A review of Into the Fire by Jodi McIsaac

Into the Fire, the second in The Thin Veil series, is a continuation of Through the Door, which introduced us to Cedar and Eden, mother and daughter. Although Eden has discovered she's one of the Tuatha de Dannan, or Fae, Cedar discovered that in order to live on Eriu (Earth), her adopted Druid mother made her human, although she is the daughter of the former King and Queen. In this second installment, Cedar comes to Tir Na Nog, the land of her people, to stop Nuala (the bad guy) from using her powers of influence to make herself Queen and start a war with humans to conquer Earth. Those friendly to Cedar and her lover Finn want Cedar, as the daughter of royals, to rule. Cedar agrees but Nuala convinces the high council to make Cedar pass a test, namely to find The Stone of Destiny, a magic stone said to roar when a true King or Queen stands upon it. Cedar accepts and a journey with friends and loved ones begins. I enjoyed the development of Cedar's character in this book very much. She comes into her own, in more ways than one, and she strikes me as an interesting balance between human and Dannan. I was not as impressed with Finn's character. He needs more fleshing out, as he mostly stands behind Cedar, then occasionally turns into a dragon or some other animal when necessary. The return of some known characters helped the story along a bit, but I didn't really get Liam's character. Without giving away plot points, I thought his involvement was a bit ridiculous. The "fight" scene at the end was fun, but a bit convenient, as was the resolution of the problem back in Tir Na Nog. In all, it was fun, and I enjoyed it, but it had its drawbacks, too.