Unraveled Book 9.5 (Keeper of the Lost Cities) by Shannon Messenger
Keefe the elf is meandering around the human world trying to find his way to London to allay some guilt. We stops by Seattle and sees the gum wall. he goes around many different cities. Eventually he discovers maps and uses it to make his way to London. He runs into Alber and then they go voyaging to try to get Keefe's spirits up. They explore Australia and a zoo there. It seems that the main goal is to show as many different locations as possible. They also seem to be drawn to contemporary human standards (like finding your own spouse instead of matchmaking.) If they don't understand details of human culture, why would they seem to adapt to "in vogue" social details? He eventually discovers that Eleanor, a person that he thought he helped to have killed, is actually alive. (He meets her.) He later runs into Sophie Foster, which ties it into the main series. In the end, Sophie and Keefe meet together, even if she is unmatchable and his mom wants her dead. They kiss and now things are different. The book is an "alternate view" of the events of the main series, with the view from Keefe instead of Sophie. It feels like it must have been fun to write in order to explore details of different locations.
More struggles for the fate of the world. More teenage romance. And a cliffhanger ending. It feels like a story of preppy girls who just happen to be tasked with saving the world. The stakes keep getting higher. (The bad guys even cause some islands to disappear.) There are intertwined quests to stop the "evil" people while also to find the missing boy. It still is not clear why one side is more evil than the other. It seems that there is systemic rot in the Elvin system. Two groups want to fix it. There are some differences in values that seem to be relatively minor in the scheme of things. These Elves seem a lot like the contemporary humans they despise.
Unlocked has a lot of "stuff" and a little bit of story. There are recipes, details of the characters and other whatnot. It was probably fun for the author to go back and explore the characters in details. The end has a story about a boy that gets some special powers. These powers can negatively impact others, and he feels it is something his evil mother will try to use to hurt others.
This seventh book feels like we are moving into shark jumping territory. It starts with Sophie getting serriously injured and ends with her not officially matching with anybody. In between, there is a complicated equine birth and the romantic complications of teenages. There is also plenty of fighting, training for fighting and various alliances to help defeat the bad guys. And we still are not sure what the motives of the bad guys are.
The adventure continues in the Keeper of the Lost Cities. There are various switching alliances in the quests. Enemies become somewhat reluctant friends (with families somewhat split across sides.) They see big monsters and special potions. They even get an alliances with Ogres, with an ogre princess joining the kids. Sophie meets her human sister - who still has some memories of the past light. There are quests to find secret hideouts - including one in plain site in Atlantis. All the boys are lovie-dovie with Sophie. There are plenty of fights. And then it is time for the next installment.
Friends try to infiltrate the "bad side". Are they still friends? Or are they getting too far on the bad side? People die and bad things happen. There are also "species" conflicts. The elves and ogres do not get along well. Elves aren't all perfect after all. This continues a middle storie in the adventure.
The magical horse is pregnant. The kids are on their quest. They find out the secret identity of their protector. They go to "prison" as part of their quest to find out more about the Neverseen and important cures. They also meet up with "shadow" twins. More details of Elvin culture. This is very clearly a middle book.
In the third Keeper of Lost Cities book, the rot in the Elf leadership begins to be exposed. Sophie gradually learns more about things and tries to communicate with the Black Swan. We also see Ogres appear. Sophie also teleports, but has trouble getting to the right place and continues to go to school.
Sophie helps locate an "Alicorn" - a magical horse. Only one other is known to exist in the world. She has the ability to communicate with it. (She later discovers that some of her powers were based on the horse abilities.) She continues to struggle with her dual identities as a saviour of the Elf world and a kid trying to make it through school.