4 Stars
Hard to get into the story
But I continued to the end. The beginning of the book introduces us to Hannah, from Chicago, and Kane Blackthorne of Towerfall from the Kingdom of Pentacles. Hannah is not a normal, run of the mill working class woman, she is having issues at work with a co-worker who takes credit for others work including hers, and a breakup with her boyfriend. As she walks homeward and passes a storefront offering Tarot readings, Hannah is given a card, The Empress. Which promptly deposits her into Towerfall where she is accused of being a witch and nearly killed. Saved by Kane, Hannah makes a deal with him to help the Kingdom from being destroyed in exchange for his assistance in finding The Empress card which she’s lost so she can return to Chicago.
Confusing? Just a bit, but this book caught me by being the first in a series that uses Tarot as real characters and places. Our main female character, Hannah, doesn’t seem to be in her 20s, she is more like a 16–17-year-old high school student. Hannah grows a little through the story and finally acts almost her age by the end of the book. Kane is older than her and has more life experiences, which make his character more interesting, but he could have been much more developed in the story.
I did enjoy the book after about the halfway point, but the ending seemed to be rushed. I hope the author, Kristin Cast, works harder to leave the Young Adult writing that keeps this book from being more satisfying to adult readers. Using the Tarot as important characters is something I’ve never read before and can give this series a distinctive edge over other books. I look forward to reading the next book.
I was given an ARC by NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
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