Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire’s Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the “real” world.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests…

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Warning: May contain nuts. 

I try to keep my reviews relatively spoiler-free, but I’ll go ahead and preface this one with a MILD SPOILER WARNING. If you haven’t at least read Every Heart a Doorway (and plan to), you may want to skip this review!

Maybe you’ve noticed I’ve been enjoying this series. Just a teensy bit. Or a bit more than that. Like, a lot more. OK, I love it. I LOVE THIS SERIES SO FUCKING HARD THAT IT HURTS MY HEART EVERY DAY *ahem* Yes. They are quite enjoyable books.

 I had more than a couple people mention on Bookstagram that Beneath the Sugar Sky had sort of…not been their favorite of the series. And fair enough, it’s probably not my favorite either. I think overall, it lacked a little bit (just a little) of the emotional oomph that make the first two books so goddamn special. That said, Beneath the Sugar Sky is gorgeously written, a ton of fun to read, and really builds this fascinating world out even further. And I just loved it!!!

We’re introduced to some new characters in this book, while also reuniting with some familiar faces as well. The main POV character is Cora, and I couldn’t have loved her any more. She’s this perfectly relatable mix of self-doubt and self-confidence, awkwardness & poise, and I fucking loved the addition of a character who both struggles with and has made peace with her own body image issues. She’s just incredibly real & complex. Oh, and she also happened to be a mermaid in the world she lived in prior to her admission to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. So that’s pretty rad.

The story focuses on Rini, who is the teenaged daughter of Sumi (from Every Heart a Doorway). So, if you’ve read that book, you’ll know there’s some…timey-wimey fuckery going on here.

This one has more of an adventure vibe than the previous two entries, as the characters venture to the world of Confection, where pretty much everything is made of sugar. For real, there’s an ocean of strawberry soda & it’s fucking radical! Knowing (via Twitter) McGuire’s predilection for fun flavors of soda made this an especially cool touch! 

The tone of Beneath the Sugar Sky was perhaps a bit lighter than the first two, but it was no less engaging & brilliant. Once again, McGuire gives all her characters incredibly unique voices & perspectives. This is just a magical series & I hope it never ends!