I was giggling throughout this book!! From finding a dead zone in Nebraska (because who lives in Nebraska) to literally ALL of Baz’s observations about the different states and terrains, everything about this road trip had me laughing. This is a boy who has spent the majority of his life fighting for his life and doesn’t know how to rebuild it after he’s lost his cause, and all I wanted to do was give him a hug and tell him how amazing he is! It was great to see him learn to understand himself a bit more, but I’m definitely excited to read the next book (where it looks like he’s holding a sword.

On the other hand, Simon is clearly suffering from depression and doesn’t understand how anyone can look at him without pity, which is so heartbreaking. He is just so enamoured with Simon Snow and has the hardest time explaining how he feels, it’s hard not to love him. His relationship with Penelope is adorable, but it’s his absolute love for Simon that melts my heart.

WE GET SO MUCH BAZ-TIME! He was my favourite character in Carry On and I LOVE that we get so much more of him in this book, except that now we’re getting to see a softer side of him. Learning about the American rules around magic actually help to better understand the British rules, something we just had to make assumptions about in Carry On.

I also love that this book takes them to America, a completely new country with new magical experiences that we can easily enjoy with the characters. I ended up loving Wayward Son even more because this get like the clear beginning of a new series, but now we know the characters and have a connection to them. I loved Carry On, including the fact that it felt like readers had been dropped into the end of a magical series without any knowledge of the rest of the series. And this book completely lived up to my expectations! So when Rowell announced Wayward Son last year, I immediately put the publishing day in my phone and the countdown began. But I wanted more! More Baz, more magic, more Simon Snow chaos. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book for years! Fangirl continues to be one of my favourite books and Carry On was such a fun story for readers to get as a follow up to all of Cather’s writing.

New rainbow rowell book