James Hetley is the author of The Summer Country, as well as this volume and a couple of books with titles starting with “Dragon.” Last time, I found out that he had been a karate instructor and a trash collector, in addition to a member of the United States Army; he is also apparently a graduate of the University of Michigan. He also seems to be a fan of cats; he has identified nearly every one of his neighborhood cats in his blog. Other than that, all I have gathered from a several-week perusal of his entries is that he lives in Maine (which I already knew) and he likes to ride his bike. Also, the weather in Maine is a bit crap.

Since this book starts exactly after the end of the last one, I shall cut all plot discussion. Maureen and Brian have decided to remain in the Summer Country, where Maureen is less crazy (although magic can’t do much about PTSD), and Mo’s sister Jo and her paramour, David, have decided to return to the ‘real’ world, where David is significantly more comfortable. Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. The time they spent in the Summer Country turns out to be almost two months in the real world, and the police are searching for them. They’ve also lost their jobs, and are nearly out of money. On the other side of the reality fence, Fiona is gathering her resources to make another hit at Mo, and one of her biggest weapons is the mate of the dragon that David killed. Will either sister be safe?

This book is, for all that it’s a fantasy novel, like the thump you get when you wake up from a dream, pleasant or not. People can’t just disappear from late-20th- or early-21st-century America without someone noticing. David and Jo spend a lot of time trying to pick up the pieces of their lives, and it causes a significant amount of strain on their relationship. Money, of course, is a general cause of many fights, and it’s no different for them, despite the fact that Jo has magic in her blood. Maureen is less crazy now that she knows she actually is talking to trees, but the problems she has stemming from childhood abuse and rape aren’t related to the pseudo-schizophrenia, and she still has to deal with those. She has a lot of help, in the form of both Brian and the forest, but it isn’t going to be easy.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book; I really did. Sometimes fantasy ignores the constraints of reality — vampires getting drivers’ licenses whenever they want them, for example, or the IRS not noticing their wealth. Books written after 1990 have to take computerized records into account, and books written after 2000-something have to take GPS tracking and increasingly paranoid governmental entities into account. Sometimes many things are explained by an airy hand-waving and ‘oh, it’s magic,’ or vague references to the Mafia, but this novel does none of that. This book was kind of refreshing, in that there were consequences for everything. Consequences for slaying a dragon, consequences for disappearing for a while, consequences for not adequately discussing problems with one’s mate, etc.

It’s not exactly an easy book to read; those with backgrounds similar to Maureen and Jo’s may find the scenes with their father unnerving. There’s also some description of torture, although not terrifically detailed, and a not-very-pleasant childbirth scene. As in the previous volume, the Summer Country isn’t a nice place, and the hardscrabble Maine town isn’t all that much nicer. What it is, though, is immensely satisfying. I felt that the characters had to work very hard for their happily-ever-afters, or more like happily-eventually-and-for-a-while-hopefullys, and any time any of them achieved anything, whether it was freedom from captors or freedom from drink or just retaining one’s life, I definitely rejoiced for them. I’d recommend this book, but not without reading the first volume; it won’t make nearly as much sense or emotional impact. 4.5/5 stars.