Paws & Portals by Ellie Warren (Curiosity Killed the Bookworm)
Sometimes what you need to read is a gentle, fun book that takes you right away from the real world and that is just what Paws & Portals did for me this past (very) wet weekend.
This is a book set in a world which feels familiar - it is a reasonably technically advanced and (on the surface) a tolerant society, all be it one where the power is drawn from ambient magic and no one quite understands how...
Then things start going wrong and Daisy, along with intern Lima, are sent out of the city into Ruhann where the Ratatoskr (the squirrel like race pictured on the cover) live and have noticed that the natural world is falling out of balance.
The book is a cosy fantasy (despite the inclusion of werewolves and vampires) with a very well conceived quest forming much of the plot.
The book can be read as a metaphor for how we are reliant on technology that we don't understand, how we are ruining the environment, and how we have more in common with people who aren't quite like us than we have differences but at its heart it is just a cracking magical adventure story.
There's very gentle hints at romance in the story, but again the messages contained here are also very gentle - this isn't an addition to the new wave of 'spicy romance/fantasy' novels.
Last year I was recommended the T K Kingfisher book The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - another fun fantasy book that I didn't expect to love as much a I did, and I think Paws & Portals is this year's surprise summer read.
I really hope that Ellie does write more in this world as I want to know what happens next to these characters but that is because I loved them so much and not because the book was left on a cliff hanger.
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