Helpful Score: 3
I don't personally find the vulgarity in this book to be inappropriate. The main female character is supposed to have led a tough life, be a bit hardened, and her coarse language reflects this. This is an interesting and unusual storyline, with a strong female protagonist.
Helpful Score: 3
I really liked it! It's not the deepest or the most resounding fantasy I've ever read, but it drew me right into the story. I found myself putting other things off so I could go back to reading.
I wish some of the characters had been more fleshed out and given a more detailed history, Brian in particular, but that's my only real criticism. Well, that, and I think the author has a real dislike for winters in Maine! :P
There were very distant shades of Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy -- not in the bulk of the story or even in the writing, but just around the edges. It made me laugh when I thought of that because the first book in that trilogy is The Summer Tree!
I wish some of the characters had been more fleshed out and given a more detailed history, Brian in particular, but that's my only real criticism. Well, that, and I think the author has a real dislike for winters in Maine! :P
There were very distant shades of Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy -- not in the bulk of the story or even in the writing, but just around the edges. It made me laugh when I thought of that because the first book in that trilogy is The Summer Tree!
Helpful Score: 2
Interesting premise but I didn't like the book itself.
Helpful Score: 1
This book was ok. Maureen was irritating to me at times. Yes, she had a difficult life and childhood, but really, the language, a bit much. I actually liked the sister Jo much better.
Helpful Score: 1
Action-filled, innovative Celtic fantasy--not for kids though!
An excellent fantasy. Hetley took conventional fairy tropes and modernized them in an exciting way. Gritty, real urban fantasy.
Well done and fast moving, I have found a new author to read.
Fans of Charles de Lint's fantasy tales will most likely really enjoy Hetley's THE SUMMER COUNTRY. Would you believe down and dirty, urban-gritty fairies and dragons?
From back cover:
For twenty-eight years, Maureen Pierce has led a fairly ordinary life, maybe a slightly tough one for a woman her age, growing up on the wrong side of the poverty line in Naskeag Falls, Maine. But she did all right.
Then she met Brian Albion, and everything changed. If she can believe him--and Maureen has had some hard lessons in why you don't believe men--she carries a blood legacy that goes back to the old country. Only this is the really old country, the land of Mordred and Merlin, where deadly battles are still fought with magic, and a woman who carries the blood of the Old Ones is a prize to be desired-or a threat to be destroyed.
From back cover:
For twenty-eight years, Maureen Pierce has led a fairly ordinary life, maybe a slightly tough one for a woman her age, growing up on the wrong side of the poverty line in Naskeag Falls, Maine. But she did all right.
Then she met Brian Albion, and everything changed. If she can believe him--and Maureen has had some hard lessons in why you don't believe men--she carries a blood legacy that goes back to the old country. Only this is the really old country, the land of Mordred and Merlin, where deadly battles are still fought with magic, and a woman who carries the blood of the Old Ones is a prize to be desired-or a threat to be destroyed.
I read 3 pages into this book and put it down in disgust. The foul language in it is just terrible. I was very disappointed that the author felt such a need to use so much filth when the story line didn't appear to need it.
Awesome - I just loved it
