BRIAR QUEEN

A gothic story of faerie-tale romance, rescue, and revenge.

Finn Sullivan is just hoping things will go back to normal now that her ex-changeling boyfriend, Jack, has grown a real heart. Or at least as close to normal as things get in Fair Hollow, where the supernatural world tends to bleed through. But normal isn’t in the cards, not when the creature known as the Wolf has come to town looking for revenge for the death of his erstwhile wife, Reiko, the faerie queen Finn and Jack killed—and not when there’s a chance that Finn’s sister, Lily, might not really be dead. Finn and Jack are going to have to enter the Ghostlands, “the betwixt and between,” to confront the monsters there, with help from Finn’s best friends, Christie and Sylvie, and a stranger with a moth-wing tattoo who almost certainly isn’t what he seems. There’s plenty of danger and mystery here, and Harbour (Thorn Jack, 2014) has created an alluring world that oozes with atmosphere. But there are so many characters, each with his or her own agenda, that the plot gets muddled. Still, the emotional core of the story is strong, and the beautiful, crumbling, poisonous world of the Ghostlands presents more than enough weird and wonderful images to satisfy fans of the gothic and strange.

Readers drawn to faerie lore will enjoy this lush, romantic tale even if the plot does wander in the gothic wilderness a bit too long.