Review--Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige

Once upon a time, there was a girl from Kansas named Dorothy.

You might know her as the Girl Who Rode the Cyclone. She ended up in Oz, where she became friends with the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. But the temptation of magic was too much for her. She let it change her. Her friends became twisted versions of their former selves.

The magical land of Oz is now a dark and menacing place.

My name is Amy Gumm. Tornadoes must have a thing about girls from Kansas, because I got swept away on one too. I also landed in Oz, where Good is Wicked, Wicked is Good, and the Wicked Witches clued me in to my true calling:

Assassin.

The only way to stop Dorothy from destroying Oz—and Kansas—is to kill her. And I’m the only one who can do it.

But I failed. Others died for my mistakes. Because of me, the portal between the worlds has been opened and Kansas and Oz are both in danger. And if I don’t find a way to close it?

Dorothy will make sure I never get to go home again. 

I finally picked up Danielle Paige's Yellow Brick War, the third installment in the thrilling Dorothy Must Die series! Naturally, it's been too long since I read The Wicked Will Rise and the recap that was supposedly on Epic Reads website somewhere is long gone. That's what happens when you wait too long to read the rest of the series! Lol.

So I did what I always do and just dive in and make the best of things! This one literally picks up where (I assume) we left off before and the Wicked have gathered around Amy. They have rejoined and need their fourth member, except, it's not who you think it is. It's Nox! No surprise there as it's revealed literally within the first few pages! And now Amy is left reeling, she's not sure what her role is anymore or what it ever was. And what will this mean for her and Nox as they were just starting to grow closer?

The main problem for Amy and the newly instated members of Wicked are that they are stuck in Kansas with no way back to Oz to defeat Dorothy and Glinda. The plan is that they will have to find Dorothy's original shoes that she wore on her first visit to Oz and in order to do that, Amy will have to go undercover...at her old high school and to do that she will have to return to her mother, the one who left her during the tornado. Only things are incredibly different.

Amy finds that her mother has changed, like a total 180 or whatever number is used in that instance! Lol. It's only been a month since Amy "vanished" and her mother has cleaned up, but Amy isn't sure if she can trust this new mom since she's been burned before with promises of sobering up. Amy is even surprised to find that Madison, her bully, her nemesis and all around pain the neck has changed. Not only has she had her baby, but she's just different too.

The mission to get back to Oz is all Amy can focus on, yet she's not completely unmoved by all the differences that have happened in her little town in Kansas. A part of her wonders what it would be like to stay, yet she knows Oz is where she belongs.

While on the hunt for the shoes Amy encounters a new enemy, the Nome King. Since I am not completely verse in all things Oz, I can't say if he was a character from the original stories. I feel like he might have been, but don't quote me on that! In fact, if you know the answer, let me know in the comments! And this new enemy is definitely going to be a doozie of a villain. Possibly even worse than Dorothy and Glinda combined.

This was a rather interesting installment, in fact, I can see why we all though that this was a trilogy. For the most part things are wrapping up and you would think it would just end there, possibly with a few loose strings, but that's nothing new. The ending wasn't as cliffhangery as it could've been either. Yes, there was a high point of action and we kind of leave off during a breather, but it definitely wasn't as dire as it could've been, thankfully!

I was somewhat saddened by the loss of relationship developing between Amy and Nox. As Nox took on the robe of the Wicked and became a full member, he's basically to put all other desires aside and serve the Wicked, which naturally means no love life. But I feel like we know that that this can't stop Amy and Nox for long and I just hope it doesn't last too much longer as their separation in this book was painful! While they weren't physically separated for long, it was still painful to see them apart.

I enjoyed being in Dainelle's Oz again! While it may not be the Oz of childhood, it's still a fun, yet exceedingly dark and scary place to be! Lol. Yeah, I'm weird I guess! I cannot wait to see how Danielle will bring this series to its epic finale! It's been a whirlwind (lol) of action, love, laughs, danger, and magic both of the good and evil variety. It's reminiscent of the Oz of old and yet stands as the Oz of new! It's a world worth visiting if you haven't already!



Overall Rating 4/5 stars