Autumn Thorns (Whisper Hollow, #1)

by Yasmine Galenorn

[EBookObsessed]

This was a good beginning of a new series although I would have preferred to save the family mystery for the second book and just focus on Kerris's gift of Spirit Shaman. We did not spend enough time out of the cemetery.

Yasmine Galenorn takes us to the town of Whisper Hollow, Washington. A place where everyone who lives there knows about the odd happenings about town. In fact, the children are raised saying the rules each morning like the pledge of allegiance.

1. If you hear someone call your name from the forest, don’t answer.

2. Never interrupt Ellia when she’s playing to the dead.

3. If you see the Girl in the Window, set your affairs in order.

4. Try not to end up in the hospital.

5. If the Crow Man summons you, follow him.

6. Remember: Sometimes the foul are actually fair.

7. And most important: Don’t drive down by the lake at night.

Kerris Fellwater left Whisper Hollow fifteen years ago. She loved her grandmother dearly, but her grandfather was a real bastard and she simply needed to get away from him. Deep down she knew she would have to return one day. Her family were children of the Morrigan and her grandmother was a Spirit Shaman, just like Kerris. A Spirit Shaman helps the spirits of the dead cross over the Veil. She will also round up the ones who refuse to stay there and help persuade them to go back.

A Spirit Shaman is helped by a lament singer and she usually given a shapeshifter protector. When Kerris returns to Whisper Hollow after the Lady of the Lake claimed her grandparents, she knew Ellia would help her by playing the spirits to rest with her violin but she didn't know if she would ever find her protector and if, like many of the Shaman/protector couples, he would be her soulmate.

Once Kerris returns, she finds that while the spirits need help finding their way, secrets in Whisper Hollow are buried much deeper. Kerris was always told that her father ran away when he found out her mother was pregnant and that her mother abandoned her and ran away to be with her father, but was that the truth? When Kerris see's her mother's spirit, she knows that stories told to her were just that...stories and lies. Her mother is dead and Kerris will do everything in power to dig up this ugly secret.

Kerris meets her very handsome, new next door neighbor, she finds he knows quite alot about spirit shamans and their protectors. Can it be too much to hope that the spark between them means more than neighborly attraction?

From the moment she arrives, Kerris is surrounded by old friends, but can they all be trusted and Kerris is going to keep as many secrets to herself until she is certain who is friend and who is not.

THOUGHTS:
This was very interesting world building and I have a feeling it follow the same lead as her other stories, although I have only read two others. My only critique here would be that as an introduction story to a new series, I would have liked to have focused more on getting to know more about a Spirit Shaman and to have gone along with Kerris to the cemetery more than we were able to do in this book.

Kerris's time was split between rekindling new friendships, making a new one with Bryan, next door, clearing out and searching her grandparents house for her grandmother's spirit shaman diaries and searching for her parents murder. There are some things which were only touched on in this story, such a while she met the gatekeeper of the veil, she never had her new-shaman-in-town meeting with Veronica, who controls the undead, and exactly why she is does that. We also don't really deal with who has been raising the spirits and stirring up the evil that lives in the woods. There was a lot to learn here and I feel like we only touched on it.

I think that we could have saved the whole Kerris sorting out her family secrets, or at least the murders, until the second book and we had a more sturdy foundation of Spirit Shaman, what they do and what kind of powers they hold.

We only get a glimpse of the possibilities of this series but it has a lot of potential and a lot of story plots to work with. I hope we will get to work with Kerris and understand Spirit Shamans a little more after Book 2.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.