Into the Ghostlands

The rhythm of life in Fair Hollow is beginning to feel a little closer to ordinary. But Finn knows better than to be lulled by this comfortable sense of normalcy. It’s just the calm before the storm. For soon, a chance encounter outside the magical Brambleberry Books will lead her down a rabbit hole, into a fairy world of secrets and legacies . . . straight towards the shocking truth about her sister’s death.

This is book two in the Night and Nothing trilogy, which picks up right where we left off at the end of book one.  I’m not sure if anyone has read my review of the first book, Thorn Jack, but I had quite enjoyed that one for the most part.  Ms Harbour weaves a lot of magical elements into the tale of Serafina (Finn) Sullivan and the love of her life, Jack Fata.  Jack was a fae character in the first book, who was able to become mortal thanks to Finn’s love for him.  So now they are trying to be normal kids, along with their friends Christie and Sylvie.  Of course, that doesn’t last very long.

Finn’s sister Lily Rose had supposedly committed suicide back in California, but now Finn has discovered that Lily may actually be existing in the Ghostlands.  She and Jack set off to rescue her, and it doesn’t take long before things begin to go awry.  The rescue mission takes up the bulk of this book, and I was frequently bored with the expedition to be honest.  It seems like all they did was run from one place to another, avoid getting killed, run into more strange characters, etc etc.  There are a lot of failures along the way, and it just seemed pointless more often than not.  Jack needs to return to his fae self in order to move things along, and this may cost Finn his place in her life.  He is, however, a good swoonworthy hero and I would take him any day over sparkly Edward Cullen.

Ms Harbour does convey the darkness of the gothic fantasy world, but it was overwhelming with so many characters popping up, along with the abundance of descriptive phrases.  By the end, they do accomplish their mission  and things are set up for the next book in the series – I just haven’t decided if I’m interested enough to read it yet!