2024 paranormal fantasy, fifth of a nine-book series. As Lorelei Clay
tries to come to terms with being the guardian deity of a small town,
various problems demand her attention.
In previous books we've seen several apparently unrelated
problems show up, only to have a common cause. This time they don't,
and although the book makes significant progress in several of the
ongoing relationships it sometimes feels as though it's marking time
in the Big Plot. (All right, one persistent enemy is gone by the end
of it, but others haven't been mentioned at all.) Well, this is the
middle volume of nine.
The real progress in fact is in Lorelei's own psychology, and if it's
sometimes a bit pat (basically everyone with a problem is working
through childhood trauma, or not working through it but letting it
guide their lives anyway) it feels like a genuine improvement all the
same, one that fits her character rather than being a stock solution.
So one of the strands involves the local werewolf pack, one is the
search for a changeling, and one involves the vampire crime lord who
was causing trouble a couple of books ago. (You could say something
interesting about the essentially extractive and parasitic nature of
organised crime using vampires as an analogy, but that's not what
these books are about.)
Oh, and Lorelei meets the actual Fates. And more groundwork is laid
for Big Revelations later in the series.
All right, sometimes I can see the plot levers moving, but there's an
essentiallt positive attitude in these books which for me largely
makes up for that. Lorelei is genuinely trying to do the right thing,
while not always knowing what that might be, and sometimes failing.
She may have great big powers, but there are great big foes that are
worthy of them, and she doesn't have an easy time of it.
Yes, all right, not Great Literature, but I continue to enjoy the
series.