Magic Harvest
Mary Karlik
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: September 18th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Young fae girls are disappearing.
Layla has never belonged to the fairy realm – at least, half of her hasn’t. She’s never known anyone with human blood, not even her father. When she was three, the dragon Fauth attacked the fairy festival, murdering her fae mum & stepfather. Frankly, some fairies think she should’ve been eaten too.
As she grew, despite being called names like “fuman” for being a half-blood, she’s discovered that being half-human isn’t terrible. She may lack magic, but she is immune to iron sickness, and she can wield a sword with elven skill.
Magic in the human world is disastrous.
Sixteen years later, when Layla’s half-sister is kidnapped and taken through a portal to the forbidden human realm, Layla rushes to the rescue. She’s older and stronger, and she’s not about to let her last living family member be taken from her without a fight.
Only someone who belongs to both worlds can find the truth.
The portal spits her out in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but neither her sister or the kidnapper are anywhere to be found. Stuck in a world she only knows from school books, Layla forges unlikely alliances to find her sister. As she becomes tangled in the dark world of fairy trafficking, magic harvesting, and murder, Layla will have to find the strength within if she is to survive and save her sister.
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
4 STARS
Magic Harvest is definitely being added to the list of books that I will strongly suggest my daughter read. There is virtually no cursing, just a hint of romance (and it's very minimal), wonderful fantasy aspects, but most importantly...an amazing heroine. Layla is selfless, courageous, forgiving, and stays determined even when things look bleak. She's not perfect and does briefly lament when she encounters a set-back, but she is very quick to bounce back with more determination and faith that she will find her sister. She takes the weight of the world on her shoulders in the form of saving all of these fairies that have been kidnapped. She starts the story with being meek and very passive about how her community and family views her (she's a half human/half fairy and has no magic) but as she searches for her sister, she finds strength and worth. I really loved her.
Ian and his team were great. I was sort of surprised by how quickly they accepted that fairies were real, but at the same time, it was kind of refreshing. There was no need for Layla to prove herself and there was very little ignorant prejudice from the team. My favorite team members were Theo and Buzzard. Buzzard is this gruff brute of a guy who has a good heart at his core. I loved reading his gentle scolding and encouraging of Layla. Theo is a wealth of knowledge of technology and aspects of the magical world. He can read tea leaves and knows where to find even the most obscure ingredients for the concoctions that Layla creates. The relationship between Layla and Ian is special. They start out as reluctant allies and end the story being very close friends. They have a special kinship and the synopsis for book 2 strongly hints at a possible romance between them. Yes, please!!
Mary Karlik is a new-to-me author who I will definitely be following. I've already marked my calendar to count down until the release of book 2, Magical Heist.
Mary Karlik has always been a dreamer. When she was a teen, she read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and then sat in every wardrobe in her Nanna’s home, trying to open the door to Narnia. She didn’t find it, but she did discover her voice as an author: one filled with her young adult self, and grounded in her roots as a Texan and her Scottish heritage, nourished by obscure Scottish folklore.
You can find her Texas roots in her YA contemporary romance Hickville series , which has been described as “100% solid storytelling,” and begins with Welcome to Hickville High, a “lovely story about growing up.”
She digs deep into her Scottish roots – there is magic there, she just knows it – for the forthcoming YA epic fantasy Fairy Trafficking series, beginning with Magic Harvest.
She makes her home in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico where she is a certified professional ski instructor, but she also loves visiting Scotland where she is currently studying Scottish Gaelic at the University of Highlands and Islands in Skye. Mary also earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, has a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and is a Registered Nurse.
Mary currently serves as the President of the Young Adult Chapter of Romance Writers of America and looks forward to raising a glass or two of gin and tonic with her fellow writers every year at RWA’s national convention.
Great rebiew! This sounds like a fun read and really different, too! Glad you liked it! :)
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