Kay Hooper

The prologue depicts 2 events that set the stage for the story. In one a young female wizard is brutally attacked by 3 men when she is unable to use her powers to defend herself. In the other a young 16 year old young untrained female wizard shows up at the door of a Master Wizard in a storm and begs to be trained by him and he takes her in. Nine years later Serena is flexing her 'muscle' and questioning her life with Richard Merlin. She is falling in love with him but there is a barrier around him. When a stunt of hers results in the Wizard Council becoming aware of her everything changes and she learns of the true nature and rules regulating the Wizard world. In order for her and Richard to move forward they must go back to Atlantis where history seems to indicate that these currents laws were established and see if they can influence a change. Time travel through the gate takes them to a fragile hostile Wizard world on the brink of destruction. They learn about the culture and look for the link that needs to be fixed without making any major changes to the time continuum. A very well done world building and enjoyable story.… (more)

"You're a lot like this land, Maggie," he said softly. "You give no quarter."

We begin our story with Maggie as she is hired on Rafe's family horse farm after impressing him with her horse training skills. Horses and their upkeep and breeding take up a lot of time in this book. Although I am not an expert, I had relatives that raised horses for competition (barrel and dresage), I am familiar with some horse culture. For the short length, the book was able to remain true to life of horses and the people who love and raise them. Anyway, I enjoyed this book just fine. I may even watch out for the rest of the series (featuring different authors). This is my second Kay Hooper and I think her writing works well for me.

As I mentioned in an update, my spouse found this in a Little Free Library for me. I often read and return the books I find, but I plan to keep this book for the lovely cover (illustrated by Joe DeVito).

content note: there's some offensive Native American representation and stereotypes.… (more)