What this summer needs is a little DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins

I spent my teen years in sunny Southern California, so I like to think I know a thing or two about beach reads.  Granted, most of my summer days were spent on horseback in rings of dirt, instead of blankets on white sand beaches. My tan lines followed the neck line and sleeves of tee shirts instead of the latest style in swimwear.  But, one thing I never skimped on was a good beach read.

I devoured tawdry romance novels and page-turning mysteries.  The summer I discovered Stephen King, I went off to college on two hours sleep so I could finish the last three hundred pages of IT before I had to give the copy back to my mother.

Now that I have spent the last three years pursuing publication, I find it harder and harder to get lost in a book.  It's hard to read without marveling at a perfect metaphor, noticing how the set up in act one pays off in act three, or gauging the internal reaction to physical description quotient in the prose. It's harder to just sit back and be entertained.

Enter the solution: Rachel Hawkins.  I've already talked about her first book HEX HALL, which I really enjoyed.  The second book of the trilogy, DEMONGLASS, manages to be even more engaging and more romantic than the first. I found myself laughing out loud as I read the manuscript, surprised by the plot twists, and absolutely in love with Sophie's sarcastic but sweet world view.

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch, but she's recently discovered she's something much darker and more dangerous.  She goes to London with her father to decide whether to have her powers removed, but ends up at the center of a brewing war between humans and the magical world that divides her loyalties.   

DEMONGLASS has everything I look for in a summer read: romance, humor, and page-turning mystery. This is the kind of thoroughly entertaining writing that looks effortless because it reads so well, but that I know if really, really hard. This is the second in a trilogy and does end on something of a cliffhanger.  I wasn't bothered by the ending because I still found it hopeful and satisfying, but readers who want instant gratification might want to wait for the third book before reading this one.