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The Howl’s Moving Castle series are all independent books; you can read them separately without any trouble. Howl and Sophie are secondary characters in this third and last installment, as the focus is squarely on a new character, and new locale.

Our first glimpse of Charmain is easily sympathetic, as she would much rather be buried in a book than having to deal with house-sitting for her great-uncle. A little too convenient is that Charmain serves as our proxy for being introduced to magic, as her part of the family stays well away from such stuff. Her great-uncle, on the other hand….

However, she spends a lot of the novel being grumpy and mean-spirited. She’s been tossed in over her head, which lends sympathy, but she’s also obviously making her own problems worse.

But, the writing (from her point of view) is engaging enough, and the plot moves briskly enough to keep it from turning into a real problem. And there are important things that she does tackle head-on, providing needed positive direction. Better yet, there’s plenty of sympathetic characters around, and while she is instantly fed up with the most prominent one, there are others she befriends, and since they’re at the heart of the main plot, that also shores things up.

The action itself moves in the typical, but I don’t know where we’re headed way of a DWJ novel. Also, as is common, just what the main plot is remains hidden for quite a while, though a primary motivator appears early and provides suspense while Charmain tries to figure out how to survive in a house that will provide most everything needed, but with little practical knowledge.