Review – The Hidden Kingdom (Wings of Fire, Book 3) by Tui Sutherland (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0545349208
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Wings of Fire series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the third book in the Wings of Fire series by Sutherland, right now there are 10 books planned for this series. The story arc being followed in this book is supposed to wrap up in the first five books. This was my favorite Wings of Fire book so far. This book broke out of the predictable pattern the first two books in the series had and ends on more of a cliffhanger.

Glory is the one dragonet of prophecy that doesn’t belong, she is a RainWing and they are known as the lazy dragon tribe; they so lazy they are never involved in any of the dragon politics. In this book we venture into the RainWing Kingdom and get to meet Glory’s clan. The RainWing’s are exactly as described when they get there, lazy and uncaring. However when Glory finds out that RainWing dragons have been going missing she is determined to solve the mystery behind their disappearance.

I have been reading these because my 8 year old son loves them and asked me to read them. This was the first book in the series that I really found myself engaged in and enjoying. The previous two were decent, but more aimed at kids than adults.

There is a lot of humor in here and I enjoyed the addition of the Sloths, they are so funny. I also enjoyed hearing about the second set of five dragonets and enjoyed some of the new characters we meet (especially Deathbringer, I hope he is in the next book more).

I really enjoyed Glory as a character, I think she is my favorite dragonet of the bunch. Glory is constantly trying to prove she’s not lazy and she has a very large chip on her shoulder. Out of all the dragonets she grows the most as a character during her story.

Things really start to pick up pace in this book as well. The dragonets make some pretty big discoveries and many secrets are revealed in this book. Things are setup at the end so that you can tell the next book in the series will be about Starflight and the NightWing kingdom.

Overall this has been a decent series that I think kids will enjoy a lot more than adults. That being said this was the first book in the series that I really enjoyed (as an adult) and found myself really engaged in. This whole series is recommended to kids that love fantasy and are ready to move from beginning chapter books to middle grade fiction.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge