[RBS]∎ [PDF] Free Midsummer Night Aetherial Tales Freda Warrington 9780765318701 Books

Midsummer Night Aetherial Tales Freda Warrington 9780765318701 Books

Download As PDF : Midsummer Night Aetherial Tales Freda Warrington 9780765318701 Books

Midsummer Night Aetherial Tales Freda Warrington 9780765318701 Books

Enjoyed this story. I didn't consider it as strong as "Elfland" but it's a worthy follow-up.


Tags : Midsummer Night (Aetherial Tales) [Freda Warrington] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV><DIV>A sensuous, suspenseful modern fantasy of love, betrayal, and redemption<BR><BR>Decades ago,Freda Warrington,Midsummer Night (Aetherial Tales),Tor Books,0765318709,Loss (Psychology);Fiction.,Magic;Fiction.,Redemption;Fiction.,Fantasy,Fantasy - General,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Fantasy General,Fiction-Fantasy,GENERAL,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,Loss (Psychology),Magic,Redemption,SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,United States

Midsummer Night Aetherial Tales Freda Warrington 9780765318701 Books Reviews

I’m not going to lie, when I first started reading this book I couldn’t really get into it. It was probably due to a bit of anger that I wouldn’t learn any more about Rosie and Sam and the fact that I didn’t find the main character, Gil, to be very interesting.

Summary

After tragic car accident, Gillian (or Gil), a former track star and Olympic hopeful, has fled to Scotland to mope and start the healing process. In an attempt to seek solitude, Gil is thwarted by a 6-week long art workshop by the famous Dame Julianna Flagg. When Gil wanders off in the forest, she discovers a place called Foundry. But when Gil mentions Foundry to others, it seems as though the place couldn’t possibly exist. With old tales of children going missing, being taken away by fairies, and coming back mad, Gil isn’t quite sure what she’s discovered especially when a young man from Foundry comes looking for her.

My Thoughts

I definitely had to warm up to this book. It’s a rather creepy book where the characters are forced to deal with dark familial mysteries of the past. I just couldn’t like Gil as a main character. I didn’t find her story interesting, a famous athlete can no longer run and hides from her problems.. bleh. It seemed as though her character was just used to uncover all the mystery behind Dame J. However, as I read the book, I found it more and more intriguing. Rufus Hart made an excellent villain who can seduce and give extraordinary happiness and then rip it away. When Leith, the young man from Foundry, shows up in Cairndonan things start to get very interesting as Gil and Peta search to discover which of the long-lost children he could be. The mystery behind his appearance starts to drive the plot forward, but even that struggles to gain momentum when Dame J delays Gil and Peta from questioning him further.

The redeeming qualities of this book had to be the way the Otherworld was developed, seeing the politics that exist there, how the Otherworld is shaped, and the intriguing notion of a human who can access this fairy realm with ease. This exploration of the blurring between the human world and the Aetherial world was very interesting.

But I felt that the plot was dragged out and only a few characters made the book worthwhile (Peta, Rufus, Leith).

Bottom Line Maybe read this one before Elfland because it will spark your interest and you won’t be as let down as I was. However, I did enjoy the book overall. It just took awhile to get into it, and it wasn’t as character driven as Elfland.
I had a great time with Elfland, and while I didn't enjoy this one quite as much, it's still a pleasant, engaging and mostly well-written novel.

Midsummer Night is a standalone fantasy loosely related to Elfland, but you could easily read this one first. It is set on an old estate along the modern-day Scottish coast, which has been troubled by meddlesome faerie folk. The story centers on three women Gill Sharma, who comes to the estate to recover after an accident puts an end to her athletic career; Peta Lyon, an art teacher; and Dame Juliana Flagg, an enigmatic 60-something sculptor and owner of the estate.

I was surprised to find how different this book is from Elfland, although both have engaging plots and characters, similar pacing and lovely imagery. While Elfland is a family drama-cum-romance starring the faerie folk, Midsummer Night is the almost creepy story of its primarily human protagonists' encounters with the faerie world, containing fewer family bonds and no star-crossed lovers. (While I loved the romance in Elfland, this book didn't need one, and I admire Warrington for not shoehorning one in anyway.) There are also fewer melodramatic elements, although there are some hidden affairs and mysterious parentages in the story's past.

Like Elfland, this one is a bit of a slow starter, and it wasn't until Chapter 3 that I was convinced I'd like the book. But the plot soon becomes exciting and immersive, the writing and dialogue are good, and the imagery and atmosphere excellent. The characters are interesting and I mostly liked them, but wasn't quite as convinced as I was in Elfland. There, I was impressed by Warrington's ability to create in Rosie a character who's warm, sensitive and communicative, and yet feels real and unidealized. Here, I got the impression that Rosie is the type of protagonist that comes most naturally to the author, and was less than completely convinced by the brusque and reserved Dame J. Along the same line, there are moments when the villains are much more transparent than I was willing to credit.

Overall, though, this is an enjoyable and satisfying book, and if you like fairy tales grounded in the modern world, you will probably like Midsummer Night. I certainly plan to read the third book in this trilogy once it is released.
I have been eagerly anticipating another book by Ms. Warrington since Elfland. All I can say is, what happened? The story line is dull, the characters are sophomoric with little depth and the dialogue is just plain dumb. Freda, I hope your muse returns before your next book!
Enjoyed this story. I didn't consider it as strong as "Elfland" but it's a worthy follow-up.