Book Review: "A Gilded Cage" by Auburn Tempest and Michael Anderle

 

This is the first book in 'An Urban Druid' story series.

I wasn't able to find a book description for this one... so will try to summarize. Fionna is girl around 18-25 that lives in Toronto, Canada with her father and several siblings, whom all of are officers. One night she is in an altercation and a tattoo starts appearing on her back. Wanting to know more about it, she ends up running to Ireland (their home country) to seek family to help explain what is going on. While there she learns she is a druid, and of an important line. She does some training, then runs home to Canada, to try to prove she can be an urban druid.

That pretty much sums it up. The book reads about that fast as well. Like many other books I have read from Anderle, there is no thick and heavy plot to tediously read through and decipher to figure out what is happening, or going to happen. There is not much of anything "deep" at all. Characters have very little of background, except when something has to be explained that was 'thought', or 'acted on' by a character. No descriptions really of characters or the world around them, unless it is a pertinent detail tot he story.

I picked this one up as I do like druid stories, urban or otherwise, and thought maybe it would have a little twist in the story. As stated before, I wasn't expecting a heavy story, and it does read nice and fast. I did like the basic storyline, of how she finds out about being a druid, and some of the other stuff. But at other times, I felt the story was being rushed, and they were trying to cram too many events into one book. I don't know if it was for word count purposes, or actual detail that is going to be important later. Some of the events were just..."What? Why'd that happen? Oh, for that...". Like many of Anderle's books, everything happens to the main character...good or bad... and they always win their way through it with minimal injury, or it miraculously (or magically) is healed.

I will admit that regardless how I feel about the writing technique, I did enjoy the story and will be watching for the next book in the series.