Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for this ARC. My opinions, are as always, my own.
This is the third book in the series, and as such, not the best place to start reading. This review may contain some spoilers for the previous two books in the series, and the place to begin is with The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy.
Tanrian Marshall Rosie Fox can’t die. Or at least she doesn’t stay dead, because she’s a demigod, daughter of the Trickster. She is 157 years old, and has died more times than she can count. Every time it happens, it tends to freak out the people around her, and it gets mighty lonely watching everyone you care about grow old and die, while you just stay the same. Rosie’s most recent death, from electrocution, happened after she stuck her hand into the wiring of one of the portals that allow people from outside to cross into the magical area of Tanria. The portals keep short-circuiting, and Rosie thinks she can see a strange, shadowy vine tangling in the machinery. It’s when she’s trying to “investigate” this that she, once again, dies.
The trouble with the portals is serious enough that they have to call for the inventor himself, Dr. Adam Lee. Rosie remembers meeting the impeccably dressed gentleman five years ago, but doubts he’ll even remember her from so long ago. Of course, a statuesque woman over six feet tall, with long rust-red hair and “eyes like garnets”, is difficult to forget, and Adam Lee remembers her very well. Not that he is willing to admit this at first, he seems shy and almost stand-offish.
Because of the trouble with the portals, which all seem to be breaking down, everyone in Tanria needs to be evacuated. Due to a complicated series of events, Rosie, Dr. Adam Lee, Rosie’s partner Penrose Duckers and Duckers’ ex-boyfriend Zeddie Birdsall are all stuck in Tanria when the final portal breaks down. Rosie notices that the shadowy vines seem to be spreading and growing thicker on the ground. The various animals and wildlife in Tanria can also clearly see and interact with the vines, but presumably, none of the other people can see what Rosie sees.
Now, Adam, Rosie, Duckers and Zeddie have to work together to try to get the portals working again, or risk being trapped in Tanria, potentially forever. To begin with, animal messages can cross the magical border (it’s a whole complicated thing, I can’t begin to explain it here) and bring messages, supplies and food from the outside, but as the vines proliferate and thicken, it gets harder and harder for even them to cross over.
Duckers is very amused to see his normally unflappable partner so taken with Dr. Lee, and teases her mercilessly. He also tries to avoid his ex-boyfriend as much as possible, which isn’t easy when there’s just the four of them there, and Zeddie cooks almost all the food they eat. How can Rosie even hope to have a chance with Adam when she’s over a hundred years old and will possibly never die? No one would want to complicate their life with someone like her, would he?
Full review here.