Into the Wildwood: The Faire Folk Trilogy, #2 -- Gillian Summers
Caution: Spoilers from the first book!
Keelie Heartwood, her dad, and most of the folks who worked the Colorado Ren Faire in The Tree Shepherd's Daughter are now preparing for another fair, this time in New York State. She's spent five days crossing the country in her father's cozy (read: cramped) "Swiss Chalet on wheels" and she's feeling especially bummed out because her sort-of boyfriend Sean (who happens to be an elf) is in Florida at a different fair and her only girlfriend on the East Coast is currently interning in the city. She is, however, looking forward to a visit from her best friend from—and only real connection to—her old life in Los Angeles.
But life is never uncomplicated for a half-human/half-elf Tree Shepherd-in-Training: the trees at the new campground are extremely angry, there seems to be a sick unicorn in the woods, Sean hasn't written once, rotten Elia and her even-more-rotten father are up to No Good (again), she doesn't know how to (or even if she should) hide her new-found powers and identity from her best friend, and possibly worst of all, due to an impulse purchase, she's stuck as this year's Jill o' the Faire.
Into the Wildewood is very much the middle book in a trilogy, in that it mainly felt like the author* was gearing up for Book Three. There's a bit of catch-new-readers-up-to-speed at the beginning**, but then the book falls into a pattern much like the first: Keelie has comical problems working the Faire, Elia is nasty, Keelie finds herself in the middle of whatever's going on with the trees, her father doesn't want her to get involved but is unable to fix it so she has to disobey him, and we hear bits and pieces to pique our interest about the Dread Forest, where (I assume) the third book will be set.
That might make it sound like I didn't enjoy the book, but I did, and I'm certainly looking forward to the third one—especially because there were a few events towards the end of the book that might change things up a bit in Book Three. Keelie is a likable heroine and very easy to relate to, I love the Ren Faire setting, and while, yes, this book wasn't all that different from the first one, quite often, that's exactly what series-readers are looking for. I did find the environmental message a tad heavy-handed, but then again, the main characters are Tree Shepherds, so the message at least fits the storyline and the characters' concerns.
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*Well, authorS. Gillian Summers is actually two people: Berta Platas and Michelle Roper.
**Enough that starting in the middle of the series shouldn't be an issue for anyone, but not enough to bother people who read them back-to-back.
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Previously: