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In a world of magic, being non-magical can get you killed.

Ilsa Lynn has made it her life's goal to avoid the curse that binds her family to serve the Summer Court of Faerie. With her magically talented twin sister given the role of Gatekeeper, Ilsa is content to hide under the radar among the regular humans.

At least until a mysterious spellbook falls into her possession, granting Ilsa with a sudden and inconvenient affinity with the dead, and dangerous magic that paints a neon target on her head. With her family's questionable past quite literally refusing to stay buried, the last thing Ilsa needs is an untrustworthy self-proclaimed faerie bodyguard, even if he does come with a deadly skillset of his own.

Dealing with zombies and fae assassins would be difficult enough on its own, but now someone's out to frame her for murder, too. While dodging enemies at every corner, Ilsa must get a handle on her new powers before the armies of Faerie invade Earth. She might just be in over her head...

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2018

561 people are currently reading
588 people want to read

About the author

Emma L. Adams

87 books948 followers
I'm Emma, a fantasy author, book collector, gamer, and wanderer. I write urban and epic fantasy novels, including the international bestselling Changeling Chronicles, the Relics of Power trilogy, and the Death's Disciple quartet.

*Note: I use Goodreads only to keep a record of what I'm reading. Please don't send me unsolicited review requests.*

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5 stars
290 (37%)
4 stars
248 (31%)
3 stars
178 (22%)
2 stars
54 (6%)
1 star
10 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Profile Image for Lene Blackthorn .
1,827 reviews7 followers
March 14, 2018
In a cruel and cold world of faerie magic, being a human is dangerous. Being a human with powerful magic coming out of nowhere is a death sentence.
When Ilsa Lynn was brought back to her family property on a quest, little did she know what to expect. Her twin sister Hazel, the gatekeeper of the summer court's heir, is left alone to deal with unnatural necromantic activity in the village. When Ilsa and Hazel start to investigate the disturbances, a half-faerie, half-necromancer River appears on their doorstep, bound by a vow to guard the gatekeeper's heir. Someone is trying to frame Ilsa of murderous activities, and there are even attempts for the twins' lives. If that was not enough, Ilsa now got a powerful talisman into her possessions, and gained extremely powerful necromantic skills, becoming the Gatekeeper of Death - but in untrained hands, the volatile power might be deadly.
I have already experience with the Faerie world and the way the Courts and outcasts work from the author's previous books, but the world would never stop fascinating me. With each series, we got a different view, and reveal different sorts of magic present in this fantastic world - the source is unlimited. I am very much drawn into Ilsa's story, especially because it focuses on necromancy and the extent of this powerful spiritual magic. There is far more into it than the superficial view it's all about raising the dead and communicating with spirits. The options already presented in this book are fascinating and very promising for the future, and I am curious what discoveries we may experience in the future books.
I also really liked the characters in this books. You never know the real motives of some characters until the whole truth is uncovered, and then you are forced to reassess your own feelings and admit you have been abit judgmental. Complex personalities and strong individuals rule this book, and it was easy to pick favorites, although especially in River's case, I simply know there will be more to him than we already got the chance to see, and I would love to get to know him better.
Profile Image for Tara {finding feminist fiction}.
109 reviews21 followers
April 10, 2018
Had a lot of potential but the vast majority of the book was info dumping. Characters, relationships, and emotion were left relatively unexplored in favor of long explanations about the world. The setting was charming and there was so much potential in the little bit of non-info dump that was there, but I just wish the author had spent more time fleshing out characters and emotional storylines.
Profile Image for Tracy O’Sing.
327 reviews35 followers
June 10, 2018
Great quick YA read....

The Lynn family curse is about to explode!

In an effort to find the gatekeeper heir! Human member of the Lynn family, Ilsa has to find out, she must go home to find out what the heck is going on, so leaving her human world and heading home Ilsa must rejoin her let’s just say cursed family and a battle in which she is unprepared!

I really enjoyed this YA story and it was full of faerie info and lore! for those that haven’t been introduced to the genre it was enlightening and easy to follow!

This is a new author to me and one I will definitely read more of!

The writing style was captivating and towards the end very thrilling I wasn’t sure where it was going or how it was going to end. A fast paced book that was enjoyable and flowed really well!
Do I have questions yes and that’s a great start to any series I’m off to grab Book 2
Profile Image for Airwreckah.
626 reviews11 followers
March 30, 2018
4.5 some of it was a bit info dumpy about the faerie magic system.
Profile Image for Melissa.
128 reviews2 followers
December 19, 2018
Had to force myself to finish. Definite potential, but failed to keep my interest. Will not be continuing the series.
Profile Image for Randy Daugherty.
1,156 reviews43 followers
January 6, 2021
In a world of magic, being non-magical can get you killed.

Ilsa Lynn has made it her life's goal to avoid the curse that binds her family to serve the Summer Court of Faerie. With her magically talented twin sister given the role of Gatekeeper, Ilsa is content to hide under the radar among the regular humans.
At least until a mysterious spellbook falls into her possession, granting Ilsa with a sudden and inconvenient affinity with the dead, and dangerous magic that paints a neon target on her head. With her family's questionable past quite literally refusing to stay buried, the last thing Ilsa needs is an untrustworthy self-proclaimed faerie bodyguard, even if he does come with a deadly skillset of his own.
Dealing with zombies and fae assassins would be difficult enough on its own, but now someone's out to frame her for murder, too. While dodging enemies at every corner, Ilsa must get a handle on her new powers before the armies of Faerie invade Earth. She might just be in over her head
Such a new and refreshing look at the fae, the seelie and unseelie,the brownies, witches and necromancers. Ilsa finds herself after all this time having magic, after her grandmothers ghost thrust a relic book in her hands, she is a gatekeeper, but not of summer, hers is of the dead and as she struggles to learn others seek to stop her.
463 reviews
April 14, 2019
Excellent read

Told from Ilse's POV, who was born as the eldest twin but didn't get chosen to be the Summers gatekeeper and held no magic only a protection shield. The storyline is solid with mystery and plenty of action. The world building and characters were written well. This is a clean read with a possible future romance perhaps in the next books. IIse gains magic in a very unconventional way and hides it from those outside her family. River is the male lead character who is half fae who has volunteered to be the gatekeepers bodyguard. There is some humour in the book, IIse is a funny character when provoked. I enjoyed the read it was fun, exciting and mysterious. Although I do like a bit more chemistry between the main characters it was a really good read. There is quite alot of violence in the book with fighting the fae so not sure what age range to recommend and there is some bad language. Highly recommended
Profile Image for Blake.
1,306 reviews44 followers
June 12, 2022
(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I completely change my mind on a series, so want to change my scoring.)


First time read the author's work?: No

Will you be reading more?: Yes

Would you recommend?: Yes


------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)

All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked

Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
Profile Image for ✧*:・゚✧QueenVeneris✧*:・゚✧.
110 reviews18 followers
May 12, 2018
Not bad. Could be better.

The beginning of the book is slow paced but it eventually picks up. I feel though that some transitions could have been smoother rather than having it jump straight to the next part. I found myself sometime having to read back some pages because I didn't notice that now the characters where in another place doing something else.

I also feel like the book could've been a little bit more mature. I mean... Isn't isla suppose to be in her 20s or am I wrong? Plus the villain in the story could have been someone else instead of who it is. The whole family feud thing was just eh. Why not something different and more exciting? Especially when you have isla finally going on this somewhat adventure for it just to be leaving to some family feud. Ugh.

The book was good don't get me wrong. Just felt like there was something missing.....
Profile Image for Beth.
492 reviews23 followers
March 13, 2018
*I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review*
I am a fan of this world. I have ready most of the books, I only have one trilogy that is still on my TBR pile. I really likes Ilsa, Hazel and River. Ilsa was mostly honest with herself, if in some denial, and self aware of her place in the world. She didn't hate her sister for being the heir instead of her, some jealousy and envy yes, but she didn't let it poison her. It may have kept her away from her family, or at least her mom, but she was able to see the benefits to not being the heir. The mystery was intriguing and the additional world building was fun to read. It was a different view of the author's other series/world. I am looking forward to the 2nd book to come out in April.
Profile Image for Chamonix.
35 reviews
April 15, 2018
:(

I wish this book was good but it wasn't. Someone here also commented that the entire book was a giant info dump and, while I wanted to disagree, I got to chapter 14 before I gave up.

The premises is charming and had potential but the entire time I was being lectured about necromancy and zombies and undead and the veil.There isn't any downtime and it was seriously exhausting reading this book. The writing moves WAAAAYYY too fast, jumping from scene to scene and each time Ilsa sneaks away into town had me seriously questioning whether she was old enough to write a thesis for a PhD or if she was actually in middle school.

I'm not sure if I want to finish reading it at all, it just doesn't hold my attention.
Profile Image for Amanda Jane.
1,337 reviews9 followers
September 16, 2021
Not as smooth as the preceding books

Ilsa Lynn is the family "spare"; born into a family whose ancestor made a vow with the Sidhe his descendants are tied to protect the gates to Summer and Winter. Ilsa's mother is the Summer gatekeeper her sister Hazel gatekeeper in waiting. With no powers of her own beyond a protective ward Ilsa moved away from the family home and into academia researching folklore.

She's drawn back into her mother and sister's world when the family messenger, a raven called Arden, appears as a message arrives challenging her to "find the heir or suffer a terrible death" and her home is torn apart. Unprepared and without magic can Ilsa complete the challenge?
Profile Image for Rosemary Hughes.
4,192 reviews23 followers
May 27, 2025
I have submitted this review after listening to the audiobook of this title within the series set box. (Audible)
Lisa had been born into a family that believed they were cursed, as their forefather had agreed to commit his daughters to the use of the Fae. Their purpose was to be the gatekeepers of the summer and winter realms.
Lisa, although when she was younger, now was glad that she hadn't been the one marked to be gatekeeper in training.
She was able to have a relatively normal life. That was until the family messenger raven turned up to tell her she was required to return home. She had baulked until her rented home began to disintegrate around her.
Disgusted with the situation, she makes her way to the family's home to see what all the fuss is about.
Profile Image for Fleur.
3,716 reviews29 followers
March 13, 2018
Ilsa Lynns family is cursed to always be a Gatekeeper for the Summer and Winter courts, Her Mum for the summer court and her Aunt Agnes for the winter. As much as Ilsa tries to lead a normal life she gets a message that she has to help find the heir, to what she has no idea but supposedly its really important she does. Things just go down hill from there as she returns to her family home she doesn't like to be in, her Mum is no where to be found and her twin sister now has a bodyguard. You really don't know who to trust, who is trying to kill who nor what the book Ilsa now has that only shows her blank pages most of the time unless she really needs it.
Profile Image for Lexie.
135 reviews10 followers
June 16, 2018
Love Almost All of Emma's Books & This is no Different

I love almost all of Emma's Books & this is no different. Interesting characters, plot, intrigue, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next book.

****SPOILER SPOILER Call it a crazy hunch, but I don't think Holly will be raring to come back. I could be wrong, but she's essentially free. END SPOILER****

Thanks for all the great books you put out, Emma, it allows me to escape for a couple of hours while I read each one. It's getting harder and harder to find heroines and characters that can hold my attention and you manage to do that!

438 reviews1 follower
March 19, 2018
Another great series

Ms. Adams always writes great series and this one is one you won't want to miss. Set in the same world as the Ivy Lane and other series, you get to travel into the world of the fae. While not always set in Fairy, you get to travel to the outskirts and the human realm. This time it is the heir gatekeepers of summer and winterand something isn't quite right in their world. It is up to Ilsa to figure it out with some help from family and a guardian to stop it before it breaks apart the world.
Profile Image for Joy Phillip.
Author 2 books1 follower
June 15, 2018
I started reading this book off a recommendation from Facebook. It was a nice distraction.

This is just the kind of book I like, magic and mayhem, set in a near Now Earth. The only complaint I have is that some of the scene transitions were messy. I think an editing error had a transition getting edited out, so in the read of the book, the character is at point A doing action 1 and suddenly they are at point Y doing action 5 with no explanation of how they got from A to Y. It happened multiple times in the book, and threw me out of the narrative every time.

But the rest of the book was well done, and I enjoyed it. I look forward to book 2.
Profile Image for Megan.
3,608 reviews45 followers
September 26, 2018
Took me a little while to get into it. I can't really explain why its just slow.

This appears to lightly link Ivy lane whose series I have not finished (not even sure theres an end but I'm book #5 I believe). This book was a nice start just not the prescence to me as Ivy's was.

She is sort of an anti hero if you will. I think the comment of not showing and more telling isn't right for this. She does show but she can't show a lot shes human and non magic until this book. I think she proves to be a powerful being.

I also enjoyed River. I'm excited and curious to see how this goes.
Profile Image for Devz Milady.
326 reviews5 followers
May 15, 2019
This is the second series from Emma I am trying to read but her writing style is making it extra hard.
There is no coherence,no logic and no sense to the behavior of the characters.

The characters behave haphazardly, no chemistry between them, no sense to their actions and the way plot proceeds is toooo ridiculous to make sense..

This one started out more enjoyable than most - shame it turned out to be as incoherent and illogical as Devi Lawson's series..
Profile Image for S.M..
Author 5 books25 followers
January 18, 2023
Three and a half stars. I enjoyed the story, and especially both the MC’s relationship with her sister and the overall relationship between the sisters and River, but there’s some serious white room syndrome going on. The descriptions of the settings just don’t really cut it—they’re both not interesting enough to skim and insufficient to be able to fully picture an area. I’m still going to buy the second, though!
Profile Image for Mike Lewis.
1,761 reviews8 followers
March 16, 2018
Great story

Great story with a great cast of characters. Continuing in the world of Ivy Lane we get to meet her distant relatives who are bound to ferry as their gate keepers. Follow the battles between the winter gatekeeper in the summer gatekeeper and see what goes on in this part of this future world. Lots of magic and very entertaining
1,514 reviews11 followers
March 19, 2018
Good read

Okay so this is a good read and the author really knows how to tell a story but I am absolutely bored to death with faeries. She made a celestial series so I thought finally they were changing it up but then it went right back to faeries. I really like this author but I would like to see different stories from her.
Profile Image for The Mysterious Reader.
3,588 reviews66 followers
March 21, 2018
Ok, this is just a a “quickie” review. Unfortunately, I’m in in a hospital and asked my husband to post this since I don’t have the time to do better - even though the book definitely deserves it.

Bottom line: five stars. This was one wonderfully fun novel and definitely recommended. It had just what I wanted and was well written and with a great plot and great cast of characters.
34 reviews
March 26, 2018
Exciting, action and magic

Great Read with lots of action, magic and lots of love, familial and romance. Truly a keep you up late just because you can't put it down book. Good night lol ...... A great story, well written, attention holding, very much an involving book and so well written it Is as if I the reader was there!!! The best kind of book.!!!!!:-)


Profile Image for Melanie.
485 reviews5 followers
May 26, 2018
Everything about this book falls flat for me. I had no sense of the characters or what the stakes were. Despite this book being like 85% info dump, I don’t feel like I know how the magic works or what was even going on. Ilsa’s romance (if you can call it that) with River felt tacked on at best. Don’t waste your time.
Profile Image for IdRatherBeReading.
303 reviews1 follower
September 29, 2018
Such great writing

I love the writing of this author. It flows so easily! Such a twist at the end I didn’t even realize I was wrong the whole time as well. I loved River and Ilsa, that will be great reading when it comes to fruition. We have spirit realm, faerie realm, and mortal realm and it was all consuming awesome!
Profile Image for Abbie .
613 reviews3 followers
Read
October 16, 2019
Intriguing reading

Right up front, I'm not really into the whole Faire realm. This novel was engaging, entertaining and imaginative. The lives of those bound to farie are a blessing and a curse. And a fight to draw breath, apparently. Hope you enjoy the book. I'm off to read the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Natasha Maltman.
665 reviews8 followers
November 18, 2019
3

1 Star = DNF.
2 Star = Finished. Didn’t really enjoy.
3 Star = Finished. Story was neither good nor bad.
3.5 Star = Finished. Story was neither good nor bad. Will probably pick up next in series if there is one.
4 Star = Finished. Enjoyed story & would reread.
5 Star = Bloody LOVED it! ❤️
Profile Image for Barbara Sykeshaha.
98 reviews2 followers
July 7, 2020
A very satisfying read

I would recommend reading Emma Adams's first series, The Changling Chtonnicles before reading this series.. Then the first chapter will make sense to you. Both series are packed with strong female, male, fairy characters. You want action, it's there in great supply. One series leads to the next, you won't be disappointed no matter which you read first.
Profile Image for Danica.
48 reviews
August 4, 2021
Would you like a bit of horror with your fantasy? Pick this one.

It was a good. It reads a like Young Adult Fiction. I look forward to continue reading the rest of this series. I definitely want to know more about the witch and her husband in town, and Ilsa and River need a proper date. Arden comes off as a traitor, and should be banished. I wonder what’s in store for Holly?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews

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