Book Review: Elfland by Freda Warrington

Reviewer's purchased copy.
Elfland
by Feda Warrington
Tor Books
Urban Fantasy
Kindle Edition
Hardcover
Book Blurb:

Auberon Fox is the warm heart of the English village of Cloudcroft and father of a happy family including his daughter, Rosie. But on the hill lives the mysterious, aloof Lawrence Wilder, Gatekeeper to the inner realms of the Spiral. Tortured by personal demons, Lawrence is beset by trouble on all sides. His wife has left him; his sons Jon and Sam are angry and damaged, and when he refuses to open the Great Gates, preventing access to the Otherworld, the Aetherial community is outraged. What will become of them, deprived of the home realm from which their essential life-force flows?

Rosie, an Aetherial among mortals, knows the Wilders are trouble, but she and her gentle brother Lucas can’t seem to keep away. She falls in love with the alluring Jon Wilder; she is tormented by his notorious brother Sam, who is always in trouble. Rosie becomes caught in a classic conflict between trying to live a ‘normal’, hard-working human life, or surrendering to her wild, Aetherial instincts. Ultimately she makes a disastrous choice that leads to tragedy…

Journeying deep into the Spiral as she tries to pick up the pieces, Rosie can’t escape her destiny as she learns about life, love… and her role in the terrifying conflict to come.


Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Drowning Rapunzel and The Chosen

Elfland is a faerie tale for adults, a true faerie tale in that the book deals with a race of beings called Aetherials, who were what the humans thought were faeries; angels, vampires or demons. The mythology is great, but it is also an all too human tale of love, loss, fear and courage.

I can't condense the plot too much; it is too epic to even try, and this is only one of the first books in this new series. The story mainly concerns two families, the Foxes and the Wilders who live on earth but are Aetherial in nature and desire. Lawrence Wilder is the Gatekeeper; mad as a hatter living in the fortress-like house of Stonegate. The Aetherials can move between worlds on the night of the Summer Stars when the Gatekeeper opens the portal between the worlds; but one night he refuses to do so, spouting out about a great danger that awaits if he even tries. But is he just delusional or is there really something out to get them?

This book was a joy to read. I'm not normally a fan of urban fantasy, but for some reason this one drew me in and I felt like I was in the book with the characters and all the strange and wondrous places they visited. The romance flowed with the story, it didn't just suddenly apppear out of nowhere as if the author just wanted to put the romance in. The romance was part of it from the beginning. The book draws you in and by the end you feel you too have gone on a strange quest and come out relatively unscathed.

A keeper.

***

About the Reviewer

Annette Gisby writes in multiple styles and genres from horror to sci-fi, from fantasy to romance. Her latest novel, The Chosen, will be released by Lyrical Press.
Author website: www.annettegisby.n3.net

Book Review: Recipe for Murder by Janet Elaine Smith

Recipe for Murder
by Janet Elaine Smith
Star Publish
Cosy Mystery
Available from Amazon and other booksellers

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Chosen and Drowning Rapunzel
Author provided review copy.

The second adventure for the intrepid crime fighting duo, retired cop Patrick O'Malley and Grace Johnson, now employed at a homeless shelter, begins when they get a letter from former resident of the shelter, Walter Schmidt. Along with the cryptic letter, there is a key for a safety deposit box, and the letter hints that it contains something that will make them rich and if anything happens to him, they will know what to do with it.

Worried by the letter, they call his mother in Nebraska only to discover that Walter has died. It's being called a suicide but his mother is convinced that he was murdered. He was found hanging from the rafters in the apple shed. Patrick and Grace head out to the small town of Albany, Nebraska to discover the truth.

What they find there is a place unfriendly to strangers, and secrets long buried coming to the surface. For such a small town, there are quite a few suspects in the investigation and it will be difficult to guess the culprit before the end, I was convinced twice I had it figured out, only to be thwarted again!

In Walter's safety deposit box is a recipe for applesauce and oatmeal cookies, it seems that he may have been murdered for the recipe, but who would have the most to gain?

Although a murder mystery, there is no blood and gore here. It's a book that leaves you thinking, very fast moving and with a wealth of characters that seem to jump out at you from the page, as if they were in the room with you.

A lovely touch at the end is Walter's recipe for the cookies (and you don't even have to kill anyone to get it!) There is also a sneak preview for the next book in the Patrick and Grace series. Obviously, Janet Elaine Smith has taken the adage "always leave them wanting more" to heart, because it certainly does that. A very enjoyable book.

***

About the reviewer:

Annette Gisby writes in multiple styles and genres from horror to sci-fi, from fantasy to romance. Her latest novel, The Chosen, will be released by Lyrical Press.
Author website: http://www.annettegisby.n3.net

***

Book Review: The Trespass by Barbara Ewing

Reviewer's purchased copy.
The Tresspass
by Barbara Ewing
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Historical
Purchase Link: Amazon
Author website: www.barbaraewing.com

Reviewed by Annette Gisby author of Drowing Rapunzel and The Chosen


In the London cholera epidemic of 1849, MP Sir Charles Cooper is worried for his youngest daughter, seventeen year old Harriet, and resolves to send her away to the country until the danger has past.

Harriet is pleased to get away from her father, but also worried that he won't send her elder sister, Mary, with her. Isn't she in danger from the cholera too? (More danger than either of them know, for Mary has been helping a doctor treat the cholera patients in the poorest parts of London.) Harriet enjoys her stay in the country with her cousins, and wonders at the easy way the family has with each other, for there is a dark secret at her London home, one she has no words for, because how can a young lady speak of the unspeakable?

Harriet plans a daring escape to New Zealand, following in the footsteps of her cousin, for surely even her father's reach cannot get so far as New Zealand? This book is excellent, with a little dash of history thrown in now and then, but without turning the novel into a history book. The main emphasis is on the characters, and what characters they were. So realisitic and evolved. I was on tenterhooks the whole time wondering of Harriet could ever escape. At a time when women had no money of their own (unless they were lower class and could work), they were owned first by their fathers and then by their husbands, and were not even allowed to work, how could a young girl escape her terrible fate?

'Everything you say is yours, belongs to me, is provided by me, everything, every breath that you take belongs to me. I am your father. And as you well know you owe me absolute obedience.' I devoured this book in two days, you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. With a wealth of historical detail and well drawn characters, it's one you'd want to read again and again.

About the reviewer

Annette Gisby writes in multiple genres from horror to fantasy, romance to thrillers and everything in between. Her latest novel, The Chosen, a male/male fantasy romance will be relased by Lyrical Press.
Author Website: www.annettegisby.n3.net