"Cloaked" by Alex Flinn

341 pages

Johnny has never felt like anyone special. Since his dad disappeared years ago, it's been just him and his mom, and times are tough. They can barely scrape enough cash together to pay their bills each month, so Johnny spends every free moment working in his mom's shoe-repair shop in the lobby of a South Beach hotel.

Then the beautiful, rich princess Victoriana checks into the hotel and happens to cross Johnny's path. She needs help: her brother Phillip has been turned into a frog by an evil witch, and Victoriana needs Johnny's help to get him back. At first Johnny thinks she's crazy, but it doesn't take long for him to realize that magic is real and has been all around him for quite some time.

This story is cute and fun, but I don't think it was as entertaining as Flinn's last book, "Beastly." The plot itself (of "Cloaked") was a little more interesting to me because I'm not as familiar with the fairy tale references in "Cloaked," but it's still pretty predictable. I really like the characters, especially the narrator Johnny, which helped me get into the story more. Overall, I found it to be a fun, enjoyable read but nothing really special.