Lief, Jasmine and Barda have freed Deltora from the Shadow Lord's power, restored the Belt of Deltora and even rescued the Deltoran prisoners from the Shadowlands, but all is not well in Deltora. There is a growing shortage of food as crops fail, harvests lessen and the people starve.

But new information comes to light of a curse the Shadow Lord has left - Four Sisters - terrible servants of the Shadow Lord that are poisoning the land. The only hope is to set out on a new quest to find the only thing said to be able to defeat them - the Dragons of Deltora.

Lief, Jasmine and Barda have defeated the Sisters of the East and of the North and are on their way west to find the third Sister. But they are delayed in their journey when they become tangled up with Laughing Jack, Verity, Red Hans and a ghost ship.

The story of Red Hans, Verity and the ghost ship was fascinating. Verity was awesome. I loved her cursing Laughing Jack and the crew with their downfall. The only thing more epic was Jasmine using that vow to never take any of the crew's winnings to doom Laughing Jack to eternal servitude as a rower. I don't know why Lief was so judgey about it. Jasmine was right - she didn't make him steal the gold back. She just made sure the temptation was available. The other characters were interesting too. Tom and Ava made me laugh - I only wish we got to learn more about Ava - her appearance is kind of brief. Barda's outrage at Ava's prices was amusing. Although frankly I thought it was more outrageous that Tom sent gifts and then proceeded to ask for payment. I mean sure, they can afford it but seriously?

I liked the amethyst dragon as well. She was nicer than the others and a lot more reasonable. I definitely want to know more about the diamond dragon. I felt sorry for the mother dragon though. And Doran actually but at least he's now been put to rest.

A fast paced action packed adventure. I can't wait to read the conclusion to the quartet. 5 stars. ( )

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