This is a strong follow-up to Blue in the Face and readers who enjoyed the first title, will surely enjoy this one.

Although I received a copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley, all opinions remain my own.

This is the second book I have read by Swallow and I loved it just as much as the first. This one did seem a tad darker then the first. The adventure is to rescue the missing queen from evil. I love seeing how much Elspeth has grown in this book. In book one she was beyond horrible. Not often do I dislike a character as much as I did her. By the end of this book, she was really growing as a person, the love she shares with both her sets of parents is wonderful. Adoption can be a tricky thing.

As I did with the first, I freaking loved the nursery rhyme like endings to each chapter. One was so great that I had to read it to my husband. We both got a laugh from that one. Cannot wait to see the finished book and the illustrations that were only "to come" in my copy.

Overall, this was a very fun book. I can imagine it would be a really fun one to read with my girls. Looking forward to the next books from Swallow.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Long Live the Queen is a middle grade novel written by Gerry Swallow. It is the sequel to Blue in the Face, and it features the (mis)adventures of a young girl named Elspeth who needs to return to the fairy tale land of New Winkieland to help her old friends. The queen has been kidnapped, and Elspeth discovers the rescue operation might involve working with an old enemy.

I always read the middle grade books I receive with my three elementary school girls. Not only is it bonding time for us, but it also provides me with valuable feedback about the book. My girls absolutely loved Long Live the Queen; we have not read Blue in the Face, but that did not affect our ability to understand the plot of Long Live the Queen. My girls thought the book was very funny, and there were numerous times that I had to ask them to settle down so that I could keep reading. They loved the cheeky humor, and they also loved the nursery rhyme and fairy tale references. They were very excited when they recognized a character, although they were rather partial to Gene the talking stick.

I have to say that the girls loved the book more than I did. I appreciate that Swallow included references beyond the target audience of post-millenials; the Silence of the Lambs homage was quite clever. But sometimes things were a little too twee, and it got in the way of the plot.

Ultimately, my opinion as a book reviewer doesn’t matter as much as what my children think. They loved Long Live the Queen, and so I would recommend the book to middle grade readers who like humorous books like Dork Diaries or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Even though I hadn't read teh first book in this series, I didn't have too many problems understanding the plot of this one. While it frequently references previous events, the plot of this one is largely independent. It tries too hard to be clever, though, relying more on puns thab proper character and plot development.