This book is an introduction to an entirely new world by Yasmine Galenorn which makes me very very eager

I’ve followed Yasmine Galenorn’s Sister of the Moon/Otherworld series (the name seems to change depending on who you ask) for a long time and I’ve always enjoyed her world setting, her characters and her stories. I haven’t enjoyed the massive massive bloat that besieges the series because there are so many ideas that it’s heard to fit them all in

So a new series entirely? That is promising.

And it is – promising pretty much sums up this book because it is an excellent introduction book. There isn’t so much a plot to this book as there is a general laying out the land. We meet Maudlin (Maddy) and learn a bit about who she is, what she does,

One thing I really like from the offset here I that we’re introduced to Maddy, he recent past and experiences, the fact she’s a witch, her friends and some nice world building around her but there’s no sense of specialness. That doesn’t mean she’s not an interesting character – far from it – she’s intriguing and strong and determined and has a really good relationship with her friends. And she can definitely become special and awesome – but because of what she does in the books, not because she’s come in to this book with the special heritage/magic/woo-woo of specialness. Neither tragic nor ordained for greatness.

She does have a past- but it’s a very mundane bad past. The simple but powerful story of a woman leaving an abusive and soul destroying relationship and beginning to find herself again. And that’s an excellent story – because having someone with a compelling history that doesn’t have to be epic, soul-shattering or so extreme is a wonderful thing to see. I want to see Maddy leave her ex in her dust and build herself an awesome future

I also really like her cjinn – a wishing cat with a mischievous streak. Who doesn’t like a mischievous cat?

Along with the cat, Maddy has some great friends and an obvious community that had her back. We don’t know much about them yet because it is an excellently brief introduction to the world, not overwhelming us with extraneous facts before we’ve had time to digest this.

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