Word Spelunking

4.5 / 5 Stars THREE WORDS: Rock. And. Roll…*throws up the double horns*MY REVIEW: Sinister teddy bears. Evil dollhouses. Rabid fangirls…no, this isn’t a Justin Bieber music video (eww!!!). It’s the rockin’ fun in Fairystruck, the third book in the Songs of Magic series by J.L. Bryan.Picking up where the second book leaves off, in Fairystruck we find Jason, Erin, Mitch and Dred- aka the Assorted Zebras, aka the Rioting Zebras- living the rock and roll dream as their #1 hit “The Sugar Dance” skyrockets them to fame. As the opening act on the Smoov-Moov tour, the Zebras find themselves touring across the US, traveling in a rickety old schoolbus with their new tour manager. Aoide the faerie and Liadan the banshee find themselves in man-world, on the hunt for the missing magical instruments. While Aoide and Liadan must navigate in a strange world, the Zebras must contend with enthusiastic fans, eccentric rappers, controlling music execs and sinister teddy bears…yep, teddy bears!I always have so much fun when reading the Songs of Magic series and in Fairystruck the fun, laughs and music keep flowing! J.L. Bryan continues to expand his enchanting and rocking world, while further developing his engaging characters.In this volume we find all our favorite characters in new and exciting places. The Assorted Zebras, who have been renamed the Rioting Zebras, are thrust into the spotlight, playing in front of huge crowds, and Bryan has depicted this experience with laugh out loud humor, while keeping the story fresh and hip. The teenage characters get to live out this bigger than life fantasy and I love feeling like I’m experiencing everything with them.Bryan continues to explore Jason and Erin’s romantic feelings toward one another and I like that we actually get to see these feelings develop naturally, instead of simply having them thrust into our faces. And both Jason and Erin continue to be awesome characters. Mitch, however, is easy to cringe at as he becomes more and more of a greedy sell out. But, I’m glad Bryan has decided to take his character in this direction because it’s a really realistic depiction of how one might act when they’ve been handed the chance at fame and success. Dred just continues to be friggin awesome! I love that snarky drummer girl!I was a little disappointed that we don’t spend too much time in Faerie with Aoide and her band, but I really loved experiencing our world (man-world) through her eyes. She’s such a cute, endearing character and so much fun to read about.The path to musical fame and success is not so simple (thank goodness!) and the Zebras must go up against all the things evil Queen Mab sends their way, including gargoyles and teddy bears. Crazy, violent, sharp object wielding teddy bears! You’ll never look at Teddy Ruxpin or Paddington Bear the same way again (not that they weren’t totally creepy before). I love that these books don’t take themselves too seriously and are all about the good humored mockery of pop culture and fun, over the top situations.In the end we find Jason and Erin in a very unexpected (but awesome!) place and I cannot wait to see what happens next!MY FINAL THOUGHTS: The Songs of Magic series is my go to series when I want a fun, entertaining read that is guaranteed to make me laugh and Fairystruck is no exception. This book and series are definite MUST reads!