Together, they toasted the traditional blessing, "Love is all we Desire. Will is all that we must Do."
Flora, nearing age fourteen, is a seemingly ordinary girl with unordinary parents, and she lives in what is left of one of the great houses. Her family line, Fyrdraaca, is almost at an end. There is no glory in a dying house, a father who’s gone mad, and a mother who is commanding and sometimes overbearing.
In fact, Flora is frustrated with her life and her surroundings. Things just aren’t how they are supposed to be. For instance, Flora’s mother, a general in the Warlord’s army, has exiled the house butler, Valefor. Magick is for the lazy, her mother claims. But without the care of the butler, their house has fallen into shambles. The rooms no longer shift and change. The elevator has a mind of its own. The family is cramped in the few rooms that are open to them. The house has shut them off from the other 11,000 rooms.
However, one early morning Flora decides to daringly take the elevator in the hope that it would save her from being late for school. The elevator, on the other hand, had other intentions and took Flora to a floor she had never seen before where she meets the exiled butler.
Valefor, the butler, turns out to be a denizen and the soul of the House of Fyrdraaca. He’s grown weak, too weak to care for the house, and as he slowly dies off so will the house.
Flora, feeling pity for Valefor, decides to help him regain his strength. This is how Flora’s adventure into adulthood begins.
Flora Segunda, by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt, Inc, ISBN 0-15-205433-2) is an incredible book with a powerful message about willpower. To paraphrase one of the characters: “Magick is simply a game we play with ourselves. Will is our true power.”
Flora gave up her will: she carelessly handed her will over to Valefor and she often gave in to her mother’s will. Flora was also at the mercy of her father’s madness and she lived in the shadow of a deceased sister.
Without control over her own life, Flora began to fade away. Only when she took control over her situation, her life, and future, did she regain her will. The House of Fyrdraaca would thrive once more.
With such an important message and life-like characters, Flora Segunda is a great book to choose for book reports as well as young adult and adult reading groups. This is one book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.
