Summon the Keeper
Jan. 9th, 2022 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLast Christmas (as in 2020, so just over a year ago), my brother gave me two books by authors he thought I'd like (based on a collection of short stories he heard on the radio). The first one led me to read many other books by that author - and the second one, Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff, languished on my reading shelf for over a year, because the cover and the blurb on the back really put me off. But, after my brother asked me about it over Christmas a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge and give it a try - and it was awesome!
Claire is a Keeper, summoned by a mystical pull to wherever she is needed to seal rips in reality that might allow unfortunate or downright evil forces into the world. When she is gifted a bed and breakfast by the previous owner, and subsequently discovers a hell pit in the basement, she resigns herself to having to stay long-term. The situation is both aided and complicated by the presence of Dean, the good-looking and unbelievably virtuous handyman, and Jacques the even more good-looking and rather less virtuous ghost who has been haunting the attic for the last 70 years.
The one downside of this book was the constant head-hopping, which switched the point of view between different characters sometimes paragraph by paragraph. As this is a major pet peeve of mine in narratives, it's a massive testament to how enjoyable the book was that I managed to get over it pretty quickly - and overall loved the story so much that I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series at some point.
It was just so much fun. Claire's talking cat, Austin, was perfect as the voice of sarcasm. The voices of Hell, which argued with themselves and constantly tried to corrupt everybody were hilarious. Even the intensely annoying neighbour was quite amusing, and also turned out to be pivotal in a very unexpected way. And Claire, as the centre of everything, made for a great protagonist - confident in her magical abilities but rather lacking in social graces. It made me laugh a lot, it was also exciting in places, the characters engaged my emotions, and the conclusion was very satisfying (even if the climax was perhaps all over a bit quickly).
So - the old adage is true - you shouldn't judge a book by its cover!
Claire is a Keeper, summoned by a mystical pull to wherever she is needed to seal rips in reality that might allow unfortunate or downright evil forces into the world. When she is gifted a bed and breakfast by the previous owner, and subsequently discovers a hell pit in the basement, she resigns herself to having to stay long-term. The situation is both aided and complicated by the presence of Dean, the good-looking and unbelievably virtuous handyman, and Jacques the even more good-looking and rather less virtuous ghost who has been haunting the attic for the last 70 years.
The one downside of this book was the constant head-hopping, which switched the point of view between different characters sometimes paragraph by paragraph. As this is a major pet peeve of mine in narratives, it's a massive testament to how enjoyable the book was that I managed to get over it pretty quickly - and overall loved the story so much that I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series at some point.
It was just so much fun. Claire's talking cat, Austin, was perfect as the voice of sarcasm. The voices of Hell, which argued with themselves and constantly tried to corrupt everybody were hilarious. Even the intensely annoying neighbour was quite amusing, and also turned out to be pivotal in a very unexpected way. And Claire, as the centre of everything, made for a great protagonist - confident in her magical abilities but rather lacking in social graces. It made me laugh a lot, it was also exciting in places, the characters engaged my emotions, and the conclusion was very satisfying (even if the climax was perhaps all over a bit quickly).
So - the old adage is true - you shouldn't judge a book by its cover!
