When she turns twenty-one, Summer Raines leaves the orphanage where she was raised. Sister Mary Louise gives her a manila pouch that was with her when she was abandoned as a baby. Will the contents lead her to discover the truth about her ancestry?
Summer goes to live at the cottage adjacent to Midnight Manor, where she can stay for free in exchange for running errands for Ms Midnight and maintaining the overgrown herb garden. That's when strange things start to happen: Summer sees a dragon on her first night at the cottage, she meets a stranger who may know the secrets of her past, she finds out the garden is full of herbs used in witches' spells, she meets a demon, she rescues an orphaned animal, she finds out her best friend is dating a vampire, and Ms Midnight sends her on a strange mission. What is the enigmatic Ms Midnight hiding? Who lives in the run-down house next door, and what's with the fat cat Summer keeps seeing in the window? Who can summer really trust?
While entertaining and easy to read, there are a number of editing errors, including the misuse of words (e.g. dilated for deluded and lessens for lessons) and poorly phrased sentences. There is also too much exposition by a number of characters, giving convoluted and confusing back-story through speech; no one talks like that.
However, I loved the way everyone took the plethora of supernatural revelations in their stride. This is a fun read with a mix of humor, mystery, romance, and the supernatural. There is an interesting cast of paranormal characters including angels, demons, dragons, hellhounds, vampires, and witches, who I'm sure we'll see more of in future books.
Be warned: While one mystery is solved, many questions are left unanswered, and this book ends on a major cliff-hanger.
I received this book in return for an honest review.