Dare – 4 Star Book Review

Welcome to one of the June 28th stops on the blog tour for Dare by Christina Bauer with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for 5+ more reviews and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

If you’re a regular on this blog or follow posts about Christina’s books, you’ll know I’ve already shared this review. I first reviewed the previous book in this series, Calla, through a Goddess Fish tour and it’s because of that tour that I discovered how much I love Christina’s writing. When I saw this tour put out the call for hosts after I’d already worked with XPresso, I held off so that others could have a chance to review this awesome book, but I let Goddess Fish know that I had a review to share if needed. Well, here we are! Let’s celebrate this book one more time while I wait for book four. Bonus: this round has an excerpt!

Also, once again a huge thank you to Christina Bauer for sending me physical copies of the Pixieland Diaries books after the previous tour. I showed them off on my YouTube channel recently!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

About the Book

Dare
Pixieland Diaries Book Three
by Christina Bauer

Published 30 March 2021
Monster House Books

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Page Count: 228
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

What happens when a pixie outcast seizes the throne of Faerie… while her beloved elf prince becomes a wanted criminal?

Sassy pixie Calla loves the prankster life, even if it does make her an outcast among other fae. But everything changes when Calla’s magic erases an evil blight destroying the Faerie realm. That’s when the pariah pixie becomes something unexpected: a Fae Queen.

Yet no sooner does Calla take the crown than a new and unstoppable plague appears. Things get even worse when Calla’s longtime crush, the elf Prince ‘Dare’ Darius, appears to have masterminded the outbreak before fleeing to the mountains. According to the Faerie elders, there’s only one way to end this disease…

Calla must hunt down Dare and destroy him.

Yeah. Like that will ever happen.

Instead of killing anyone, Calla vows to cure the plague while proving Dare’s innocence. And if she must pull a few mega-pranks to make it all happen? Not a problem. Even so, the path ahead is still fraught with trouble. Secret enemies scheme to manipulate the outbreak—as well as Calla’s feelings for Dare—in order to bring our favorite prankster down, once and for all.

Currently on sale in Kindle eBook format for $0.99 USD!

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Excerpt

Dear Diary,

This morning, I wake up with a plan. Brace for the drumroll…

Ba ba ba ba ba BAAAAAAA!

And here it is…

Now that I’m Queen of the Summer Fae, I shall flush some seriously crappy stuff out of my realm. And because this diary will surely become a major historical document, I will list the two poopy things in question.

My Massive, Idealistic, And Yet Totally Achievable Goals As Queen

One. Free the human changelings who are trapped in Faerie.

Two. Make the Elven High Council accept all fae as co-rulers, not just those of the snooty and pointy-eared variety.

Together, I call this my Changeling-Council Plan. These two things have been my main obsession for years, so long as you don’t count Prince Dare.

Which brings me to the present moment. I lie curled under the covers in my royal bedroom (which is totally pink and cute) and consider my next move. There are lots of folks I should consult about my Changeling-Council Plan. But there’s only one person who never-not-once questioned that I’d eventually kick the council’s butt and redefine changeling-hood.

Prince Dare.

Keeping a diary means being brutally honest. Here goes. There’s a secret goal on my previous list of queenly stuff.

Three. Dare

I don’t have anything more specific at this point. What can I say? I’m only sixteen.

But I do know what I need from Dare in terms of my Changeling-Council Plan. After all, the guy grew up in the winter court. Talk about knowing how to get stuff done. And the fact that Dare lives half-way across Faerie isn’t a problem, either. The prince and I have a secret way of contacting each other that’s worked since we were kids: we appear to one another as ghosts.

So it should be easy to talk to Dare and chat about my Changeling-Council Plan.

It isn’t, though.

There are two big issues in my way this morning. To begin with, I’ve got a supernatural and tickly feeling crawling up my back. And when I say ethereal tickles, you think impending doom. The last time I got this sensation, the Fartburger Trolls launched a surprise attack on Pixieland. I stopped them with a prank, but it was still a close call.

The second issue is far more serious. I cannot, not, NOT be the first one to ghost-call the prince. Why? Last night, Dare and I went on a sleigh ride and totally smooched. Although it was my first kiss, I know the rules. Dare must begin contact with moi, not the other way around.

So instead of getting ghosty, I shall spend my morning drawing something that is completely unrelated to Dare.

Like a tree.

– Calla

My Review

My Rating: 4 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads.

I was both invited to read DARE through a NetGalley widget provided directly by Christina Bauer herself and also accepted onto a blog tour for this title, which means I actually had two widgets sitting in my inbox. Yay! I couldn’t wait to read the next Pixieland Diaries volume. Thank you to both Christina Bauer and XPresso Book Tours for the opportunity. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Last time we took a peek into Calla’s diary she was on a mission to save her father and managed to find herself engaged to her Winter Court boyfriend Dare out of an act of spite on his behalf against his mother. Well, his mother’s animosity toward Calla continues, but there’s plenty more going on in Pixieland to distract them. Plagues, possessions, deaths and resurrections, and Calla’s plans to issue and revoke decrees that will change the way the Summer Court runs, oh my! This one may be short but it is packed.

I did take a glance at the other two reviews on Goodreads before mine once I was done, and it looks like everyone loved it but was hoping for Dare’s POV. Personally, I’m happy to continue to read adorable, airheaded Calla some more. Out of all of Bauer’s books and characters, Pixieland and Calla are my favourite. Bring it on! If you were genuinely hoping for diary entries by Dare, however, I’m sorry to say you won’t find them here.

Calla is still the very young, goofy girl I love to read, but she does appear to be growing and maturing just a little bit, and I love that too. She has definitely gained more control and understanding with Sammy, and I’m pleased to say nothing about the Calla-Sammy interactions in this one felt cheesy or annoying like they were at the beginning of the previous book. I enjoyed how often things in this book got flipped around and twisted, too. Regardless of whether or not readers were hoping for a different POV, I think this one will prove to be thoroughly gripping and entertaining.

By the way, fun little anecdote from my reading experience that doesn’t actually impact my rating: I listened to part of this book with the help of Acrobat’s screen reader while I was cooking and it just happened to be a section with a lot of references to ley magic. At one point I momentarily forgot that Calla’s mother is the Ley Queen and that this word was indeed ley, not the French “les.” I thought Calla was being goofy doing a French accent saying “les magic” for a good couple of paragraphs before I realized what the text must actually be, and I had to laugh at myself for that, but really it would have Calla anyway!

I highly recommend reading Dare if you enjoy Christina Bauer’s work or YA Fantasy in general, but please do read the previous book first. You’ll be lost without the background knowledge of who Dare is and what just happened before the events of this book, and this book is too short to afford time to summarize it for you.

About the Author

Christina Bauer thinks that fantasy books are like bacon: they just make life better. All of which is why she writes romance novels that feature demons, dragons, wizards, witches, elves, elementals, and a bunch of random stuff that she brainstorms while riding the Boston T. Oh, and she includes lots of humor and kick-ass chicks, too.

Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.

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Giveaway Alert!

Christina Bauer will be awarding a fairy necklace (US Only) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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