Bad Luck Girl, by Sarah Zettel

I was thrilled to receive my review copy of Sarah Zettel's Bad Luck Girl, the final book in her American Fairy Trilogy. Zettel had already produced two exceptionally creative, intelligent installments for this series (Dust Girl and Golden Girl), so I was crossing my fingers for a truly spectacular finish.

Zettel's heroine is Calliope Margaret LeRoux deMinuit, the half-human, half-fairy heir to the Unseelie throne. After surviving a fantastic adventure that took her from Dust Bowl Kansas to 1930s Hollywood, Callie is struggling to adjust to having parents again—particularly her long-lost father, a powerful, protective fairy prince. Both the Seelie and Unseelie courts are still hell-bent on capturing Callie, whose unique magical gifts make her incredibly valuable, so her father comes up with a plan to hide their little family (along with Callie's friend Jack) in Chicago. He assumes Callie will simply fall in line, but Callie's no longer willing to obey anyone without question, no matter how noble their intentions.

As fantasy heroines go, Callie lacks the charisma of Flora Segunda or Heir Apparent's Giannine, but she's a sturdy, sympathetic narrator. I was totally invested in her irritation over her parents' cool assumption of authority, and her ongoing struggle to reconcile her magic with her morals. I had some quibbles—the final fight sequence drags on way too long, Callie's relationship with Jack is given short shrift, the epilogue is too pat—but otherwise found Bad Luck Girl to be a highly satisfying conclusion to what has turned out to be one of my favorite YA series from the past five years.

Review based on publisher-provided copy.