Synopsis: Parasol Road

Siobhan has never been quite a normal kid. She prefers wandering in the woods off Parasol Road looking for faeries to attending birthday parties, and she has a witch as a mentor. But she’s always been able to fit into the supremely normal small town of Selden, Michigan pretty well. When she’s 14, though, things change.

Siobhan discovers that not only are faeries real… they’re a lot closer than she imagined, and they aren’t Tinkerbell. It seems that she’s trespassed on faerie territory without knowing it one time too many. Chetani and Inadray, two faeries, brother and sister, have taken an interest in Siobhan, and she isn’t sure she likes it. These creatures’ idea of fun is to take a human, give him exquisite musical ability, and then make him perform at a faerie revel without rest until he dies. Siobhan isn’t reassured by Chetani’s promises that they will never harm her. She’s unsettled by Chetani’s continued attention to her, and disturbed by the way he fascinates her even as she knows his potential for cruelty.

But Siobhan has more to think about than faeries. She agrees to be her longtime witch friend’s apprentice, and she undertakes to help an unscrupulous but likable wizard and his daughter to do… um… something the author hasn’t quite figured out just yet, and to get into and out of several tight spots with orcs.

Siobhan also struggles with an intense crush on Richard, a man thirty years older than she. Eventually she becomes convinced that she is the reincarnation of Richard’s dead wife. She believes that she and Richard belong together, whatever the rest of the world might think – but she doesn’t understand how she could, in a past life, have married someone who doesn’t believe in magic and whose highlight of the week is watching football on Saturday.

When Siobhan’s older brother, Matt, becomes severely depressed, Siobhan is desperate to help him. She makes a deal with Inadray, whom she barely trusts but who is the only one willing to help her, to cure Matt’s depression in exchange for Siobhan’s firstborn child. It works. Siobhan plans never to have children.

At the age of 18, fully trained as a witch and a healer, Siobhan decides to leave Michigan and get away from small-town life, Richard (whom she’s made a fool of herself to), and the faeries, especially Chetani, who seems determined to get more from Siobhan than she’s willing to give. She sets off across America armed with a backpack, traveling with one friend in a rusty old car, on a journey to find herself. Her plans get derailed when she meets a man who reminds her a little of Richard. By the time she’s disentangled her life from his, she has a baby, a broken heart, and a big problem. She knows that Inadray will eventually come for the baby, but Siobhan has no intention of giving her child up.

Siobhan goes home to Parasol Road, knowing that she will never be able to rest easily until she settles things with Inadray – and settling things isn’t going to be peaceful. But there is more at stake than her child. The faeries may want to take her very soul. Siobhan will have to use all of her courage and wit to save herself and her little girl. And when Richard finally expresses feelings for Siobhan, Chetani forces her to choose between the two of them once and for all.