REVIEW of "Dreamthief (Olive Kennedy, Fairy World MD, #1)" by Tamara Grantham

****(4) out of 5 stars!

Synopsis:

Visiting Faythander is a nasty business. Forget the fairies and unicorns, most people come back with lost memories and mental problems. Olive Kennedy knows. She's the therapist who treats patients suffering from Faythander's side effects. Despite her empty bank account, she takes pride in her job as Houston's only Fairy World medical doctor. She's never failed to cure a client — until now.

Traveling back to Faythander wasn't on Olive's to-do list. But she has no choice. The fate of both Earth and Fairy depends on her ability to stop an ancient being called the Dreamthief. To complicate matters, she may be losing her heart to someone who can't love her in return. Saving the world, she can handle. Falling in love — not so much. 

As if battling the forces of evil wasn't difficult enough…  

REVIEW:

This was a thoroughly delightful and rather extraordinary tale about a half-elf half-human gal named Olive who just happens to be Houston’s only Fairy World medical doctor.  The world-building that occurs in this novel is very adept, both in terms of Olive’s personal sphere and the worlds around her at large.  Descriptions of Faythander, from the physical characteristics to the quirks of the different races and individual personas, were enough to bring the place alive for me.  The origin story of how Earth Kingdom and Faythander became separated I found to be an especially interesting bit of mythology. 

Olive is the kind of kick-butt heroine that you can really enjoy rooting for, even though she is at times somewhat dense about certain things, and definitely has her own issues to deal with.  One of the things I disliked most about the book was the two alternate ego characters of Bill Clinton and Albert Einstein who supposedly occupied her mind.  Their inclusion was sporadic at best, and seemed to add nothing much productive to the narrative.  Other than that, she was a fairly well fleshed out character, flawed enough to be interesting, but still definitely the person you want to see win. 

There were many other characters that I enjoyed as well, from Olive’s dragon foster father Fan’twar to the headstrong yet handsome Kull to his sister the equally headstrong Heidel.  The dialogue between some of these players, especially the siblings, was both biting and fun.  There were several characters who I felt we didn’t see enough of, but who were hinted to have a bigger part to play in future installments, many of whom I hope we learn more about, both regarding their pasts and their potential parts to play in future events. 

The plot was a very different and creative take on the usual fairy world theme.  There were several twists and turns, false starts and wrong deductions that kept you guessing what was really going on through most of the story.  The tale ended on a very satisfying note, but with significant items to still be worked out, to the extent that you know there will be additional volumes in the series.  Hopefully, all of them will prove as satisfying and entertaining as this first installment.

"Dreamthief (Fairy World, MD, #1)" is currently FREE on all major retailers, 

including Kindle, Nook and iTunes!