Veronica: A Musketeer's Story

by Jody Studdard

Everyone knows the story of The Three Musketeers, but did you know there was another group of Musketeers that was as fearless as the first? This group lived in a magical world filled with unicorns and sorcerers, and they protected their homeland from dangers of all types. Unfortunately, however, they had never had a woman in their ranks. Until Verónica came to town . . .

An exciting and inspiring story for readers ages 10+.

376 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 3, 2021

About the author

Jody Studdard is the author of several children’s novels, including A Different Diamond, Fastpitch Fever, Escape from Dinosaur Planet, and The Sheriff of Sundown City. He is a graduate of Monroe High School (1989), the University of Washington (1993), and California Western School of Law (1995). In addition to writing, he is a practicing attorney with an office in Everett, Washington. He is a fan of the Seahawks, Storm, and Sounders FC.

Reviews

[Literary Reviewer]

Veronica by Jody Studdard is an adventure story about the eponymous character’s unexpected life events. Born in Añolina, a beautiful country with Spanish-like features, the protagonist has been trained by her father to be a bullfighter since her childhood, despite the outside world’s prejudice against women in this vocation. But when things don’t go exactly as planned at Veronica’s debut as a bullfighter, she rapidly runs away to encounter exciting adventures in a brand new country, Ançaisia, as part of the revered Kings guard, the Musketeers.

The premise of the riveting children’s fantasy story is quite interesting and the fictional countries are clearly based on real-world ones, such as Spain, France, and Italy, but they are filled with fantastical elements. Veronica often references magical concepts and creatures as well as different humanoid species. This makes the story exciting and the solid worldbuilding adds an extra layer of depth to the story and the creatures.

The characters are well developed, making it easy for readers to relate to them. The main villain’s character is well defined, which is surprising because children’s stories often have one dimensional antagonists but here we get a character that obviously has some thought behind it. But even with this I still found myself rooting for the good guy.

Events unfold one after the other keeping the reader engaged throughout the story and making them want to read more. I felt the use of a very convenient magical artifact made things a little too easy for the characters, but I was still enjoyed in the story.

Veronica: A Musketeer’s Story takes readers on an imaginative sword and sorcery journey that was fun from start to finish.