(MMGM) The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy {Review & Giveaway}

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The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw

(The League of Princes #3)

by Christopher Healy

4/29/14

Walden Pond Press

The League of Princes returns in the hilariously epic conclusion to the hit series that began with Christopher Healy's The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the more clever, hilariously successful incarnations of the current literary rage to rip apart and rewrite fairy tales."

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You think you know those guys pretty well by now, don't you? Well, think again. Posters plastered across the thirteen kingdoms are saying that Briar Rose has been murdered—and the four Princes Charming are the prime suspects. Now they're on the run in a desperate attempt to clear their names. Along the way, however, they discover that Briar's murder is just one part of a nefarious plot to take control of all thirteen kingdoms—a plot that will lead to the doorstep of an eerily familiar fortress for a final showdown with an eerily familiar enemy.

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Christopher Healy is one of the BEST middle-grade authors writing today and his League of Princes Series is awesome proof of why! I loved The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, absolutely adored The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle, and AND am completely crazy for The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw. Healy concludes his gut-busting series with a wildly hilarious, thrilling, clever bang!

Princes Liam, Duncan, Frederic, Gustav, and their feisty female counterparts, are wanted men and women. Outlaws accused of murdering Briar Rose; a crime they didn’t commit. The League of Princes set out to clear their name and discover that Briar Rose’s murder is just one small part of a HUGE evil plan to take over the thirteen kingdoms. Our favorite bumbling princes and awesome heroines must journey far and wide, face new and old enemies, and learn to rely on each other to save the day once again!

Like its two predecessors, The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw is non-stop, laugh-out-loud, wickedly clever entertainment. Christopher Healy is a spectacular storyteller, whose words are pure magic. His pitch-perfect middle-grade voice, unforgettable characters, and captivating imagination make this series ender the best in the trilogy (which is saying something!).

What I love so much about this series and Healy’s writing, is how well he “gets” his intended audience! Healy writes smart, twisty, layered stories, because he knows middle-grade readers not only crave these kinds of books, but are fully capable of handling them. The world in the League of Princes Series is vividly and complexly developed and laid out, with both familiar and awesomely new fairytale, fantasy, and adventure elements. Magic spells, healing tears, trolls, sprites, giant mongeese (or is it mongooses?), and So. Much. More...The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw has it all!

At over 500 pages, The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw is a longer middle-grade book, but it didn’t feel long enough! The thrills, twists, and action are plentiful and so smart.   And the humor?! FANTABULOUS! I mean it when I say this book is full of laugh-out-loud, gut-busting humor. Middle-grade readers and grown-ups alike will be completely enchanted and reduced to giggle-fits by Healy’s brand of humor. Our fave heroes and heroines find themselves on a ship full of pirates, on a desert journey in search of a djinn, locked up in a dungeon, and battling ferocious foes...and they do all this with style, pizazz, and moxie!

And speaking of those heroes and heroines? They really are just so fantastically awesome! Charming, endearing, lovable, amusing, sweet, kind, engaging...the ways to describe these characters could go on and on. Readers will fall in love with the four bumbling, but brave heroes and the totally rockstar ladies! I love ALL the heroes and heroines, but must admit that young Lila is my absolute favorite and I would LOVE to see this spunky, fearless heroine get her own series...hint hint nudge nudge Mr. Healy ;)

Healy concludes book three, and this series, in a wonderfully satisfying and inspiring way...but I’m still SO sad to see it end :(

My Final Thoughts: Epically entertaining, funny, and clever, I couldn’t have asked for a more awesome end to this series! Christopher Healy has written a truly spectacular middle-grade series and I can’t recommend it enough. If you have  a reluctant middle-grade reader in your life, hand them this series and watch the magic happen!

 

MY RATING

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Christopher Healy is the author of the Hero's Guide trilogy: The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle, and coming in spring 2014, The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw. The series is a comedic adventure that follows the exploits of four different Prince Charmings in the aftermath of their not-quite-accurate fairy-tale fame. It is published on May 1st, 2012, by Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins. A film version is currently in development at Fox Animation/Blue Sky Studios.

Chris lives in New Jersey with his wife, two children, and a dog named Duncan. Visit him at ChristopherHealy.com. And learn more about the Hero's Guide universe at OfficialHerosGuide.com.

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Review: The Hero's Guide To Storming The Castle by Christopher Healy

The Hero's Guide To Storming The Castle

(The League of Princes #2)

by Christopher Healy

4/30/13

Walden Pond Press

Format: ARC

Source: pub

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Purchase: Amazon / B&N / Indiebound

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You remember them, don't you? They're the Princes Charming who finally got some credit after they stepped out of the shadows of their princesses - Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Briar Rose - to defeat an evil witch bent on destroying all their kingdoms. 
But alas, such fame and recognition only last so long. And when the princes discover that an object of great power might fall into any number of wrong hands, they are going to have to once again band together to stop it from happening - even if no one will ever know it was they who did it. 
Christopher Healy, author of the acclaimed The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, takes us back to the hilariously fractured fairy-tale world he created for another tale of medieval mischief. Magical gemstones, bladejaw eels, a mysterious Gray Phantom, and two maniacal warlords bent on world domination - it's all in a day's work for the League of Princes.

Last year, Christopher Healy charmed and delighted readers (especially this reader!) with his spectacular and hilarious middle-grade debut The Hero's Guide To Saving Your Kingdom...well, Healy has done it again with the equally hilarious sequel The Hero's Guide To Storming The Castle. In Storming The Castle, the League of Princes--Princes Liam, Fredric, Duncan, and Gustav--the Princes Charming who saved the day in the first book and finally got some decent credit for it, are back! A year after their first adventure, the four princes have found that their very brief fame is gone and they've scattered to different kingdoms. But when the mean and annoying Briar Rose forces the League to steal a dangerous and powerful object from Deeb Rauber, the four princes, along with Cinderella, Snow White, Briar Rose, Lila (Liam's sister), set out to storm the castle and save the day.

Everything I loved about book one (the humor, charming characters, superb storytelling, dazzling world-building) is not only present in Storming The Castle, but is even better! Healy has concocted and weaved a wildly funny fractured fairytale world, where the stakes are high, the characters are irresistible, and the storytelling simply shines. Like book one, Storming The Castle is a wonderful mix of clever humor, fantastical whimsy, and addicting adventure.

Healy writes with a pitch-perfect middle-grade voice that never stops being captivating and riveting. One of the things I always look for in middle-grade is that special spark that sets incredible middle-grade books apart from good middle-grade books, and this book (and series) sparks like fireworks! I love the magical, medieval, twisted fairytale world Healy has created. Evil witches, grumpy dwarves (never dwarfs), sociable trolls, kiddie thieves, bladejaw eels...this book as it all and then some! And the humor is the best! We're talking giggle inducing silly, snarky, smart funnies.

And you can't have a League of Princes without the princes...those sweet, silly, brave, bumbling, unforgettable princes. I adore this group of princes and they way they interact. They're heroic enough to be exciting, but bumbling enough to be endearing. But don't worry, the female characters are just as awesome! I especially love fearless, snarktastic Lila. And the villains are perfectly, cleverly, stupendously villainous.

The story is all fun twists and turns, but like any good fairytale, Storming The Castle ends with a pretty happy (but open for more adventures) ending.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS: This is a laugh-out-loud, unputdownable, epically entertaining sequel that will enchant readers of all ages. I'm very much in love with this series and cannot wait until the next book. If you have a middle-grade reader in your life, or if you're a middle-grade lover, then this is the perfect book and series for you!

MY RATING

Christopher Healy

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Christopher Healy has spent nearly a decade immersed in children's pop culture as a freelance reviewer of books, movies, music, toys, and video games. His work has appeared in multiple magazines and websites, and he continues to post reviews to his own blog, KidPop and Beyond (kidpopandbeyond.blogspot.com). 
His first novel, The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, is a comedic adventure that follows the exploits of four different Prince Charmings in the aftermath of their not-quite-accurate fairy-tale fame. It will be published on May 1st, 2012, by Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins. 
Chris lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children. And he can assure you that everything that appears in his book has been studied and approved by his nine-year-old daughter.