Posted by It’s been a while since I’ve read an urban fantasy set in our world (specifically, this takes place in Colorado) and it’s set roughly around our time period. It’s a story of three sisters who help run a family business, but they each have different views of said family business, and as the title suggests, it’s a rescue for magical animals. One sister hates it, one sister appears neutral, and one of them adores the work and the animals love her back.
In this world, magic is hidden from the majority of the populous. Or at least it’s supposed to be? For whatever reason even though “magic isn’t real” for most of the world, the three sisters are still suspected of being woods witches and viewed by the townsfolk as bad company or people who should be avoided. This actually makes their lives less complicated because no one is allowed on their property anyway for fear of revealing the secret magical animals. So, if no one wants to come over in the first place it’s easier to keep them hidden. However, this means it’s also difficult to leave and get out of town for a little while because no one else can take over their responsibilities if they leave. There are no vacations or breaks for these young ladies. I can see how if that’s not how you wanted to live you’d hate it, so I understand the sister who is like “fuck this I want to leave.” Personally, I’d be more like Calliope who loves the job — if someone ever offered me a life of living in the woods and taking care of REGULAR woodland creatures I would accept, let alone magical ones. Giving me an excuse to never have a house party is merely a bonus to an already great deal.
We follow the story of the three sisters as they navigate their way through personal issues, whether that’s keeping their younger two sisters in line, falling in love with the new girl and wanting someone to come over to the house, or dealing with house repairs and this dude you’re probably crushing on who wants to come over and fix it but you can’t let him over and it’s getting weirder and weirder trying to explain to him why he can’t come over. Their mother is out and about and honestly her character pisses me off. I don’t like it when moms leave their eldest (usually daughter) in charge of things as they leave for long periods of time. It’s a shitty thing to do that takes away their childhood and makes them involuntary moms. Fuck you and fuck that. I felt bad for the oldest sister if you couldn’t tell.
The pacing in this was pretty quick at first but then it dragged out for me at the end. I think this book was a touch over 550 pages and to be honest, that just felt a little too stretched out for what this book was. I did like the writing, it was easy breezy and helped me settle into the story quickly. The dialogue was nice and quick and felt natural instead of forced. I did feel like I had an okay head-movie going on, which can be a struggle for me at points. If a book is overburdened with detail my brain can’t come up with an image and I get distracted and bored — that didn’t happen here which is always a bonus. I sailed through this book in two sittings over the course of a weekend.
Overall, this was a cute book where I was slightly adjacent to the target audience. I feel like I’m saying that a lot this round of SPFBO. I probably overhyped myself expecting more focus on the animals and creatures and instead got YA romances, so a bit of the disappointment I got was my fault. The humane society and the creatures therein were really more of the backdrop than the focus and I had just hoped for the other way around. I do think anyone who likes YA romances would find this super cute.
My individual score is a 7.25/10 for SPFBO — we are waiting on my partner Kristen to finish reading and then we will have a final score for the board. Again, this is NOT the final score, just my score.