The Queen and The Tower

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I liked this warlock, I truly did, but sometimes his Old Country courtesies left “charming” and edged a little too close to “patronizing.”

Callie

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The Queen and the Tower Synopsis

Calendula Isadora (Callie to her friends) is a powerful witch with a mind for science…magical science.

Her independent ways, not to mention her unseemly affection for her human boyfriend, put her at odds with her San Francisco coven. The last straw comes when she builds and animates a massive golem. Really, such things are simply not done among respectable witchkind.

Then a sexy Old Country warlock arrives on the scene, just to complicate things further, as Callie’s best friend, Logandina, falls ill with an inexplicable malady. As Callie delves deeper into the swirl of mysteries surrounding her, the witchkind powers-that-be try to keep her in her place. Naturally, she defies them, with help from her mentor, eight-hundred-year-old Gregorio Andromedus, her mother, a “wild magic” witch with a talent for the tarot, and a few new friends.

But when illusion, deception, danger and intrigue are the common currency, how can any witch know who to trust or where to turn? Can Callie rely on anyone besides herself—and her familiar, Elnor?

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The Queen and the Tower Review

My adventure into this novel started a little unconventionally. I got approved for A Sword in The Sun on NetGalley. Looking at the book, I quickly realized that A Sword in The Sun was the second novel and quickly ordered The Queen and The Tower on my Kindle Oasis. I am glad I did because this book was worth the purchase!

Callie, our main characters and whose POV the series is told through, is a 45 year old witch, equivalent to a mid to late-twenties human. She lives with her coven, spends time with her best friend Logan and is secretly dating a human man, named Raymond. She is a molecular scientist for the witch-kind community; her current focus is to develop a mechanical aid for witch fertility, since infertility is a problem for witch-kind. After creating her golem to help with her research, her live at the coven is stressed (not all of her 12 coven-sisters agree about Petrana). She decides that to continue her research, she needs to move out into her investment property to obtain more space and, most importantly, privacy.

At her first official dinner party, things do not go as planned. Raymond shows up drunk and of course everyone finds out she’s dating a human. Logan falls mysteriously ill and her essence is leaking out from her. Gregorio is pushing her into a more than friendship with his newly arrived son, Jeremiah. Her Coven mother is not approving of her new living situation and the more they push Callie into making decisions that are traditional to witch-kind, the more she pushes back towards a more modern, unconventional life. Callie finds herself in a mystery and new life, which is definitely not what she planned for herself. Especially not at only 45.

While this book was definitely slower and a set up book for the series, I did not find I wanted to put it down. The history, the folklore and the world-building in this novel are written together beautifully. The characters are well developed and the information that is given about the world is intertwined with the story in a way that does not feel like an info dump. Some characters I fell for instantly, others I am wondering if they are who they say they are. In a world where warlocks and witches can live for centuries, who knows what hiding in their back closets; but I am looking forward to finding out.

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About Shannon Page

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More Books by Shannon Page

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The Nightcraft Quartet Series

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