52:37 The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander

The third in the series this time focuses more on the backstory of Princess Eilonwy, where she came from, why Achren had her, and what is to become of her. It also is the first time that Taran admits what he feels for her, at least to himself (and not that it hasn't been obvious to the reader long before this). It introduces some new characters and of course has all our old companions. As with all the books in this series, the end can only come after at least one of the characters faces a horribly hard choice. In this case Eilonwy has what seems the hardest choice but I wonder reading it as an adult if Taran's wasn't equally difficult. The choice to let her go and hope she returned to him. Although for Eilonwy, I'm sure she'd say that having to actually learn how to be a proper girl is quite comparable.