[close] Stuck in a dead-end convenience store job, young Maureen Pierce has no hope of a better life. She is crazy: she hears voices and sees visions no one else does, and she may not live past shift's end. Walking home alone through the wintry midnight, Maureen is attacked by a stranger. Her gun misfires. Then a second man appears, attacking her attacker--and Maureen must be going crazy again. For the newcomer looks sometimes like a modern man, and sometimes like a knight in shining mail--and he claims that both he and Maureen have the Old Blood of the Summer Country in their veins...

Readers weary of fantasy novels that reuse the same old faerie stereotypes will be happily surprised by James A. Hetley's strong, gritty debut novel The Summer Country. Hetley boldly reimagines the Celtic otherworld for modern times, and he doesn't forget the dark danger at the heart of the myth. --Cynthia Ward [close]