This book is an interesting new historical fantasy. There is romance, mystery, and adventure. Etta Mae is an American orphan who goes to England to meet her grandmother's family the Fays. She has an urge to learn more about her family and the magic that is her legacy. She has to confront the complicated relationships that are the family that her grandmother left behind, her own lack of skill and confidence with her magic, while beginning to fall in love. Throw in a few family secrets, spies, and a mystery about magic failing in England this book is an interesting read.

What a superb fantasy historical! I am not much in the way of reading these for many are such a disappointment to those who love historical romances. However, I will eat my words for this series. I have now read them all and each of them was a five star read. A great read that I shall keep and reread again and again. I adored the authors way of telling the story. Her characters are super and done in a very imaginative way. Her way of blending fantasy and magic with history was great. I was captivated and enchanted and enthralled by her writing and her stories. I will keep looking for more from this one as I cannot wait to see what else she does. You will absolutely not be disappointed in buying this book or the series. So buy buy buy buy buy.
I was given this book in return for an honest review. I will absolutely use this review for all in the series for in my opinion each of them deserves the great read five star ratings. Anna Swedenmom

Erotic magical fantasy - and therein lies the problem for me: the progress of the story keeps grinding to a halt in order to insert the requisite number of sex scenes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure many people will love this. It's got a good plot and well-realised characters. The alternate, magical history angle is well-delineated, as is the cultural clash between a democratic American scion of a magical family and her British aristocratic relatives. Given that the novel is set in Britain, some of the Americanisms in the writing grated on me a little, e.g. "ass" instead of "arse" and "an herb" instead of "a herb", but these are minor points. Cara McKinnon can certainly write, and, were it not for the erotic imbalance, I would look forward to a sequel. It's not impossible to accommodate eroticism as an integral part of a plot, but my feeling here was that the author was deliberately aiming at a certain market (the 50 Shades sector?) and, for me, that jarred a little. Others may well disagree.