New Book Alert: Fancy Fanciful Fantasticality Book 2: Certain in the Circumvention by Francessca Bella; When Things Aren't Particularly Fanciful or Fantastical

 

New Book Alert: Fancy Fanciful Fantasticality Book 2: Certain in the Circumvention by Francessca Bella; Calista Shines Even When Things Aren't Particularly Fanciful or Fantastical

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: 

The lovely lady with the awesome alliterative moniker is back. Calista Soleil, the Fancy Fanciful Fantasticality Overseer of Port Sunshinescence has returned for a new adventure in Certain in the Circumvention, the second book in Francessca Bella's Fancy Fanciful Fantasticality series.

To recap in the first book, Calista is a young woman of tremendous power and responsibility. She led a rebellion on Earth against the despots and became a leader in the new community that thrives in space by the sunlight. She made a return trip to Earth when a terrifying omen foretold Earth's destruction. Calista traveled to Earth and made new friends: Lavender, a former scientist for the sinister Moonbow Laboratoria, Sagan, a warrior, and Teal, an Earth citizen with precocious talent but little education to pursue it. Along the way, Calista saves Earth, refers Teal to study at her alma mater, Chromia Academy, and faces her own arrogance and prejudices to become a true hero.

In Certain in the Circumvention, Calista is called into service once again. People can visit or move to the Principality of Sunshinescence as long as they have Aureate tickets. The problem is none of the Aureate ticket holders are showing up. Something or someone is preventing them from going to the Principality. Calista has to go down to Earth to find out why and what's holding them back. Not a moment too soon. Because there are some disgruntled employees who think a change in Overseer is definitely in order.

Just like in the previous book, Calista is dissected underneath the sunshiny goddess-like persona. In this volume, Calista's reputation is in danger of giving her away so she has to go incognito. She goes to Earth as a normal person with the same name. (More people know her by the title than her real name.)

Being deprived of her title, reputation, and abilities brings Calista down to the level of most people around her. She can't use her influence or power to learn what happened to the Aureate ticket holders. So she has to feel her way around by asking questions, observing her surroundings, and finding evidence.

Taking a vulnerable regular form humbles Calista. She isn't as polarizing as she is in the first book, very unyielding and somewhat arrogant. However, she shows flashes of it in this book. In the first book, the narrative implied that Calista befriended Teal and would take an active interest in her life. However, we find out that is not the case. Calista and Teal have grown apart and haven't spoken in years, something that Teal regrets. However, they continue to help each other as Teal provides Calista with assistance in finding where the ticket holders were sent.

However, Calista is a much improved character than she was before. She is still a courageous and compassionate leader, but she is much more nuanced in her approach. She has a lighter personality, even a sense of humor at times. She is even willing to consider various options. In one chapter, she sarcastically jokes that she is considering harming someone with violence, something that she wouldn't have done in the previous book (either harming someone or joking). It's a little moment but she's showing a more human facet to her character.

She also receives some challenges to her name and character. Calista learns some secrets about her family that calls to question everything that she previously believed. These revelations are key to her questioning her identity, background, and why she became the Fancy Fanciful Fantasticality.

Calista also once again comes face to face with Moonbow Laboratoria and the Moonites who continue to be thorns in the sides of Sunshinescence. Some of the most fascinating conflicts are between Calista and Luna, a representative of the Moon. To use Jungian archetypes, Luna is Calista's Shadow Self, her opposite. 

Throughout the book, Calista's vulnerability and humanity are laid open. These make her more identifiable and human especially when she faces Luna. In some ways, Luna is what Calista could be if her arrogance and colder nature get the better of her. To face her other self, she has to recognize the real her hidden underneath the Fancy Fanciful Fantasticality. Luna unleashes the monster. Calista unleashes the woman.

There is a third book in the series and it will be interesting to see where Bella takes her character as she learns more about the worlds around her and herself.