Phyllo Cane and the Magical Menagerie - Sharn W Hutton

 

"Magically magnificent, fantastic and ferocious

at least, that’s what you’d expect of a fire-breathing dragon.

But what if yours won’t come out of its pen to perform? What if the Ringmaster thinks it’s worth more in the apothecary chop-shop than as part of the troupe?

The Beast Whisperer of the Circus of Wonder must bring her beloved dragon back up to its performing peak fast, if she’s to save it, and she thinks she knows what to do.

The unhappy creature needs a mate, but the male sand dragon is a rare beast indeed, and she’ll never be able to catch one alone.

Time for Phyllo to become the Beast Whisperer’s apprentice…"

Well! This was a whole heap of fun 😊 I was fortunate to receive both books in the series for review (Circus of Wonder being the first) so read them back to back. Our main protagonist here is Phyllo Cane, a young chap who comes from a family of Circus Confectioners. After a series of scrapes, incidents and bad luck PC finds the only way to stay with the Circus is to become an apprentice - but not just once, oh no! In Circus of Wonder he became an apprentice Trapeze Artist (with a fear of heights) while with Magical Menagerie he is apprenticed to the Beast Whisperer Tamer Venor and her collection of magical creatures. 

Thanks to Phyllo having to build a portal (part of his training) we get to see more of the world here as he is able to venture out into it in search of new creatures, especially a mate for a depressed Sand Dragon, so the scope is much wider here than with book 1.

Magical Menagerie is a cracking read (for all ages) in a well realised world setting with a lead character it's fun to spend time with.

A well deserved 5/5* (4.7/5 for book 1) Highly Recommended 

Many thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the Blogtour and providing the review copies (which did not influence my opinions at all!)

My review is the last on the tour so all the other reviews (below) are available for your perusal - please have a read of them if you can.