Book 34
The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I usually like Huff's work but this wasn't my favorite. Parts of it were very good but there were too many parts that were confusing and/or borderline squicky.
The basic plot is Allie Gale is from the huge Gale clan of female magic users. The women hold all the power in this family (more on that later). Her grandmother in Calgary has disappeared and left instructions for Allie to take over the titular antique shop. Once there, Allie finds Joe, a leprachaun, hanging around and takes him under her wing. It turns out Granny had a lot of dealings with the fey. Also she quickly runs into a journalist who came to do an article on her grandmother and they hit it off and this quickly turns into yet another paranormal romance. Okay I can live with that.
However, things start going weird. Charlie, a slightly younger cousin keeps getting bounced out of 'The Wood' (one of the poorly defined things in the story) and she has to get to Allie by the long non-magical way and sets up with a country band (she's a musician). Cousin Michael also eventually ends up at the shop (he's the first man Allie ever loved but he's gay and he's hiding from his boyfriend who cheated on him). And then there are the Dragon Lords.
They want something. They're afraid of the Gale Girls (a common theme in this novel). They might even ally themselves with Allie against a common enemy or just take them both out if they dared. The common enemy? Graham's boss, a sorcerer named Kalynchuk. According to the Aunties, as the adult 'first circle' Gale women are known as, all sorcerers eventually go evil and they must all be destroyed. And since they would kill Graham too for being Kalynchuk's servant Allie makes sure no one calls in the Aunties. Also she doesn't want them around because they're sure Allie's brother, David, is too powerful which means he'll go bad and she doesn't want them to do anything about David.
I don't want to say what the Dragon Lords and Kalynchuk are after because that would ruin the ending which comes fast unlike the rest of the novel which is a bit overly long in my opinion.
I like Allie and the other characters. It's nice to see strong female characters however it almost borders on uncomfortable. In my studies into feminism I've found a subset who follow an idea I'm uncomfortable with. I'm a big believer in equality but there is a group who believe women are better and men are awful and are lesser than women. The Gales seem to espouse this. I saw no difference in the magic used by the women and the men in this but sorcerers were all 'taken care of' and something 'had to be done' about David because of his magic. There needed to be a better explanation for it.
That's one of my bigger complaints about this. The world building seemed to have big holes. Yes I know show not tell but in this case telling would have helped because it was confusing especially the beginning. I could not get into this or figure it out until several chapters in and we get to Calgary.
But the squickiness comes from the sexual nature of their power. I'm fine with sex magic. I wouldn't care if Allie banged half of Calgary to fund her magical powers. I'm far less okay with the incestuous nature of the Gales. They mate with cousins (though not always, Allie's dad was an outsider as is Graham. Hmmm this is the second book in a row for me with this theme) and it's almost non-con in some cases. They 'cross over' into more power into higher circles as they age into "Aunties" and their mate gets one chance 'choose or get out' and it's sort of a mate for life. Weirder still are the men with their horns showing during magic. I know it's referencing Herne but if i didn't I would have been totally confused since it's not clear and I think 'losing David' might mean he totally becomes the alpha male stag like Granddad did. These horns are physical too. At one point David has to go find some hookers and walk home because he won't fit in the car and at another Charlie was moaning she had to blow him just to get him into the car and this is why Aunt Catherine has a convertible. At more than one point David and Allie can't be in the same place because they'd have sex with each other and to heck with being brother and sister. I'm not sure what it added to the story. It took away for me.
So strong women who have incestuous sex with cousins to keep the magic all in the family and save Canada while they're at it. That sums it up. I might read the next one but I need a little bit of a break from this I think.
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