Eager to repossess his stolen imagination, Jeff returns to his fictional world, but is separated from Cassie and must find her before strange magical vortices take her and destroy the world itself.

The writing kept this story in a close and simple setting, and even though the threat could have been world-consuming, it felt very local. Jeff’s story was simple –to find Cassie, and he was more of an engaging character because of it. They move together from one location to another as a pack, for days at a time, and the answers are simple. I think the point was more to enjoy the characters, which I did, but at the expense of a more complex world. Ven was always funny, especially her banter with Jeff. The others were nicely distinct, but barely registered as more than that, as the dialog could have been significantly improved. There was potential romance all around, and it was fun to get a peek inside a literary world, even though it took a lot of time to get nothing done. Unfortunately, the solution turned out to be a non-solution, though I admit the author did a good job of sidelining Jeff so that the mystery was preserved until the end. Only there wasn’t much mystery, just a group of inept villains, making the climax a bit weak.

It’s been a long time since I read the last book in this series, but the author did a good job at providing callbacks to past events, which brought back tenuous memories of what went on before. In reality, though, the past doesn’t matter so much, as this book provides its own adventure, such as it is.

The adventure was fun, if only for the character interactions rather than the adventure itself. The book starts in Montreal, though we only get to see one location, and while Jeff is pretty miserable, he’s making Cassie and Ven miserable also. The romance between Jeff and Cassie is heating up, to the point where she plans to move in. Ven, who is bunking at Cassie’s place, knows it’s inevitable, but not until Jeff gets his imagination back. The take him to supper, and explain that they have to get back to Addvell before things get worse. While he’s afraid of what will happen to Cassie if they do, he reluctantly agrees.

At the end of Eventide, the Three Sisters had given Jeff a magical token that could bring him back, and they use this, and end up in the bakery where Ven works, but it’s deserted –except for the Three Sisters sitting at a table in the corner. They explain that Andvell is in danger, and there is a price for what he wants. The bakery disappears, and they are in a field on the edge of a forest. Jeff gets his imagination back, but they whisk Cassie away who knows where.

The author does a good job keeping the action up, with Jeff getting attacked by undead wolves, rescued by Jayden, brought back to Feldall Keep for a reunion, being attacked on their way to the castle, being followed and almost swallowed by a vortex as they return from the castle, and embark again through the snow to the village where Cassie is being held –and where Raul’s supporters are causing trouble.

It was funny anticipating how much trouble they would get into in almost every chapter. Jeff meets a master healer when he’s struck by a dark arrow. Fortunately, the people who attacked them were inept at fighting. It turns out they were more interested in Raul than learning swordplay. They are kicked out of the lodge where Jeff is recovering after receiving a note from Queen Ansalla’s chief of staff implying that Jeff was involved in Raul’s campaign of conquest. Although Jeff’s appearance in Andvell did coincide with Raul’s appearances, and they were related, it wasn’t because of that, of course. It turns out that Corban's daughter was a victim in one of Raul’s plots.

They are attacked again just outside the castle, but get whisked inside easily enough, where they are made to wait an absurdly long time. That’s because Bastien, who never trusted Jeff in the last book, is convinced that he’s in league with Raul, and is the cause of the magical vortices that have been devouring things around the country. Fortunately, Ariana, the princess, isn’t a rule follower, and sneaks in to show them a secret passage out of the room, where they go to meet with the Queen.

The author tells us a bit too much about what the characters are feeling, and the dialog is mostly obvious, which was a bit tiring. Most of the book was missing a lot of the realism of really great works.

With the Queen on their side, Jeff and the gang trudge back through the snow to Feldall Keep, encountering a rogue Ariana on the way. Unfortunately, their cart and horses are taken by a vortex, making for a nicely poignant moment where Jeff’s horse Swish is sucked away, leaving him devastated.

All this while, Brady is suffering from his merger with the dragon Talfyr in the last book. It seems that the dragon is taking over his mind. While at the castle, he takes the time to learn more about the spell that did this. While it’s possible to survive, most people don’t. It proves fortunate, however, because Talfyr flies around and sees other dragons awakening, and at the same time, he sees Cassie, putting the army on the move.

When they meet one of the antagonists from the previous book, the leader of Raul’s followers, some of whom seem to have magical abilities, is a teenaged girl, whose sister was killed in one of Raul’s uprisings. It looks like the author was trying to sweep a lot of this under the rug, because there is very little explanation of why she would follow Raul if her sister was killed due to him, and no explanation of where all these magic users came from. They are the ones creating the vortices, and they animate Raul’s stone dragon form, which promptly gets sucked into a vortex along with Jeff.

I understand the author’s desire to avoid describing the conflict that follows, or at least the collapse of Raul’s followers. Since the story takes place from Jeff’s point of view, and he’s sucked into a vortex, it means he misses it completely. He is stuck in the veil between worlds, and finds things from his world and the magical world, including a doctor who heals his wounds, with another companion. They take shelter until Jeff is better, and then move toward the shadow Feldall Keep, where Jeff discovers the hidden garden exists fully in this world as well. I really thought that would be his way out, but no, the veil is thinner here, and he hears Maggie, and is rescued by her chanting.

There is a bit of last minute romance, playing catch-up, as Jeff and Cassie spend the day naked in the garden pond -ah, the stamina of the young! Then they attend the belated wedding between Jayden and Ariana before Jeff is sent home.

There was a strange part before the final conflict where everyone said Jeff had to be sent home for good for the rifts to close, but they were willing to allow Cassie to stay. I don’t understand why, as she’s from Jeff’s world also, and presumably it’s the Meratis spell that brought her through, too. He stays, determined not to abandon her, but I think she was part of the problem, too. In the end, she and Jeff return, while Ven stays back in her own world, though she doesn’t admit she’s developing feelings for Maggie’s magical son William.

The series wasn’t my brand, but it was worth finishing. The dialog could have been significantly improved, which would have made the story much more palatable. But I think it was meant to feature the lands and the characters of this world, which it did reasonably well. The best thing about the book was the banter between Jeff and Ven, which was often hilarious, especially in the reactions of others.