The Magicians of Caprona

Caprona, the Italian city of spellmakers, is in trouble in this, the third installment in the Chronicles of Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. A mysterious evil enchanter has made the feud between the Montana family and their rivals, the Petrocchi family, worse then ever. Armies are poised to invade Caprona, and the Duke seems incapable of stopping the impending disaster. That leaves it up to Tonino Montana and Angelica Petrocchi, two of the youngest members of their respective families, to try to stop the evil enchanter and save their city. But the enemy they must bring down is powerful and cunning, especially for two children who have trouble making their spells work properly. To overcome the evil enchanter, the children must enlist the help of a special cat and find a way to get their feuding families to work together.

from amazon.com

Nathan says 4 stars...
Diana Wynne Jones is an institution in YA literature. She is consistently good and ever creative. I thought this would be an appropriate book to review since we're giving this away in a contest (look down ☟). This book was good, though not revolutionary. The characters were interesting though a little stock. The story is strongly reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet (Caprona/Verona, rival houses, etc). I was looking for another Dark Lord of Derkholm from Jones, but this didn't have quite the wit or ingenuity of the aforementioned novel. Story is okay, a little slow for a few pages, but not bad. Give it a shot, Jones is well worth the read.