The Watchtower

June 13, 2011
Carroll, a joint pseudonym for mystery author Carol Goodman and her husband, Lee Slonimsky, continue their ultralightweight urban fantasy trilogy with this vapid tale. In 2010's Black Swan Rising, jewelry designer Garet James was tricked into opening a mysterious silver box that set off a cascade of otherworldly events. Now Will Hughes, her vampire lover, has absconded with the box for his own purposes. Garet tries to move on with her life, but an anonymous gift sets her on a quest to find Will and follow him to the Summer Country. In alternating chapters, Will explains how he became a vampire and how he intends to cure himself so he can live with Garet and love her as a mortal. Miscommunication and misunderstandings abound in this bizarre amalgam of urban fantasy, mythological evils, fairies, and easily deluded, flat characters who shift with the changing of the breeze.

June 15, 2011

The second entry in Carroll's urban fantasy trilogy begun with Black Swan Rising (2010). Unfortunately.

First-person narrator Garet James, a New York City jewelry designer, has traveled to Paris in search of charismatic vampire Will Hughes, who stole Garet's magical antique silver box. This heirloom is embossed with the same watchtower design as Garet's ring, denoting her heritage—her female ancestors form a sort of anti-evil witch coven. Garet has also designed a watch patterned after an original owned by evil 17th-century sorcerer Cosimo Ruggieri, but has added her watchtower motif. Later, as Garet learns to use her own magic powers, the watch will enable her to suspend time. Will apparently has vanished into the Summer Country, a magic realm where he hopes to become de-vampired. The book's second narrative strand follows, in the third person, young Will, a poet and rake, to explore his origins in an unrecognizably bland Shakespearean London. Will falls for a fairy, the immortal Marguerite, Garet's ancestor, and is outwitted by numerous evildoers including the immortal astrologer John Dee. All this, however, takes an eternity to develop. Foolish, blundering Will isn't much of a hero, and Garet too passionless to be a suitable foil. The comic-book villains, shrieks and fountains of blood don't help. Even Paris sounds dull. The few surprises come right at the end. The poetry, strangely, is far more palatable.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011

Jewelry designer Garet James, last in a long line of women who form The Watchtower, a group sworn to fight the evil forces that threaten the world, embarks on a journey in search of the Summer Country, a realm of faerie magic. There, she hopes to join her missing lover, Will, a 400-year-old vampire, and help him find a way to end his curse and become human once more. In this sequel to Black Swan Rising, Carroll (the pseudonym for novelist Carol Goodman and her husband, Lee Slonimsky) populates her romantic fantasy with both historical figures (Dr. John Dee, William Shakespeare) and mythological characters (a scientist transformed into a tree, a dryad dwelling in Luxembourg). VERDICT This lively blend of urban fantasy and historical romance will appeal to fans of Mercedes Lackey, Charles de Lint, and Tanya Huff.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.