"The first of hopefully many books about Lladrana"

I must be Robin Owens biggest fan. I have devoured each and every one of her books after which I immediately placed them on my groaning keeper shelf! I eagerly looked forward to her first book written for Luna and I am happy to report that she went above and beyond my wildest expectations with this one!

While hiking through the mountains in Colorado Alexa Fitzwater tries to work through her grief at her best friend's death. The next thing she knows is a silver net floats down in front of her coalescing into a silver arch. The music and scent of spring flowers assails her. Then she hears a voice imploring her to 'Come to us'. What can she do but obey? As she steps through the arch a beast attacks her and she brutally fights back.

The next thing Alexa knows is she lands hard on a pavement made with differently colored stones. When she looks up, a circle of people holding swords stand over her. What is that about? The circle of people does not look friendly and she can't understand them. They also seem to want to test her. Alexa just can't understand it at all. What has she gotten herself into now?

This is only the beginning of this multi-faceted, fast paced gem of a book from the extremely talented Robin D. Owens. All I can hope for is that Robin will see fit to visit her world of Lladrana in many more books. There are so many characters and so many things I want to know about. I will be eagerly awaiting more of her stories!

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted February 16, 2005

Summary

With their magic boundaries falling and terrible monsters invading, the Marshalls of Lladrana must follow ancient tradition and Summon a savior from the Exotique land....

For Alexa Fitzwalter, the Marshall's call pulled the savvy lawyer into a realm where she barely understood the language, let alone the intricacies of politics and power. Armed only with her wits, a mystical companion and the help of the chevalier, Bastien, Alexa must use her very human mind and skills to fight the encroaching evil-and resist manipulation by the Marshalls to force her to stay in Lladrana.

Now torn between her affinity for this realm and Earth, if given the chance to return home will she? Or dare she risk everything for a land not her own?