The Lucky Diamond

Fun adventure in a magical land.

A family of five orphaned children living rough on the streets of Lowdar come upon a diamond, but this is no ordinary precious stone. This is Lucky, princess of a magical shape-changing species, and she needs the children to help her get home. I loved this magical tale. The world building is engaging, the world is full of fun, and sometimes scary, creatures, and the children need to use all of their skills (and the magical gifts left to them by their mother) to navigate the perilous journey. My favorite of the five children was middle child, Vicky. Determined, brave, and rebellious, I loved her attitude. However, all the children are likable and relatable and I enjoyed spending time with them. I love that the children have such different and well established personalities, because every reader is going to find at least one character that they can easily relate to. The magical Diamonds are such an original idea, and I look forward to learning more about them in subsequent books. There is something about the King of the Diamonds that draws me to him particularly. Queen Rose is a formidable foe, who reminds me a bit of Jadis, the White Witch, from Narnia. I love her castle, and I wouldn’t mind have a home like it! The book has little illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, which was a nice touch, and I love the cover artwork. There is a scene from the book on the back cover, which I particularly liked. This seems to be the first book in a series and, even though the book ended in a very satisfying manner, there are a few questions that I hoped to see answered in sequels.