Stravaganza: City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman

I was so excited to see that the fourth book in the Stravaganza series had arrived! I loved the first two books, and liked the third one. It's one of my favorite fantasy series --it's everything I love in a good fantasy: two parallel worlds and characters that travel back and forth between them, living totally separate lives in each one; great characters; and a complicated but understandable plot which reads like historical fiction even though it's clearly fantasy. I don't know what's up with this fourth book, but I can't get through it! I've read half and I've pretty much decided not to finish it, but the thing that has me confused is that other reviewers are loving it. To me, it's poorly written, and the author has to spend so much time making sure the readers understand the complicated plot history of the other 3 books that she can't seem to develop the characters or the new plot. Review by Stacy Church