I really wanted to love this one, but it ended up not working out for me. That does not mean I won’t be reading this author again in the future. This book showed a lot of promise, it just kept hampered I think by Mandanna not breaking this up into two novels. I really wanted to know more about Sera’s upbringing by her aunt and the Guild and spells she learned. Instead we in essence start the book mid-scene with people and places that don’t make a lot of sense. I kept worrying I had accidentally grabbed a second book in a series, but I had not. Mandanna writes as if you know all of the players, understand the world we are currently in, and just get what is going on with Sera. It drove me up the wall after a while to read the book set up this way. Things don’t get better when we shift to 15 years later and she’s a woman in her 30s dealing with a magical inn, and un-dead rooster, and fox (really a witch). We still have Mandanna talking about things (Sera’s cousin Theo) as if we know who this is, Nicholas who thinks he’s a knight. I thought too much of the book was getting rushed and that we weren’t getting a chance to just enjoy. I did love the details on the inn, Sera’s magic, and just in general a book where people came together and formed their own family.
