This book was another angle into the world of magic in Lackey's Elemental series. I liked the characters and found the story interesting. I gather from other reviews that it's a loose twist on Puss in Boots, but I'm not as familiar with that fairy tale, so I can't really compare.
With this book you go back to the beginnings of WWI. I really liked Susanne and I was really glad to see more of Peter (the Peter from The Serpent's Shadow's "twin" friend). According to reviews this is based on the fairy tale Donkeyskin. I've never even heard of it and know NOTHING about it so can't compare. Anyway, something I forgot to mention with Phoenix and Ashes, but which is true for both it and this book, is how seeing the movie War Horse made the war aspect come more alive to me. While I learned about the war in my history classes, it wasn't so real untill I visually "saw" it. No-mans land, the trenches, etc.
So this book brought back Nan and Sarah of The Wizard of London. (Though apparently Nan and Sarah were originally introduced in the short story 'Grey's Ghost' found in the 1999 anthology Werehunter.) But the main focus was Mari and the Selch. I enjoyed both the Selch lore and the Welsh setting for this one. What I did NOT enjoy was the pages (yes, multiple pages) basically copy/pasted out of The Wizard of London. I think maybe I'd have been better off if I hadn't been reading these back to back. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable enough story - if a bit on the lighter than usual. Supposed to be based on East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Tam Lin, and The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry.
It looks like there is an anthology due out at the end of this year. I've never read any of the Valdemar anthologies, and I don't know that I'd want to read this one. They're usually compiled of short stories by other authors in the world Lackey's written... and she edits. Not my cup of tea.
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