Gather Her Round is the fifth book in the Tufa series, and the last one I had to listen to before I read the final book in the series. The Tufa series is fabulous and I recommend reading the books from the beginning. I especially think so after having finished the last book, but I will get to that one when I review The Fairies of Sadieville.

Gather Her Around has the most gruesome scenes in all the books. Just imagine someone getting attacked and eaten by wild hogs and you get the picture. In this case, is it a young girl named Kara who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's up to ex-military Bronwyn Chess (read more about her in the first Tufa book) together with game warden Jack Cates to find and hunt the wild hogs down. However, they are not alone in the hunt. Kara's boyfriend Duncan wants to kill the wild hogs too, and he's also enlisting his best friend Adam Procure in it. Adam who has been seeing Kara behind Duncan back. Which Duncan finds out after Kara's death. Duncan will be the last one to see Adam alive...

This book has the usual Tufa mysteries, which Jack Cates will discover some of when he hits it off with Bliss Overbay, a First Daughter of the Tufa and there are some strange things concerning the wild hogs. As with the previous books is the book absolutely wonderful to listen to with its captivating story and I've come to really love the characters. ( )

97 points/100 (5/5 stars!)
Alert: Gushing Incoming

If it has a man and a woman in it, it is a love story. One day, Kera Rogers disappears while taking a hike in the woods, and turns of half-eaten by wild hogs. Her boyfriend, Duncan Gowen, mourns her until he finds his best friend was also with her and he didn't know. So he plans his revenge. The hog keeps getting bolder, and hunters pursue it to stop the threat, but the Tufa also have a monster to track.

Well, shit. That was amazing.

This was a tale that was told after the fact. We are being told a story. It is the tale worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy. It is obvious by now that the Tufa are not nice people, as a collective. They are as cold and cruel to each other as they are to non-Tufa. There are no happy endings to be had.

As with the first three books, this also has multiple plots. The major one is like if A Midsummer Night's Dream was a tragedy with a bunch of horrible people in it. It actually took months to complete, and the ending to the tale was absolutely amazing. I don't want to give away too much about it, because it is truly well put together.

There is also young Mandalay, now 13 years old. She is trying to figure out how to be the leader they need her to be. She is young, she knows people see her as young, especially outsiders. It hurts her that she isn't able to do everything she is supposed to. She is trying to find the balance between kid and leader that she has been balancing upon since she was born. I really love Mandalay. I feel like I've been watching her grow up this entire time through the series, and I love it.

I can't remember if Janet Harper is a character new to this book or not. Either way, she becomes a full character in this book. She is only a couple of years older than Mandalay, passionate about what she is passionate about, and carefree about the rest. She is frequently in her room smoking pot with her best friend, she loves music more than boys or girls, and wants to be a journalist. Mandalay has been hearing her name on the wind, though, and she has a part to play. And play she does.

This book is so intrinsically fae. I compared this book to A Midsummer Night's Dream for many reasons, and part of it is because this is so fae. There is music and wild animals, death and love, destruction and heartbreak, and a bit of something that is pure magic. I love fae, and Gather Her Round is the best of the reasons why I do. I've read so many series that try to be as good as just one chapter of this book was.

I only have one more book to read in this series now, and I'm dreading the end as much as I'm looking forward to reading it.

To read out more reviews in this series and others, check out keikii eats books! ( )

Alex Bledsoe got me hook line and sinker with his first novel of the Tufa The Hum and the Shiver. With each subsequent Tufa tale, he reels me in further. There are so many elements about the series which keep me reading: the backstory, the setting, the depth of the characters, not to mention the incredible story arcs that weave and wander between the books creating a tapestry that delights, surprises, and satisfies. When I read a Tufa novel, the plots of each book engage me, but the writing-- oh, the writing! In a seemingly effortless, unpretentious, uncluttered way, Bledsoe brings the sounds, smells, and sights of Cloud County to vivid reality in my own imagination. I am transported to walk among the characters he has created, a silent observer, watching the good, the evil, and the in-between create the paths of their lives. These are stories that ring with song, those rich ballads from ages ago, and new ones filled with love, longing, and a touch of magic.

Kera Rogers set out one afternoon to practice her music at a favorite spot in the woods. A text conversation with her boyfriend abruptly cuts off and Kera is believed to have fallen victim to the wild hogs, led by a monstrous, seemingly supernatural one. When the young man she was seeing behind her boyfriend's back is the next to die, the plot, as they say, thickens. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this tale was the telling: the split format of an adult Janet at the Smoky Mountain storytelling festival, relating the tale while intertwining her music and the basic narrative unwinding the memory of a happening in her girlhood.

If you've read any of the Tufa series, you may see characters you've met in other books, but if you've never come to Cloud County in your reading before, this, as with any of the books in the series, gives an easy glide in, without a preponderance of fill-in to catch you up.

Bottom line: thank you Alex Bledsoe. You keep writing; I'll keep reading.

Thank you to Tor Books for this copy.