A very interesting book that always leaves you wanting more.

It's done completely from the point of view of a teenager, and that's exactly where it gets it's mixed reviews from.

Most of the complaints are for me describing a big part of it's magic.

A fifteen year old often feels like the world is mysterious and inexplicable, and in this book you never really know what the hell is going on.

It's an interesting approach that (I'm pretty sure) was deliberate by the authour.

Here's the problem. The environment, plot line and cute links to other works of the author have you dying to learn more page after page, and for the most part that goes unrequited.

It could have been a pretty cool, but typical fantasy series spanning three novels or so. It's written by someone who's done just that before, spectacularly well. (If you haven't read the Fionavar, go do that now, come back to this later... seriously....) It isn't. Get over that, and you might be charmed by this quick read. Don't, and you'll be disappointed. ( )

3.5 stars

Ysabel is a young adult urban fantasy novel. 15-year old Ned is in France with his father, a photographer. While exploring a cathedral, Ned meets Kate, who is about the same age as he is. Odd things start happening. Without giving too much away, the story involves two men and a woman from 2500 years ago, merging in today’s world and somehow Ned and his family are involved.

I liked it. I am not usually a big fan of fantasy, but I’ve found I tend to prefer ya and urban fantasy. I’ve only read one other Kay book, which for me, took an incredibly long time for the story to get going. I was happy that this one started off with the action right off the top. ( )

I liked the contemporary crossover to mythical vibe in this novel. Although the narrative struck me as aimed at the younger end of YA, the tale could easily appeal to the adult who likes historical characters intertwined with a modern day adventure. I like YA, so that's not a criticism, just that the story seemed a younger genre than I remember GGK's writing. After all, I devoured the story late into the night during a reading binge.

In this novel, Kay departs from the rather tedious style of his 1980's fantasies. His writing had much more adept use of historical events from Roman-Celtic times in ancient Gaul (France) and modern times. Whether young teens will relate to the 15-year-old main characters is not certain (a small point, hot mail as an e-mail domain in 2007, when the book was published, is really dating itself).

Minor niggles aside, this book is especially enjoyable in terms of tying in much more ancient myths (Beltane) that pre-date any of the Greek and Roman theologies together with the ruins and historical sites in the France of today. The area around Aix-en-Provence sounds wonderfully intriguing. The final twist in the story was splendid and I was sorry to leave Ned & Kate (the MCs) behind. ( )

Ned Marriner is on a trip with his dad, who is a famous photographer working on a coffee table book on the region, in the south of France in May. As the crew is setting up to shoot the outside of an old cathedral, Ned thinks it would be funny to poke around on the inside while listening to Houses of the Holy - something to text his high school buddies about back home. But while inside the ancient-in-places space, he meets a girl there on an exchange program, and they both run into a man who seems to be up to no good. Their lives all change from then on, because the man is, in fact, a man out of his time (by about 2500 years) and something big is about to go down on Beltaine, with Ned unwittingly at the center of it all.
I loved this book. A grown-up version of Over Sea, Under Stone, with a story that folds in Celtic myth and Greek & Roman history? Be still my Classics-/myth-/fantasy-loving heart. Excellent pacing, great characters, and a very cool story. Highly recommended. ( )

Ancient enemies at war in an ongoing love triangle get tangled up in modern reality. This pulled me in far more effectively than other Kay novels I have read recently. The plot was much tighter, with fewer far flung threads to reconcile, and better characters. ( )