I am beginning to believe that I am deluded in thinking I like fantasy and paranormal books because my last couple attempts at reading new-to-me authors, including this one, have been very unsuccessful. This book is so dense in details that I felt like it moved like molasses. It was only once I reached the last eighty or so pages of the book that my interested was captured enough to want to read the end.

Helen Stronghold and her twin brother, Lexi, had an idyllic childhood even though they were half breeds, their father a Were and their mother a Fae. They thrived under the protection of Alpha of Creemore. Helen even developed an unshakeable crush on Robson Trowbridge, the alpha’s son.

But when she was twelve her father was killed by a werewolf and the Fae came after her mother, accusing her of breaking the Treaty of Brelland. They killed her by slicing her neck, not realizing that Helen, hidden in a secret cabinet, was able to see everything. Then they took Lexi and returned to Merenwym, sealing an important portal between worlds.

While Helen is still in the cabinet, Robson appears on the scene. Once he ascertains that both of her parents are dead, he departs, leaving Helen still locked up. Bitterness replaces Helen’s infatuation.

With her mother’s sister Lou as her only remaining family, Helen changes her name to Hedi Peacock and together they eke out a secretive living while still in Creemore. But now Lou is fading, getting weaker, and cloudy, even pulling Hedi into her confused, muddled thoughts.

Things go bad to worse as Robson Trowbridge shows up in the Starbucks that Hedi is working at, and then goons show up at her home, wanting her amulet, Merry. Then they kidnap her aunt.

Trowbridge is wearing the amulet that they really want – Hedi saw it around his neck, when he was in Starbucks. Now she is on a mission to retrieve it, so she can ransom her aunt. However, things are not what they seem, and soon she and Trowbridge are on the run.

As I mentioned the in the beginning this book has so much trivia information. In Hedi’s world there are two realms, the one that she born in and lives in now, and the one that the Fae inhibit called Merenwym. Individuals used to be able to travel between the two by portals but the Treaty of Brelland changed that. There also is a third realm, Threall, that lies between the two other realms, but only mystwalkers can visit it. A part of every Fae lives there, at least the dreaming part, and Hedi is an untutored mystwalker. A portion of the book details this talent, and her visits there. However, that part didn’t appear to have any correlation to the Hedi and Trowbridge’s current predicament and I assume that it was world building for future books.

Descriptive information like the following fill the book:

It had taken me a long time to find a working television that didn’t need a remote, as they were problematic for Fae born. Not only remotes, but cell phones, a computer when it’s connected to the Internet, and weirdly, intercoms are just some of the things that work on the maybe–yes, maybe-no basis around our kind.

At this point, I am thinking that unless she needs a remote to protect herself, why is this important?

I was surprised at the ending, and for two reasons. One, that the mystery is so simple, but seemed so convoluted while reading the book, and two, that I read 368 pages with such a weak payoff.

I appreciate that the romance and sex scenes are secondary to the world building and mystery. But I have to say that the first time Trowbridge and Hedi have sex is one for the books. Incorporating a problem that is sometimes common among animals took the scene to a whole different level. Maybe others will think it is funny but it sure wasn’t romantic to me.

While I wouldn’t say the book is filled with violence, there is torture. And as an aside, I never did understand why Weres can heal from all sorts of damage but appendages like fingers can’t grow back.

If action and detail world building are more important to you then relationships, then you might like this book more than I did. Based on the ending, this book is part of a series, but I won’t be reading the next one.