In the Old Country, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, the manitou. Now generations have passed, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselvesappearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black. Bettina can see them. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in wintry Kellygnow, an artists colony a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outside her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of themuntil the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand Once again, Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets.
I am embarrassed to admit that I forget about Charles de Lint. I have books by him on my TBR pile and keep my ears open for new releases, but then I forget to tell people that I love him and everyone should read him. How can I forget to do that? I mean, really, everyone should love him and read him. It is as easy as that. Now, I would not suggest reading him in quite the manner that I read him. I apparently have no idea on the order of things and have read this series very out of order. This book is part of the Newford series. It's not a series in a conventional sense, though, because each book technically can stand alone, but there are things at play in the background that you will miss if you haven't read the books in their correct order. Having not read any of the series in the correct order yet, I leave you to figure that out on your own!

I will read high fantasy, as I am sure you have noticed if you read my blog, but once in a while it is really nice to read a plausible fantasy novel. Now, that is not to say that fantasy novels are necessarily farfetched, but if they are high fantasy they are normally set in alternate realities or something along those lines. There is urban fantasy and paranormal fantasy if you want something slightly believable in fantasy, but I am not about to get overly excited about the idea that I could be involved in a zombie invasion. I prefer to leave that in the books. With de Lint's writing, though, bad things do happen... It's just not the same as a crazy werewolf. The stories are based in a lot of folklore and mythology. This one in particular had a lot of native and Irish beliefs mixed into it. That might sound like a strange combination, but de Lint pulled it off. I think I got off-topic somewhere along the lines. I was going to say that I liked Newford because I can picture myself there. Who is to say that what the characters in his books live is not happening around us right now? Those that know are not saying, and those that disbelief are generally the ones that it is not happening to, right? Think about it. I like to, anyways!

The only other adult novel that I have read in this series is The Onion Girl. It is technically later in the series, so I went backwards with this one. Characters are similar between the two, though, so you get a taste of what they were like before they became the characters in the later novel. If you read the books in the right order, though, you will get to The Onion Girl and will add on to what you learned earlier in the series. This is how you read a series. I still need some practice. The way that de Lint chose to write this book, there is not necessarily a main character. Some might argue that it is Bettina, but I think that there are several main characters in the book. The chapters are told from different points of view; which is something I really like about de Lint's novels. He always pulls it off seamlessly!

I have talked a lot in general, but I should probably get around to talking about the book itself. There is a great blend of everything in this book. There is adventure, action, danger, romance, villains, heroines, heroes, disbelievers, believers, double-crossers, musicians, artists, revenge, and so much more. Bettina has been drawn to Newford for a reason that she cannot figure out. Gifted with the ability to heal, it is this skill that will be drawn on eventually. Her grandmother raised her to believe in a world 'outside' our own, but when her grandmother walked out into the desert during a thunderstorm and never returned she stopped practicing what she was taught. She has essentially lost herself and is slowly on the path to reclaiming herself. A little romance thrown into the mix probably doesn't hurt anything, either. During the course of her self-discovery she meets a whole new group of people that will become part of her story.

My favourite character was probably Ellie. She is a sculptor whose friends believe in a fairy tale land, but she is a disbeliever. It turns out, though, that she is not all that she appears. There is a great deal of magic in her that will become very essential to the events of the novel. One of her closest friends will make some difficult decisions that have serious reprucussions and she will find herself caught up in the middle of them. My other favourite character was Miki. She works in a music store, but she is also a gifted musician. She is a bit of free-spirit. You cannot help by love her by the time the book is over. There is also her boss, Hunter, who gets caught up in all of this quite accidentally. It turns out that being a nice guy does not always work out so well for you! (Well, it seems that way, anyways.) Add in the Creek sisters and Tommy and you have a fantastic cast of characters. I didn't hate any of them. There is also Bettina's wolf, but we are not really sure what to make of him for most of the novel. He gets some blood pumping, though.

Then, there are the forces of evil. In this case they are the Gentry. We meet them very early in the book, but we don't really get to know what they are until a lot of pages have gone by. They are interesting characters, but I couldn't help thinking of Lord of the Rings. It really makes no sense, but that's okay. It makes sense in my mind! They bring with them even more characters, though, but I don't really want to spoil too much of the novel. Really, there is just so many people and things going on that it is really hard to talk about everything. It's actually a very complex book when you think about it. By the end of it, you have really got to know the characters. I liked that. It doesn't take away from the story, either, which is nice. It was a really good story!

So, overall this was another great de Lint novel. I liked The Onion Girl better, but not by a lot. I look forward to more de Lint in the future. (I am going back and starting from the beginning!) On another note, don't the covers to de Lint's books look fantastic? He has a great cover artist!

Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed...and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man and losing his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.

Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare is stalking her life--the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows...

Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again, his hunger to possess her, a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent, Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past...or lose everything that ever mattered.
Reason for Reading: I've been bitten by the Nalini Singh bug. Really, I woke up last weekend and had the strangest burning in my stomach. I quickly realized I needed to read some Singh.

The blurb above did a good job of describing what goes on without being spoilerish. And I don't really want to dole out spoilers for the series, I mean, there's a lot of complicated stuff going on with the Psy Council and some mysterious figure called the Ghost. oooohhhhh

My Thoughts: Ok, I need to be brutally honest here. The first half of this book almost had me ripping out my hair. I found Talin and her fear of Clay to be very very frustrating. I just couldn't get past how afraid she was! I just wanted to smack her. Also, I found Clay too...too much - his beast was always ready to pop out and wanted to scream and roar for his mate and blah. It was like we were being told Clay was on the edge to create some drama but I just wasn't feeling it because Talin's fear was so annoying all on its own. Clay's drama was just another annoyance.

Also, Talin comes to Clay to find one of her missing children (she works for an organization called Shine that helps disadvantaged children). Only they actually don't go about finding anyone until well after page 100. Because the first 100 pages is all about Talin's drama.

Can you see now why I was annoyed?

Fortunately, things pick up in the last half of the book. Talin eventually realizes that Clay would never hurt her (duh). Once that happens, my frustration melted away and I got into the story and could not put it down.

But - and there is a but - in all the other past books, there's been a lot of action. Like going after the Psy, actively going after them. In Mine to Possess, the resolution was handed to our characters almost on a silver platter and I wanted some action! That's my only beef with the last half of MtP.

I'm giving Mine to Possess a C+. Even after all the frustration, I still had a big smile on my face when I finished the last page.

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Since I was a little girl I have been fascinated with books. Early photos show me with a book in hand, even if it was not exactly my reading level... My first word was a made-up word meaning 'book', actually. I suppose I had my priorities at an early age... Over the years my interest in books has become one of the defining features of who I am as a person. You can probably call me a bookworm. While I have other interests, reading will always be the one I talk about the most, even if I am not focusing on it as much as I used to.

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