Flora Segunda

Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Published: 1-1-2007 by Harcourt

Flora knows better than to take shortcuts in her family home, Crackpot Hall--the house has eleven thousand rooms, and ever since her mother banished the magickal butler, those rooms move around at random. But Flora is late for school, so she takes the unpredictable elevator anyway. Huge mistake. Lost in her own house, she stumbles upon the long-banished butler--and into a mind-blowing muddle of intrigue and betrayal that changes her world forever.

Flora Segunda is a magical book, a little confusing sometimes, but very entertaining and charming. Flora is thirteen going on fourteen, and she's not the least bit afraid of adventure. This is definitely a trait I enjoy in a main character.

• Flora - Flora is a spitfire. She's seriously awesome and a little bit (ok, very) disobedient. She's fourteen but she's out to kick butt and be a ranger, which is basically a spy, just like her idol, Nini Mo. She doesn't spend a lot of time planning things, but she manages to get things done her way.
• plot - Everything is pretty much against Flora - even some of the people she thought were on her side. Despite this, Flora does what she believes is right, and she does so with no hesitation. It's adventurous the whole way through. It's more fantasy than paranormal and I think we need more of that in general.
• magic - I'm not completely sure I understand what Flora's magic is, but the magical atmosphere of this book is great. Flora's house has an elevator that goes wherever it pleases, eleven thousand rooms, and a strange purple guy she never knew existed.

• capitalization - There were Dainty Pirates who were also known by other names, there were monster-birds who came out of nowhere and were really creepy, and there were mansions with capitalized names that also had nonhuman creatures who were either living inside the houses or were the houses - I'm not exactly sure. One of my biggest bookish pet peeves is the capitalization of regular words. House. Butler. Elevator. It makes me confused and my brain stumbles for a second. I just don't understand the need for it. 
• Valefor - I would hope that if you live in a somewhat magical house and find a magical butler, that he would be nice. Valefor is a manipulative jerk. He takes advantage of Flora and this puts here in great danger. He's also extremely selfish. And purple. Although I guess being purple isn't a bad thing.

• But the stupid Elevator did not let me off at the Hallway of Laborious Desire. No, the stupid Elevator had slowly and silently borne me upward, gently floating as on a summer swell, and though I banged and shouted, the Elevator did not slow or stop. Past the second floor it went, past a third floor - we'd never had a third floor before - upward and upward it went, smooth and steady, until with a grinding whine, it stopped. The golden outer doors opened to a thick darkness.          - pg. 18-19
• He wiggled a little wave in my direction and dissolved into a froth of purple. Well, he could pout all he wanted; my plan did not hinge on him, anyway, though I had hoped to get him to help Udo and me with our disguises, and maybe whip us up a nice snack before we went to tackle the Warlord.            - I don't know the pg. #....oops

3 robots

A book with a brave and adventurous heroine, great writing, and unnecessary capitalizing

Acquired: swapped for on swap.com