Kate Danley

The Woodcutter lives in the Wood connecting the Twelve Kingdoms, keeping the peace between humans and the fae. One night he comes across the body of a princess with glass slippers, and shortly after those of a little girl in a red cape and her grandmother; all of them didn't have a mark on them but had been mortally afraid. Knowing that something terrible stalks the Wood, he sets off to defeat it, and uncovers a terrible conspiracy.

This short novel reads very much like an old-fashioned show more fairy tale, with Kate Danley's economic yet poetic prose taking you back in time to your childhood when the stories of princes and princesses and true love's first kiss, enchanted woods, witches and evil queens were as familiar to you as the back of your hand, giving you a first taste of good and bad, right and wrong, love and death. She takes all those stories and mixes them together into something new, and half the fun to me was recognising old friends. Her characters have true emotional depth, in particular the titular figure of the Woodcutter himself, and I warmed to him immediately. Even though it's impossible not to read the final few chapters without thinking of religious symbolism, by the end I was in tears, and if the story doesn't move you, then you truly have a heart of stone and deserve no better. I believe this is one of those books that gets better at each re-reading as you discover references and nuances you missed before. show less

First, let's get out of the way what Maggie isn't - this isn't a "romance" paranormal or not. It isn't a "serious" urban fantasy work in the vein of Kate Daniels or Mercy Thompson. It is, instead, a pure and total snarky laugh riot. It is total enjoyment, a few hours of pure relaxation, where the weight of the world goes away and you can immerse yourself in another world.

"I suddenly felt like I was about to learn that I had walked into a great big game show of The Multiverse's Next Top show more Stooge, Riiight."

The world that you are immersing yourself in is really two worlds - the "normal" everyday world, and another, sitting side-by-side with this world, where all of our dreams and fears exist. If you have ever read Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast" you are familiar with multiple world theory (well, if you are familiar with modern science, you are also familiar, lol) The Other Side, in Maggie's case, is a world that fairy tale creatures and monsters of all types populate. As a Tracker, Maggie finds, and brings back to the Other Side, those who 'slip' across the barrier between worlds. What happens in this edition is exciting and entertaining, and full of a kind of snarky attitude that had me laughing out loud all through the book.

A couple of favorite quotes:

"Lacy interrupted herself to shout at the zombie porter, "Cut it out! He's a vampire! he doesn't have a brain!"

"Locking eyes with a vampire: "Way To Get Yourself Killed Right Quick #84" in the Idiots Guide to not Getting Dead By A Monster."

See? Pure fun, with a bit of action, a lot of crazy uncle and grins galore.

Now, "I shall run a load of laundry before we kick the bad guys' asses."

Read. Relax. Enjoy. And don't go in with any expectations other than the fact that it is supposed to be fun and you will be very glad you did. show less

How to put this... Maggie for Hire is a very, very average sort of urban fantasy offering. There are some interesting ideas in the book and a number of amusingly snappy lines, but ultimately I was not impressed enough to want to read more in the series. Witty banter without real substance just isn't enough for me.

If you like retellings of fairy tales, you will probably like this. I certainly enjoyed reading it, but by the time I was getting to the end I had some reservations.

The main problem I had with the book was that there was no real causality. It was dreamlike in that way. If something bad happened, you didn't have to worry, because ~*~magic~*~ would set things right again in some unforeseen way. The characters were paper-thin, too, so it was impossible to get invested in the narrative. The show more saving grace was that it was easy to get swept along by the words. (Jan 2015) show less