Except the Queen, Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder

I love this.

It's really good. And really different from the way I think most fantasy is structured.

The main characters are Sparrow and Robin, but unlike most fantasies, it's all told from the point of view of two sisters who stumble into Sparrow and Robins life.

Let me back up here...

Serena and Meteora are sisters and fairies. The catch the Queen in a *ahem* compromising position - she's gettin' busy with a mortal. The manage to keep the secret for a while, but eventually Meteora spills the beans. By accident, sure, but she's always struggled with keeping it a secret anyway.

The Queen finds out who "sullied" her name, and banishes the sisters to the mortal world. Serena to NYC and Meteora to Milwaukee. Their journeys bring them in contact with the main characters. Serena meets Robin while his band is playing in the park. Meteora lives in Baba Yaga's house with Sparrow.

Sparrow is an emo chick who's had a really rough life. She only vaguely remembers her mother and her father was abusive in every sense of the word. She's been on the run ever since - she knows she's different.

Robin is (obviously) a musician. Unfortunately for him, he knows exactly who his parents are. He loved him mom, who was raped and destroyed by this father, Red Cap. If you're unfamiliar with Red Cap, he kills innocents and soaks his cap in their blood, making it a red cap. He's part of the Unseelie Court. Robin isn't, he's not deemed worthy. His father treats him as a dog. Literally.

Darkness Bread, Stella Cameron

So, after I finished Shadow of Night, I had to pick a book to distract me. I happened to be on vacation, so my choices were limited. As I said in the review of Shadow of Night, all I wanted to read was the third book of that series. I didn't have that, so I chose this one.

I'm repeating all this because this book had an uphill battle. This is a book from the Chimney Rock series which focuses on a pack of werehounds. The werehounds have been dying out, along with all the other shifters. The females are dying during pregnancy with their children. The first book of the series, Darkness Bound, explains all this. I read it pre-blog, so it's not reviewed, but the basic idea is the leader of the pack, Niles meets and falls for his mate, Leigh. Sean, the main character of this story is Niles' second in command and plays a large part in protecting Leigh. We discover Leigh is a particular race that is thought to have no magical abilities, but actually just has very rare ones. The idea is that these rare abilities would allow them to carry children for the werehounds (don't worry, I'll come back to this one in Feminist Corner).

During the first book, we also meet Silkywidden, a mysterious cat. Well, she is also a shifter, and part of the same race as Leigh. She and Sean have fallen in love while acting as go betweens for Leigh and Niles in the first book. This book starts with the necessity for a decision: Can Sean and Elin (Silkywidden) be together? Niles is concerned because Elin is fey. She's not, but she's not telling anyone that because she wants to make sure Sean wants her, not just her possible reproductive abilities (again, I'll come back to this, patience). See, Elin was kidnapped as a baby and raised by the fey Queen. Niles is worried Elin is a spy for the Queen - and to be fair, the Queen does want her to do that. She's refused. Leigh already suspects Elin's true origins, and she sees the love between the two, so he's firmly on their side. Niles is harder to convince. In the first book, they encounter a traitor among the hounds, this seems to put them all in a distrusting mood.

The Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff

The Gale Women series. Another series to get involved in. SMH.

Not that it's wasn't good. I really enjoyed it. In fact, the 2nd book is out and I plan on reading that next. Unfortunately that's where it stops for the time being.

I think one of my favorite things about this book is also one of the most difficult to deal with. Typically, these fantasy or urban fantasy genre books seem to involve the main character being thrust into a new, and previously impossible, situation and having to find their way - find out who they are. Even in stories where the character knows about the real world they live in, they usually involve some kind of self discovery.

On the other hand, this book thrusts the reader into a new, and previously impossible, world and it's the reader who has to find their way. There are few explanations as to what's going on and what the Gale family is. We meet Allie, a twenty-something Gale woman. She's grown up around the family and their magic - she doesn't need explanations. While I do enjoy this tactic, it did leave me lost a few times. It's hard to catch the subtext when you're not entirely sure what the characters are talking about.