Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

New York jeweller Garet James has her fair share of problems: money, an elderly father, a struggling business. One day she comes across an antiques shop she'd never noticed before. The owner possesses an old silver box that's been sealed shut. Would she help an old man and open it, perhaps? She does ... and that night strange things begin to happen. It's as if her world - our world - has shifted slightly, revealing another, parallel place that co-exists without our knowledge: the world of the Fey ...

Garet learns that one of her ancestors was 'the Watchtower': an immortal chosen to stand guard over the human and the fey worlds - a role that she has, it seems, inherited from her mother. But the equilibrium between these two existences is under threat. The 16th-century magician and necromancer Dr John Dee has returned, the box has been opened and the demons of Despair and Discord released. In a race against time and impending apocalypse, it is Garet who must find Dee ... and close the box.

Garet gets some crappy news and as she's walking about in a daze, she stumbles on an antiques store. The guy in there is (surprisingly) trusting and gives her a silver box to open for him, but of course the nothing good can come of it. Garet finds herself thrust into the world of the fey and learning magic as well as falling for a guy she really shouldn't. She has to help save the world from the crap she released onto it.

I was actually surprised to find out this is written by Carol Goodman under a pen name - surprised because the one book I've read by her (Incubus), I found to be so boring and the characters were very poorly written. This book is a polar opposite - I really enjoyed all the characters and there was nothing boring about the story.

It was something kind of different from other fantasy books, and I find myself wanting to read more. I'll definitely be reading the rest of this series - really enjoyable.


Book Depository: Black Swan Rising
Amazon UK: Black Swan Rising