Summary
Daphne “Daffy” Deschants celebrates her 13th wedding anniversary by calling out her husband, “G”(Gabriel), for sleeping around. She has pictures to prove it! And they came from G’s own work email. She’s starting to notice a new side of G. He only seems to care about their kids – and Daffy being around to care for them while his work takes him all around the world. And she thinks he’s used magic on her, too.
Daffy and her family live in Eugene, Oregon, home of a fairy festival and plenty of shops selling mystical and magical items. But Daffy hadn’t realized the extent of real magic in town, in her own house… and maybe even in herself.
Evil magic exists and G, as Sheriff of the Guild of Master Wizards, is hunting for one of the worst. But the evil seems to be circling ever closer to G’s family. How can he protect them when Daffy’s kicked him out of the house and doesn’t trust him?
Review
I have mixed feelings about this one. I generally love fantasy and magic stories like this one. And there were parts of this I really enjoyed. I liked Daffy and her kids. The pieces about the kids growing into their place in this magical world were great. At the same time, I did not like G at all. He was far too cavalier about his marriage and family to be likable in my opinion.
I also wanted a lot more world building. I felt like things were abruptly revealed, but also incompletely. Maybe that was because Daffy is the point of view character, and she is only just learning about this world herself. Point of view was interesting in this, too, as Daffy told her part of the story in first person while the other parts of the story that took place outside of her involvement were told in third person.
As urban fantasy goes, this was good (except for some of the world building as I mentioned). Personally, some of the magic pieces were dark for me, and I didn’t enjoy them. I also didn’t care for G’s ethics when it came to his marriage. Other readers might not be bothered by these things and may enjoy this story more than I did.
Thanks to Netgalley and DAW for an electronic review copy of this book offered in exchange for an honest review.