stravaganza city of secrets

Matteo, who is given a book token as a birthday gift from his aunt. Matteo doesn't care much for words, writing or reading, for he is dyslexic and finds reading nearly impossible. But when he stumbles into Mr. Mortimer's antique shop, for some reason he is fascinated by antiquarian leather bound book in Latin and takes it home as a cool novelty. Little does he know that after he falls fast asleep, he will enter the city of Padavia of Talia. And in Talia, as is a normal occurrence, any affliction one has in England is corrected in the new world. So in Talia, Matteo can read just fine making it hard to return to a world where he is insecure and dysfunctional. Each Stravagante is brought to Talia for a purpose, consistency so far, to help the main character Luciano in his fight against the evil family, the de Chimici. This series is a hard one to review; it’s so very difficult to explain, due to the fact that there are numerous characters all coming and going and many plots with subplots intertwining from one book to the other. It is almost easier to review the series as a whole, rather than each book individually.

All the previous Stravagantes, Luciano, Georgia, Nick and Sky, show up in this latest novel to assist Matteo in his goal to help Luciano fight the de Chimici who is now instruments of the church, dictating that those who no longer follow the church and continue to follow pagan faiths will be arrested and burned at the stake. In the other three previous stories they meet the nomad group of Gypsies called the Manoush, friends to the Stravagantes and Royal families of Talia. The Manoush have their own pagan ceremonies celebrate feast days to honor the goddess of Belezza. With the new laws, now they are thrown up against the wall, warned that if they do not stop their heathen ways, they will be imprisoned, and put to death. So with this new threat to the city states of Talia, installed by a de Chimici Cardinal, Luciano, Matteo, and all the other players must once again combat this fearful enemy, and rush to save their friends the Manoush with all the ingenuity, strength and Stravagating magic they can muster up as a team.