"One of my favorite authors" Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game
Praise for other books by Mette Ivie Harrison:
Praise for The Princess and the Hound, the first book in this series:
"[P]owerful, surprising, moving, and deep. . . The Princess and the Hound is a classic. It defies rules and formulas. It does nothing in the way that other fantasies have taught us to expect. Yet every rule-defying decision by Harrison is exactly right, leading to a breathtakingly right ending."
Orson Scott Card
"Harrison's writing style is most evocative of Robin McKinley but still all her own. Readers of fantasy, animal stories and subtle romances will enjoy this novel and hope for more from this skilled author. Fans of Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip, Franny Billingsley, Cornelia Funke and Sherwood Smith should add this to their "must" be read list.
Heidi Anne Heiner, SurlaLune Fairy Tales
"Not since Tale of Desperaux have I opened a book and wanted to read aloud so much. In her prologue Mette Ivie Harrison evoked exactly the tone and voice of a classic fairy tale in the oral tradition. . ."
interactivereader.com
About Much Ado About Magic, based on the Shakespeare play:
Last year, Beatrice Hero was humiliated by Benedick Padua using a truth spell on her to admit her love for Pedro Arragon, who quickly rejected her in front of the entire high school. Now she overhears that Benedick is in love with her and has been for years. Is she more interested in love or revenge?
In a contemporary world where there are five clans, Arragons with money, Heros with beauty, Florentines with strength, Paduans with truth, and Messinas with knowledge, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is retold. Benedick and Beatrice are feisty lovers who take as much pleasure in needling each other with ever greater displays of wit as they do in kissing. But when Beatrice and Sarah are accused of stealing a different clan's magic spell and the World Council gets involved, only Benedick believes they are innocent and can prove that someone else is trying to change the balance of power and use all five magic spells at once.
As Beatrice says, "sometimes love and hate aren’t different feelings. They’re our hearts telling us that there is a connection, and we don’t know what to do about it."
More praise for books by Mette Ivie Harrison:
"Grips you from the very first page all the way to the surprising conclusion."
Holly Black, author of The Spiderwick Chronicles
"What I loved about the book was the idea of the secrets we keep, and when it is necessary to disclose them. . . . [T]he world of Harrison's novel is one where such secrets may bring about persecution and death. . . I think a lot of teens will relate it to high school."
Alex Flinn, author of Beastly, now a major motion picture
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