hall, with its eleven thousand rooms, all falling into disrepair in the absence of its magical Butler. As Flora (Segunda) reluctantly prepares for her upcoming Catorcena, or fourteenth birthday celebration, after which she will be considered an adult, and sent off to the Barracks, where all the Fydraacas - being a military family - are trained, she finds herself being drawn into the mystery of Valefor, the magical denizen of Crackpot and her family's banished Butler, as well as an adventure involving the Dainty Pirate - aka Boy Hansgen, the sidekick of Flora's own personal hero, Nini Mo, erstwhile leader of Califa's Rangers. Can Flora, together with her best friend Udo, triumph in her efforts to free both Valefor and Boy Hansgen, or will this new connection to Valefor drag her into Nothingness, and the Abyss...?

Despite its undeniable virtues - its highly original (and convincing) world-building, its fascinating use of language - I was convinced for approximately 90% of my read that Flora Segunda was going to be no more than a solid, enjoyable three-star title for me. I did appreciate the aforementioned world-building, of course - the alternate Californian/Mexican setting, with Califa being dominated by the Aztec-like Huitzils - as well as the mixture of Spanish, Italian(?) and Icelandic language, in the vocabulary of Califa. As someone who's studied Icelandic, I was thrilled to see that the eð - the Icelandic letter ð, pronounced with a voiced "th" sound, as in the beginning of the English word them, and distinguished from the unvoiced "th" sound, as in the English word thorn, which is represented by the letter þ - kept appearing, in names like Landaðon and Haðraaða!

I also appreciated the fact that this was a world of true gender equality, in which women held the same rank as men (Flora's mother is the Warlord's general), and was delighted to learn, through our discussion of the book, over in the Children's Fiction Club which I run on another site, that the idea of "Califa" is actually taken from the work of fifteenth-century Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, who wrote a series of adventure stories about the explorer Esplandián, and his encounters with Queen Califia, of the island of California (thanks, Bun!). I think I may have to track down some of these stories...

But despite these undeniable virtues, and my interest in the city of Califa, its customs and history, I couldn't say that I was emotionally involved with the characters, to any great extent, until the final section of the book. It was only when Flora met the earlier incarnation of Poppy, while fleeing through Bilskinir House, that I suddenly found myself gripped with any sense of urgency, or concern for the fate of the heroine. Then, on the very last page of the book, when Flore reflects upon the fact that, despite the challenges still ahead, and the failures behind, she had escaped from the worst fate of all - that of Nothingness - it all snapped into place for me, and my appreciation for the book rose dramatically. It suddenly seemed to me that this was the story of a common teenage experience - feeling as if one were a "nothing," being afraid that one would never be anything but a "nothing" - clothed in an appealingly fantastic shell. I've no idea if that was the author's intention, but it lent the entire story an emotional significance, for me, that it hadn't previously had, and convinced me that I needed to read the next installment, Flora's Dare!

I don't know that others will interpret the story as I did, but I think that all fantasy lovers - particularly those who relish intricate and entirely unfamiliar worlds - will enjoy it. ( )

An entertaining romp - a bit long (too much running around aimlessly) but very good. Tiptree shortlist 2007 ( )

Flora Fyrdraaca is about to turn 14, and celebrate her Catorcena, or coming of age ceremony marking her as an adult, and she's stuck on her speech. It's supposed to celebrate the glory of her House and her family, but the problem is neither is that glorious. Sure, her mother is the head General for the Warlord, but her former POW is broken and no longer in his right mind, prone to fits of violence, her old sister is posted far away, and she's Flora Segunda, the daughter born to replace first Flora, who had been captured with her father, and killed. And she feels more like a slave than a daughter half the time, since she's stuck doing all the chores and housework that should be done by the house's Butler, a magical manifestation of each House, and each family's will. The Fyrdraaca's Butler was banished by Flora's mother before she was born...or was he? When Flora comes across the family's Butler, in an unused part of the house, he tells her she can restore him. Can she change her family's destiny?

It's been a long time since I read a book set not just in our world with magic, but in a completely different world with an original culture with original traditions,clothing, grammar patterns and slang, etc and I have to admit, it took me a while to get into it.

Once I did though, I really enjoyed the book. The original world felt complete and familiar enough that it wasn't too jarring. By the end, I ended up falling in love with the characters, and enjoyed the book so much that I didn't realize until the end that it was a classic coming of age story.

The book wrapped up in a way that was both completely satisfying, and left me excited for more. I can't wait to read the sequel. ( )

Flora Fyrdraaca is about to turn 14, and celebrate her Catorcena, or coming of age ceremony marking her as an adult, and she's stuck on her speech. It's supposed to celebrate the glory of her House and her family, but the problem is neither is that glorious. Sure, her mother is the head General for the Warlord, but her former POW is broken and no longer in his right mind, prone to fits of violence, her old sister is posted far away, and she's Flora Segunda, the daughter born to replace first Flora, who had been captured with her father, and killed. And she feels more like a slave than a daughter half the time, since she's stuck doing all the chores and housework that should be done by the house's Butler, a magical manifestation of each House, and each family's will. The Fyrdraaca's Butler was banished by Flora's mother before she was born...or was he? When Flora comes across the family's Butler, in an unused part of the house, he tells her she can restore him. Can she change her family's destiny?

It's been a long time since I read a book set not just in our world with magic, but in a completely different world with an original culture with original traditions,clothing, grammar patterns and slang, etc and I have to admit, it took me a while to get into it.

Once I did though, I really enjoyed the book. The original world felt complete and familiar enough that it wasn't too jarring. By the end, I ended up falling in love with the characters, and enjoyed the book so much that I didn't realize until the end that it was a classic coming of age story.

The book wrapped up in a way that was both completely satisfying, and left me excited for more. I can't wait to read the sequel. ( )

It just turned out to be a different story than I was expecting. I had high expectations, based on the title. OH! What a glorious title it is!

What an impressively mediocre book.

The description is a little misleading--it sounds as if Flora is somehow trapped in her mysterious house and needs to find her way out, which really isn't the case at all. It's hard to pin down what the main plot thread is, because it's almost like there are two or three episodes here that are tied together with "before we do X, what about Y?" and "I know I should be doing X, but Y is my priority right now." The bits where Flora performs magic seem like afterthoughts, bits thrown in to give the book some "magickal mishaps."

And speaking of that really long subtitle: glass-gazing sidekick? because he's vain, which comes up only rarely and isn't a plot point? Sure, okay. Two Ominous Butlers (one blue)? Someone's got to help me out, because I don't have a clue who Butler No. 2 (Blue) is.

Now I've read a fair number of books with misleading titles and episodic plots, and I'm fine with it. This one... the writing was fine, the plot oscillated nicely between build-up and climax, the characters were, for the most part, sympathetic and fully drawn. And yet this just didn't grab me. Maybe it's because the world-building was a little (okay, a lot) weak, so I never connected with it.

I'm leading the middle school book discussion on this tomorrow; I'll see how its intended audience feels about it. ( )

Sometimes a book is just a perfect fit for a particular mood, personality, or time. All of which is to say that others may not love this book quite as much as I did, because some of this is serendipity of fit. Its August, the hot weather has finally arrived, I've been working on some really boring reports where I have to be focused and practical and pay attention to mind numbing levels of detail. I sort of hate mind numbing levels of detail, it makes me aggressively flippant. So Flora Segunda and a cold drink were precisely what I needed at this juncture.

Its funny, its intricate, its just a little bit silly. It takes me to a completely different place but it doesn't insult my intelligence in so doing. Plus there are magical butlers!!

None the less, even if you aren't in my particular place I think its still a book well worth reading. As others have said its a nice change that the fantasy elements in this story are drawn from Californian, spanish and precolumbian elements. Flora is a delightful heroine, funny and flawed and brave. I really enjoyed and look forward to reading more about the way magic works in this world. ( )

A great read while recuperating (and I'm sure a great read for anyone who is not recuperating). I loved the inclusion of different languages into the writing of the book, the fresh bits of fantasy that are involved (as well as the careful reuse of some oldie-but-goodie bits), and the wit and wonder that is Flora. Her tone reminded me of the sarcasm in Bartimaeus trilogy and the feistiness of some of Tamora Pierce's heroines. All in all, a great new author and character to get into. ( )