I said I wanted to read the second Chrestomanci book and I finally have! One thing I’ve realised (belatedly, and due to not taking in what other people have said about the series) is that none of these books are connected to one another! So now I don’t feel too bad that I read Witch Week first, even though it’s Book 3.

The Magicians of Caprona is set in Italy, where Italy is a series of independent city-states. Tonino belongs to Casa Montana, one of the two best families of magicians, who have been feuding with the equally powerful Casa Petrocchi for generations. But when Caprona is threatened with war, their hope rests with finding the true words to the spell Angel of Caprona. Tonino, who isn’t very good at magic, truth be told, doesn’t think he can help – until he is enchanted and forced to work with Angelica Petrocchi.

As expected, I found this to be a really fun fantasy story. We spent most of our time with the Montana’s and they seem to be a warm, loving bunch. I liked that though Tolino wasn’t very good with magic, the family didn’t look down on him but tried to help him and accepted him no matter what. And since it’s a big family, they tend to get up to a lot of fun – I thought the spell about the dishes was funny!

Since this is a Chrestomanci story, he does appear. To be honest, his role is a bit dues ex machina type of role, where he comes in to help with the magic problems, but since most of the problem is figured out by Tolino and Angelica, I didn’t have a problem with it.

While the main plot is tied up pretty nicely overall, I think DWJ left some room for imagination on what comes after (or a second book, even). I really do wonder what happens to Tolino and Angelica now that Chrestomanci is in the picture and can help with their magic education, and if certain family members ever improve in terms of character! There’s one person, in particular, who gets a sudden ‘reveal’ in terms of “who he truly is” but that is never really followed up on and I would like to know more.

As expected, this was a fun story and I pretty much finished it in a day! I’ll definitely be reading Book 4 sooner or later – I still want to get to the second Howl’s Moving Castle book and read Fire & Hemlock sooner or later.

P.s. The order of Chrestomanci books confuses me. I think there are several orders because I remember someone calling this Book 4 (it’s also this on Goodreads) but on Libby, this is labelled as Book 2:

Oh well, as long as I enjoy the books!