Tree Shepherd's Daughter (Faire Folk, Book 1) Harry Potter7

Product Description

When her mother dies, fifteen-year-old Keelie Heartwood is forced to leave her beloved California to live with her nomadic father at a renaissance festival in Colorado. After arriving, Keelie finds men in tights and women in trailer trash-tight bodices roaming half-drunk, calling each other lady and lord even after closing time! Playacting the Dark Ages is an L.A. girl’s worst nightmare.

Keelie has a plan to ditch this medieval geekland ASAP, but while she plots, strange things start happening—eerie, yet familiar. When Keelie starts seeing fairies and communicating with trees, she uncovers a secret that links her to a community of elves. As Keelie tries to come to grips with her elfin roots, disaster strikes, and Keelie’s identity isn’t the only thing that’s threatened.

One part human determination and one part elfin magic, Keelie Heartwood is a witty new heroine in a world where fantasy and reality mix with extraordinary results.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224508 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"A promising premise...dedicated teen fantasy fans might enjoy the unusual atmosphere of the Renaissance fair setting in this first book of the Faire Folk Trilogy." -- VOYA, October 2007

"The constant action, both magical and otherwise, will keep [readers]interested in Keelie's fate. This first installment of a trilogy ends with a solid resolution that answers questions but leaves room for further adventures." -- School Library Journal, February 2008

"This one stands out thanks primarily to the quirky ren-faire setting, some interesting wood magic, and a cat with serious attitude." -- LOCUS Magazine, August 2007

The author deftly captures the young adult mindset in the heroine... [A]n intriguing introduction to this unique trilogy." -- From Renaissance Magazine, Issue #60

About the Author
Gillian Summers is the pseudonym for co-authors, Berta Platas (Georgia) and Michelle Roper (Georgia), both experienced writers in the romance and fantasy genres, respectively. But more importantly, both are ardent renaissance faire groupies.

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Customer Reviews

Must read for young or old!
The Tree Shepherd's Daughter by Gillian Summer is a delightful Renaissance Faire tale abound with magic and mayhem that grabs the reader from page one and bewitches you right through to the last page. A young adult novel to devour no matter what age you are.

Keelie Heartwood is the typical California girl in every way until the loss of her mother due to an accident. Confused, angry, resentful, determined, Keelie is not about to give up her California girl ways without a fight.

A few weeks following her mothers death, Keelie is uprooted from her California life to go live with her father at a Renaissance Faire in Colorado. Upon arrival she is not only stunned by the fairy tale image of the place but of the people who actually think they are a part of this period lifestyle. What could only be worse is the giving up of the concrete life for the world of woodlands, mud and the uneasy buzzing that seems to have taken hold of Keelie since she walked through the gates of the Faire.

It doesn't take long before what seems to be fantasy turns into a stunning reality when Keelie is confronted by water sprites, tree spirits, a nasty dastardly evil troll, elves, dwarves, and all kinds of other fairytale characters that a normal person would see in a totally different light.

This author has given us a truly wonderful tale that would be every girl's dream given the chance. Add a little magic and mayhem, good magic and dark magic, magical beings and mundanes (humans), throw in a normal looking kitty with an infinity for out drinking almost everyone when the mead starts to flow and you have a page turner that will make you laugh, cry, astonish you and make you wish for more when the story finally comes to the very last page. I can't wait to get my greedy little hands on book two of this deliciously delightful trilogy.

Great book!
Fifteen-year-old Keelie Heartwood is forced to live with the father she doesn't even know when her beloved mother dies in a plane accident. Even worse than not even knowing her father is the fact that he is a woodcraftsman in a traveling Renaissance Faire. Keelie, a fashionista from L.A., is positive that this arrangement isn't going to work out and makes plans with her friend Laurie to move back home.

Sure enough, everything is just as bad--if not worse--than Keelie expects. Everyone who works at the faire is weird, her father Zeke appears to be a `lady's man,' and his cat Knot seems insane! Plus, her freakish tree allergy is acting up overtime because they are deep in the Colorado forest. All she wants to do is go back home and be with her mom and have everything back to normal!

Slowly, she decides that Zeke isn't all bad--she even slips and calls him `Dad' sometimes--and she meets some okay people. But then she learns that her tree allergy isn't really an allergy and that her slightly deformed ear isn't really a deformity...and that her mother wasn't completely honest with her. It seems that there is a lot more to herself and the world than Keelie ever knew before coming to Colorado. And why won't that pesky cat Knot leave her alone?

This is a great book that I didn't want to put down. It ties current teenage trends with fantastical elements, which is sure to grab the interest of a young female reader who might not normally read fantasy. Keelie is a very likable character whose emotions are real--especially those dealing with the loss of her mother.

The Tree Shepherd's Daughter is the first book in a planned trilogy titled The Faire Folk Trilogy. I grabbed the second book as soon as I finished this one because I wanted to continue reading about Keelie and what she'll face as she and her father travel to the Renaissance Faire in New York. I'm eager for book three to be published!

Great but research please!
I liked this book (what I've read-I'm only halfway through). I think it blends fantasy and fiction pretty well but . . .did Gillian Summers do any research at all or did she just randomly pick the setting?

And by setting I don't mean the Ren Faire. I live in Colorado and raining all the time? Not so much. We get maybe one good thunder storm a year.

It'll sprinkle every once and a while and it's muddy in the mountains during mud season because of snow melt. Other than that all the water is from snow.

And tornadoes? No way. Tornadoes don't happen within 30 miles of Rockies at least and they definitely don't happen in them.

This has bugging throughout the whole book so I just had to get it out. I know it's not really about Colorado but, these things can be found almost instantly on Google.

Still good, and the plot's believable (for fantasy) I just want the setting to be too.