I'd had high hopes for this book and by the end...most were met. But for the first half or more, I found this to be cliche and a bit disappointing. Though that might be partially the fault of the audiobook. I had to give up on it slightly before half way and switch to the book; the narrator's voice made half of them sound like whiny teenagers. Now they may be just that but I will not listen to that if there's anyway to avoid it, so the audiobook had to go.

The country of Enchantasia (ha, ha - eye roll) is ruled by the famous princesses: Ella, Snow, Rose (Sleeping Beauty), and Rapunzel. Though Gottie (Rapunzel's villian...I think) and Alva (Sleeping Beauty's villian) are still loose, everyone is fairly safe and doing well - though the cobblers are in a downturn as Ella gave Glass Slipper creation rights to Fairy Godmothers. The rest of the villains are reformed. The Stepmonster (Flora), Wolfington (best not to mention Grandmother), Madam Cleo (the Sea Witch), and Harlow (Snow White's Evil Queen) live in an enchanted castle where they have turned their lives around and now help young people who are on the path to villainy.

Yep, they run Fairy Tale Reform School!

Their Mission: "To turn wicked delinquents and former villains into future heroes."

I remember buying this when it first came out, reading it, and not finding it terribly interesting. I didn't read it again nor did I read any of the later books, the series slipped beneath my radar and though I attempted to restart it once or twice, I never seemed to manage.

But I decided to give it another chance while I did my reread audiobook extravaganza and I'm glad I did. This time around I really enjoyed it and can't for the life of me remember why I didn't like it in the first place! Crazy.

I tend to be far more picky about Fantasy books then I wish to be. If a book fits into certain sub-genres, I'm generally sure to love it - dragons, fantasy mixed with Alternate History, and Urban Fantasy to name a few - but I've been attempting to give what to me is regular fantasy more of a try. So I was extremely excited to see what Eagle En Garde had in store for me.

But I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

Well, the fairies sure shot themselves in the foot this time! After wiping Artemis Fowl's memories, they've left themselves wide open to attack by a nefarious fairy indeed, Opal Koboi! Her attack comes early, targeting our old friends Root and Holly. The aftermath of that sends everyone scrambling as Koboi's plans include Artemis, who can't even remember her. Mulch goes to help Butler while Holly attempts to bring Artemis' knowledge back to him. Things get extremely hairy when Holly and Artemis have to tangle with a horde of trolls - without Butler to help them this time.

This is the last book in the series I've re-read enough to always remember the basics of the book. Artemis Fowl is trying to go "straight" legally or at least his version of it. Using the equipment from the LEP they took in the first book, he's created The Cube. A small piece of technology that can do more than even our modern phones, releasing it would render all other tech obsolete. Artemis tries to use this to essentially blackmail an evil corporate head (not terribly original though he manages to be quite menacing) but the plan horribly backfires, leaving the man with the Cube - thus giving him a chance to discover fairy kind - and Butler dead!