Genre: Fantasy
Description:
“Negotiating with the Fair Folk is a tightrope walk over deadly
perils. And even the most skilled can misstep.
The many wondrous realms the Fair Folk inhabit offer tempting
opportunities for mortals hoping to benefit from faerie magic. But making
bargains with the Fair Folk is a dangerous business, for the fae have a habit
of leaving loopholes to snare the unwary. Father-and-daughter lawyers Abe and
Adira have made a career out of helping their fellow humans reach such
agreements safely.
Abe and Adira know the rules for dealing with Fair Folk: don't reveal
your true name, don't say thank you, don't accept gifts, don't eat fae food,
don't tell even the slightest of lies . . . . Oh, and always, no matter the
provocation, be unfailingly polite.
A moment of carelessness, a brief lapse, and a professional defender
of mortal interests may be in dire need of rescue.”
Author:
“Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled
in Bloomington, Indiana. She now considers herself a Hoosier. She is an
appellate attorney, photographer, and mother of two.
Wyle's thoughtful and compassionate fiction includes SF, historical
romance, and fantasy. She has also collaborated with several wonderful
illustrators to produce picture books. Relying on her legal background, she has
written one nonfiction resource, explaining American law to authors, law
students, and anyone else interested in better understanding the legal
landscape. Wyle's voice is the product of a lifetime spent reading both
literary and genre fiction. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined
themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and
the persistence of unfinished business.”
Appraisal:
I don’t read books in the fantasy genre very often and after I finished
this I started wondering why. I’m not sure, but if every fantasy book was as
good a read as this one, I might not read anything else. It has the three
things that I look for in a book.
The first of these are characters, especially the main characters or
protagonists. While not an absolute requirement, having likeable protagonists,
people who you care about once you get to know them, helps keep you involved in
the story. If you don’t care what happens to them, why finish reading the
story? This delivers on that with Abe and his daughter Adira, the
father/daughter team of attorneys who are this book’s protagonists, are
likeable and had me pulling for them all the way.
The second critical item that this book delivers on is a goal. This is
usually developed in the first part of the book and the characters move toward
it until the end of the book with the possibility of the goal changing or
evolving. In a romance book this would be the prospective couple getting
together. In a police procedural it would be catching the guilty criminal. I’ll
leave it to you to find out the goal of this story so as to not introduce any
spoilers.
The third item a good book needs is a good story world. Often this is
just our contemporary world in some random generic location that feels like it
could be anywhere. For many stories, that’s enough. But the story world here is
what sets this apart from most books in other genres. Part of the story takes
place in the mortal world (that generic location above), but much of it takes
place in other “realms” that are vastly different from our mortal world. These
realms are unique, each populated by beings that are unique to their particular
realm in what they look like, how they communicate, and other ways.
Understanding and figuring out the different realms as our main characters have
cause to visit them adds much to the story.
I’m glad I gave this one a try in spite of being a bit outside my normal
reading choices and highly recommend it.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words
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