This is the story of a woman coming into her own as a manipulator of arcane power. It runs in her family. There are many women in the family and few men. He grandmother disappears and she must go to Calgary to take care of her estate and ends up solving a problem with the help of first her generation of the family and then brings in the more powerful older generation. I am not up on my Celtic mythology, but I think this is Celtic magic. It is pleasant and the characters are developed and evolve. The dialogue isn't bad. The plot is a bit weak. It is something of a relationship book. I have read one other book by Huff and I noticed it was also a relationship book. I almost gave this book a 4. After reading two of her books, I probably won't read another. This would be a decent airport/airplane read. I've never read a romance novel (unless Rafael Sabatini counts), but i suspect this borders on being one. When I read the blurb of this one, I instantly thought of The Keeper's Chronicles but then as soon as you dive into the story, you're clearly in a different world. And once you get over the "What the hell is going on with these people and why do they run around with antlers on their heads??"-thing...it gets amazing. Like truly, heart-wrenchingly amazing. This story is so amusing and big and rich, full of little details and magic and dragons. Yes, there are dragons and they're bad ass and sexy and smoking hot and I mean that literally. You can't NOT love Allie. It's impossible. And there's a freaking leprechaun and of course the aunties and Charlie. There is no way to describe those, you have to meet them. And look out for the Yoyo's. They're important. Yes.
Hmmm, so this is Urban Fantasy. Not my usual fare, but I gave it a go as I rather like Ms Huff's work and as much as I liked the book, there was the feeling at the end of it that there was something missing.There are characters aplenty and a fair amount going on, but getting to the point took a long time and once we get there, it took a couple of lines and it was all over. The build up didn't match the pay off and it all went a bit flat and I lost interest as the dragon's that were flying around simply appeared to shrug and exit stage left without a whimper.However, those asides, Yes I liked the book over all and I look forward to the next one.
—Wally
I thought I loved Summon the Keeper the best out of Tanya Huff's series. This trumps it. I love her style of just dropping you into a world and leaving you to catch up and figure out the rules. Once you adjust it feels like you've been allowed a glimpse into a secret world. This books was great, minus the sorta weird kissing cousin thing. But the flexibility of sexuality in the book was a nice change from hetero-normative relationships. I liked this books so much I actually forced myself to not read it all in one sitting. CAn't wait to read the next one and I hope there are more to come!
—shade
A fun book. Really enjoyed the twists. Go Allie!!
—skittles0739
Fun read.
—jeladner
wtf?
—Bennyevs
