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jaceyI like Tanya Huff's writing a lot. That I didn't quite engage with this book as much as I'd hoped is a puzzle because it has all the right ingredients. It's Tanya Huff. It's about the Gales, so beautifully launched with The Enchantment Emporium. Having said that I didn't engage with it, there's much to like about this book. Its main character is Charlie, one of the younger Gale girls, and a wild talent who can use her magic to walk 'between' places via the woods, and has a handy line in quick charms to solve (almost) all problems. Charlie's a guitarist and singer in a folk band and when she gets a call she steps into a band full of old friends who are doing the summer festival trail in Nova Scotia.
Hell, that should be one more reason for liking this book. I've played folk festivals in Nova Scotia.
Unlike, Charlie, however, I never come across a distraught selkie whose sealskin had been kidnapped . It's a blackmail thing. The selkies are protesting Carlson Oil's plans to drill offshore close to a protected island and Carlson has hired a witch to steal the selkie skins and hold them to ransom to halt the protest. Unfortunately for Charlie the witch for hire happens to be one of the fearsome Gale 'aunties', also a wild talent and scary as all hell.
Charlie drafts in reinforcements - in the shape of Cousin Jack, a dragon prince, raised in the Under-Realm, but most definitely a Gale Boy. Trouble with Gale boys is that you can never tell if they're going to go bad or not. Fifteen is the age where they are judged, and Jack is fourteen and confused. He knows how humans behave, but even when he's in human form he's really all dragon. Hungry dragon. And he's a sorcerer as well, which practically condemns him in the eyes of most of the aunties.
Since everyone's been keeping a close eye on him Jack's been wearing a mental straight-jacket, so Charlie figures a bit of freewheeling roadie-ing and some space to be who he really is, might help him to decide whether he's going to pass or fail the aunties' final test. Besides, it's always good to have a dragon on the team when you're going up against Auntie Catherine and a selkie-skin-stealing oil company.
This not only a story of Jack's growth towards Gale-hood, but also Charlie finally accepting responsibility for her wild powers.
So, the final verdict? Well worth reading if not quite as good as The Enchantment Emporium. I do, however, look forward to more stories of the Gale family.
Hell, that should be one more reason for liking this book. I've played folk festivals in Nova Scotia.
Unlike, Charlie, however, I never come across a distraught selkie whose sealskin had been kidnapped . It's a blackmail thing. The selkies are protesting Carlson Oil's plans to drill offshore close to a protected island and Carlson has hired a witch to steal the selkie skins and hold them to ransom to halt the protest. Unfortunately for Charlie the witch for hire happens to be one of the fearsome Gale 'aunties', also a wild talent and scary as all hell.
Charlie drafts in reinforcements - in the shape of Cousin Jack, a dragon prince, raised in the Under-Realm, but most definitely a Gale Boy. Trouble with Gale boys is that you can never tell if they're going to go bad or not. Fifteen is the age where they are judged, and Jack is fourteen and confused. He knows how humans behave, but even when he's in human form he's really all dragon. Hungry dragon. And he's a sorcerer as well, which practically condemns him in the eyes of most of the aunties.
Since everyone's been keeping a close eye on him Jack's been wearing a mental straight-jacket, so Charlie figures a bit of freewheeling roadie-ing and some space to be who he really is, might help him to decide whether he's going to pass or fail the aunties' final test. Besides, it's always good to have a dragon on the team when you're going up against Auntie Catherine and a selkie-skin-stealing oil company.
This not only a story of Jack's growth towards Gale-hood, but also Charlie finally accepting responsibility for her wild powers.
So, the final verdict? Well worth reading if not quite as good as The Enchantment Emporium. I do, however, look forward to more stories of the Gale family.
