The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle

I know it's been a while since I posted anything besides Interesting Links, but summer up ends my busy life and puts the kids at the top of the scale (or rather, no school time to free up my writing time). That doesn't mean I'm not thinking about things to talk about :). So I hope you enjoy this bit in my words rather than having other people speaking through the links.

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I blush to say that I've been planning to read The Ruby Key for quite some time, but just haven't been reading much at all. I read everything by Holly, and I can't remember a single time she's disappointed. However, this is a young adult book, on the young end of the YA scale, so I'm not really the audience, right? Well, now, having enjoyed it, I laugh at my delaying tactics.

The Ruby Key starts a new series and a new genre for Holly. It opens us to a new world where magic is commonplace, humans are not the dominant species, and the balance between day and night is a shaky one. This novel takes a young human girl and demands great things from her for a simple reason--to save the last parent she has left when her whole village is slowly falling ill or vanishing.

The story quickly becomes much more complicated than its beginnings, but throughout the theme is to be true to yourself and your goals.

Genna and Dan set out to save their family, and end up entangled in a war between day and night, human goodness, and human greed. They're joined by a nightwing, the dominant species, and a cat who is not a cat in their quest to meet the terms of a deal designed to be almost impossible, but not completely because that would be cheating (yes, interesting rule set :)).

I enjoyed the story as I've said, but then I gave it to my 14-year-old son. He, who has been annoyed by the predominance of female YA fiction, apparently found enough to like in Genna and Dan because he has demanded the second book in the series.

So, we will be getting the second book soon, but I won't get to read it first. Still, it'll be fun to see what happens next especially since I saw some of the behind the scenes info through Holly's How to Think Sideways course so I know it'll be interesting, but not how she'll bring it to life.