What I Am Reading: "Summer Twilight" by Bridget Smith

I was a beta reader for this book, the first novel in a fantasy series written by a friend from undergrad. The story, set in a medieval fantasy world, revolves around a harvest festival in a peaceful and bustling city. One character, Lady Caidelene, heiress to the local noble seat, is planning the festival, as part of her increasing political responsibility. Her love from younger days, Alex Laurent, has just returned to town for his next assignment in the Imperial secret service. Both of them must navigate a world of honor, duty, and their lingering feelings for each other as they get this festival and fantasy series off the ground.

The book does a workmanlike job of setting up the geography and political backstory of its fantasy world as the festival approaches, and lingers on long descriptions of the rolling landscape and hearty food of Rosemoor Dell. When the festival finally arrives, we have a good sense of the importance of the festival, and of the threat to it posed by the Freelarks, a group of eco-terrorists using magic outside of the tightly-regulated framework. The reader is also made aware of a larger, as-yet-unexplained supernatural purpose for Caidy through the dreams she has of a threatened power called the Eladyr. This is outside of the magic system that is set up by an excerpted-from-legend prologue detailing how Gods have left the world, but still empower humans through the Winds of Magic.

This first book doesn’t quite set up the next stage of the story, whether it be a quest or a political intrigue or something else. It does, however, throw an interesting twist into the lives of the characters in the resolution of the festival situation, dealing them a setback that I won’t spoil. Despite the meticulous attention to the background, the characters Alex and Caidy are the focal points of the story, and I look forward to seeing how they evolve in the next work in the series.