ESCAPE FROM CASTLE CANT
by K.P. Bath
In this disappointing sequel to The Secret of Castle Cant (2004), stepsisters Lucy Wickwright, illegitimate daughter of the recently deceased Lord Cant and rightful heir according to the Causist rebels, and Pauline von Cant, Lord Cant’s daughter by marriage and rightful heir according to the Loyalist faction, are constantly on the run. While Secret featured Lucy as its heroine, Escape focuses on Pauline, revealing her true lineage and secret addiction to chewing gum. As the girls’ self-proclaimed regents and their followers battle over control of the overpriced, imported chewing-gum trade and attempt to find the young fugitives, the confusing plot never gains momentum, simply cycling through Lucy and Pauline’s captures and escapes. Missing, too, are the quirkiness, humor, adventure and anachronistic flourishes (no more jeans and t-shirts amid castles and dungeons). Escape from this is necessary. (Fiction. 10-13)