I couldn't finish his "Stone Fort" series as it failed to hold my attention so I started this book with misgivings. I was wrong. Despite the cutesy YA-style cover this is a raw adult fantasy with teeth and claws to spare. It is also an extremely well written piece of work as Hetley proves to be a master at creating a mood or forming an image with just a few well chosen words. His world-building is culled from the bleakest of Celtic myths while the peculiar magic that dwells therein is both believable and highly visceral. Furthermore the way he incorporates one character's mental health issues into the story---making them both a handicap and an asset----is very well done. I look forward to reading the sequel! ( )

Intense. Eventually after a bit of a dragging start. I'm always a bit wary of fantasy novels that use sex as prime motivator for any of the characters to do anything. Having all the main characters driven primarily by lust in various forms doesn't work very well even if you're an author as talented as Hetley. Having one of the characters suffering from the trauma of a previous rape doesn't help make it comfortable reading.

Maureen is our main heroine and she's still somewhat damaged about being raped by her sister's boyfriend when she was a young girl. Her sister doesn't know. Meanwhile over in the fae we have triplets and a deprived kobold who has been rejected by all the pretty women and now wants domination over every woman he can lay his hands on. The sisters turn out to have potent Old Power blood which makes them even more attractive to the fae, and despite knowing nothing about faereland they soon get beguiled there. You can pretty much imagine how the rest of it works out. There's nothing graphic, but it's still pretty uncomfortable reading in places.

Maureen uses and overcomes her fears far to readily given how demanding they'd been in the opening third, although some of this is explained by a fae glamour it doesn't make it any more acceptable. The rest of the story does get interesting though, with some neat faere magic interacting between the different dynamics and politics. It is however easily the weakest Hetley story I've read, lacking some cohesion, having a feeling of plot inconsistencies and generally not being as enthralling as the others. AT least part of this is following multiple character lines in a relatively short novel. So none of them are as fully developed as would otherwise have been possible. Trying to explain the fae motivations through their viewpoints also doesn't work very well. The story did end well in an intriguing place so I probably will read the sequel at some point. ( )

A portal fantasy with celtic trappings. Really, its a fairly ordinary book which fails to stand out in any way, though managing never to be too dull. The basic storyline is a reasonably interesting one, and there are some character relationships which are fairly compelling, but I don't think the writing is able to rise to the level to fully deal with the themes the author is trying to deal with. ( )

I decided to try this book because I'd enjoyed his dragon stories for the strong women.. unfortunately, the women in this book leave some to be desired, especially at the start, and the pacing is so slow that it feels like the whole book happens in the last quarter. I think there's a decent enough story under all that, an interesting modern+faerie sort of tale along with the struggle of the sisters to deal with their inner and outer demons, but honestly I'm not sure I would have even finished the book if I hadn't enjoyed his other novels. ( )

Cliché, cliché, cliché. This is what I get for judging a book by it's cover. ( )