Genie Lo is finding that being the Divine Guardian of the Kingdom of California is more work than expected, especially since she doesn’t even want the job. So is being the captain of the volleyball team, making time for her best friend Yunie, and spending time with her boyfriend, Quentin, the Monkey King. Genie is overwhelmed and when her mother gets sick, she reaches the end of her rope. She doesn’t know who she is, what she wants, or where she wants to go.
She goes on a previously planned weekend trip to Yunie’s cousin at a local university. It is not at all what she expected.
If I had to say what the biggest difference was between the high school scene and college, it would have been the amount of facial hair on the guys. I mean, this was like a lumberjack meetup being held on a crab fishing boat.
And…
By the time I reached the end of the hall I was fairly convinced that the only way college students could communicate was by taking turns explaining reality to each other.
Genie leaves the party and is outside when Ao Guang, Guardian of the Eastern Sea shows up in the swimming pool next to the dorm. Now it appears that she has no other options but to travel interdimensionally to another plane and face the invisible monster, Yin Mo who has just defeated the great general and his army. On the way, she has to travel with a former enemy and to prove that her friend, the goddess Guanyin is worthy to take the place of the Jade King and rule the Divine Heaven.
This sequel has some great lines and scene-stealing minor characters. Genie and Quentin are going through some relationship adjustments as they mature. Genie is growing as a person and realizing that there is not one path and that her limits might be self-imposed. Recommended for readers who enjoy humor with their fractured-mythology stories.
