Sophie Drake used to dance with the faeries in the woods behind her grandparents' house. Then the fae tried to steal her little sister, Emily, and Sophie rescued her sister and turned her back on Faerie forever.

Fourteen years later, Emily has left Louisiana for New York City and an acting career. She's just had a huge break; working as the understudy for the lead, she gets her chance when the lead has to pull out. She's a hit, and after that night's closing curtain, she and a few friends go out to celebrate. Along the way, they meet a guy named Eamon (my best guess at spelling, since I listened to the audio), and somehow it seems perfectly normal when he tags along with them. They wind up in Central Park at some point, and the next day, Emily's friends eventually work out that that's the last time they saw her.

Emily has been lured off to Faerie. Sophie, with an ability she's had since childhood, to know when there's Trouble and she's needed, arrives in New York, having left Louisiana before anyone in New York realized Emily was missing.

Sophie meets Emily's friends, starting with her upstairs neighbor, Michael, who is a cop out on medical leave due to a line-of-duty injury. He was dogsitting for Emily's bulldog, Beau, and has the key to her apartment, so that they can check to confirm Emily isn't there, passed out, ill, or worse. Sophie has good reason to be sure she isn't, but she can't say that, to Michael or to the on-duty det ective who responds, of course.

Meanwhile, Emily is in Faerie, being taken by her kidnapper to the person who ordered her kidnapping--Maeve, the wannabe Queen of Faerie.

The last Queen of Faerie disappeared long ago, and Faerie is slowly dying due to the lack of its Queen. Yet Maeve is everything that's wrong about Faerie--beautiful, but fake, cold, and destructive, the things that make the Fae dangerous to humans. Yet that's not all that Faerie is. Eamon, for instance, is no supporter of Maeve, and starts to have serious doubts about the wisdom of having done her this favor, as he starts to realize what her plan is.

Maeve means to make herself Queen of Faerie, to find the palace and the throne that have been closed off and hidden since the last Queen left. For this, she thinks the crucial information she needs is held by, not Emily, but Sophie. But Sophie knows too much about Faerie's dangers, and couldn't be lured--except by the need to rescue Emily.

There are certainly places in the story where the writing isn't brilliant, and where some odd plotting decisions have been made. This is an interesting intertwining of Faerie, and the mythology of how to interact, or not interact, with the Fae, with our contemporary world. The worldbuilding is good, and there are interesting characters, several of whom grow more interesting as the story progresses.

It's important to note that Beau, the bulldog, is A Very Good Dog, and that that he not only survives the story, but makes valuable contributions along the way. Yes, I am a sucker for a good dog in a story.

Interesting, enjoyable, and I may look for more.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

This reader's personal opinion, ©2018, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by goodreads, Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers*

I wasn't completely sure what to expect going into this. The covers looked very young, big and little sisters -- and author's other series, Enchanted Inc. was definitely light, chick lit style adult books. This was not a children's or YA book; I'd say "magical realism" or "fantasy" genre.

I loved this although it was a slow start for me just because the sisters were a little too good to be true until story fleshed them out more. Here were no Disney or Grimm type of fairies, rather the fae and their realm in somewhat traditional lore. Where uninformed humans should beware. Where good deeds along the quest payoff, characters actually have feelings, the villains are cruel, the "magics" gave a system, neither good nor bad characters live in a vacuum, immortals don't act like teenagers ...

Pretty much fired on all cylinders with elements I loved. Not quite a five-star read because lacked a certain intensity where I saw where story was headed and Sophie really had it too easy saving the day.

*©2018. All rights reserved except permission is granted to author or publisher (except Penumbra Publishing) to reprint/quote in whole or in part. I may also have cross-posted on The Reading Room, Libib, LibraryThing, and other sites including retailers like kobo and Barnes and Noble. Posting on any site does not grant that site permission to share with any third parties or indicate release of copyright.

Next up in series: [To Catch A Queen]

Ratings scale used:

★★★★★ = All Time Favorite
★★★★½ = Extraordinary Book. Really Loved It.
★★★★☆ = Loved It.
★★★½☆ = Really Liked.
★★★☆☆ = Liked.
★★½☆☆ = Liked parts; parts only okay. Would read more by author.
★★☆☆☆ = Average. Okay.
★½☆☆☆ = Disliked or meh? but kept reading in hopes would improve.
★☆☆☆☆ = Loathed It. Possibly DNF and a torturous read.
½☆☆☆☆ = So vile was a DNF or should have been. Cannot imagine anyone liking. (Might also be just an "uploaded" word spew or collection that should not be dignified by calling itself a "published book." If author is going batshit crazy in the blogosphere over reviews -- I now know why they are getting bad reviews. Or maybe author should take remedial classes for language written in until basic concepts like using sentences sink in. Is author even old enough to sign a publishing contract or do they need a legal guardian to sign for them?) ( )

Bit let down by this new series - loved the authors previous Enchanted Inc series and couldn't get enough of them but couldn't even finish this one because I couldn't connect to the character and found it a bit repetitive and boring...Disappointed not to like it as I reread the Enchanted Inc series regularly and it would have been nice to have another to sink my teeth into ( )

Bit let down by this new series - loved the authors previous Enchanted Inc series and couldn't get enough of them but couldn't even finish this one because I couldn't connect to the character and found it a bit repetitive and boring...Disappointed not to like it as I reread the Enchanted Inc series regularly and it would have been nice to have another to sink my teeth into ( )