Series: Keeper Duology #1
Author: Kim Chance
Pages: 409
Published: January 30th 2018
Publisher: Flux books/North Star Editions
Chance writes a contemporary fantasy that is laced with secretes, dark magic, and a family that throughout generations have had the power and courage to be the worlds saving grace.
I have always loved a well crafted witch read, and this contemporary fantasy did not disappoint! We follow Lainey who is a very straight laced student who relays on scientific facts, and sensibility. She has lacer focus on her main priority, acing the SAT. Lainey's life quickly takes a turn when the unordinary starts to happen, and even her beloved science can't explain it away. With the help of her comic obsessed best friend Maggie, and a cocky fighter named Ty, Lainey learns more about who she truly is, and the journey she is about to embark on.
Keeper was paced wonderfully and was hard to put down! After leaving a bookstore event Maggie dragged her to Lainey sees a woman covered in blood calling her name, and the adventure begins.The journey she goes on is exciting and heartbreakingly forged with twist and turns I didn't see coming. Her best friend Maggie is someone I would love to have in my life. She is full of knowledge and all her answers come from her trusted comics. At times her love for comics felt a little overboard, but I would expect that's how it would feel to have a best friend that believed to be the Robin to your Batman. Her loyalty to Lainey is a beautiful and admirable characteristic. I hope that the next book allows us to get to know Maggie better. I wouldn't mind having a book dedicated to Maggie and her own story!
Lainey and Ty's banter was fun to read. During the book I kept wanting more from Ty's character, and wanted to learn more about his backstory. I felt disconnected from him as a reader, but once I finished the book I realized that disconnect made sense. Chance has a way of creating characters where I wish each one had their own book, and I don't say that lightly. Her craft in character development is extraordinary. In many books characters voices start to become muddy, and it's hard to keep up with whose who. The characters in Keeper have unique voices. Some chapters flip from visions of the past and we feel and see from a different perspective other than Lainey's. I never got confused or felt like the characters were so alike that they started to have the same characteristics, and that's saying something about Chance's writing since these two characters have the same motives.
While I am drawn to character driven books the plot in Keeper was just as intriguing as the characters. Chance took ideas that I've read before and flipped the idea on it's back creating something unique that still held familiarity. The idea of a teenage witch has been done before, but the twist that Chance put on it was fun and unique. I loved how the plot never fell flat and the pacing stayed consistent. It's hard to find the balance between letting your character go through the process of denial, anger, and finally acceptance without feeling like the pace of the book becomes stagnate, and Chance successfully found the sweet spot.
Keeper kicks into an even higher gear in the end, and was filled with so many twist and turns I refused to put it down till I finished it. I am beyond excited for the next book and will more then likely binge read it just like I did Keeper.
With the atmospheric writing, the witchy elements, and the haunting past that follows Lainey, this read is perfect for fall. This book is Kim Chance's debut novel and I cannot wait to read more from her.
About The Author
Taken from her website: Kim Chance is a high school English teacher and Alabama native who currently resides in Michigan with her husband and three children. Kim is also a YouTuber who has a passion for helping other writers. She posts weekly writing videos on her channel: www.youtube.com/kimchance.. When Kim is not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and two crazy dogs, binge-watching shows on Netflix, fangirling over books, and making death-by-cheese casseroles.
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