Skye Hope believes herself to be a typical Midwest Iowa teen; geeky, unpopular, doing her farm chores without complaint. In reality she is the daughter of a secret marriage between the Queen of the Wood Fairies and the King of the Sorcerers and is unknowingly at the epicenter of a battle between the realms of the Second World, a place that “was once a sanctuary for lost souls, for those who were different, a place for beings of magic. Now it was but a memory of everything containing good.”

As we are introduced to wood fairies, sorcerers, mermaids, and other creatures well-known in the world of fantasy fiction, it is soon evident that these are ancient complex societies. In HART STREET & MAIN, author Tabitha Sprunger has created a masterly layered and believable world made up of five separate realms, each inhabited and ruled by its own beings – including a human realm. Political turmoil, family tensions, societal bigotries, and heroic deeds are all wonderfully woven together in a suspenseful, well-paced story. Sprunger skillfully includes tantalizing elements of history about how the First and Second Worlds split into being many hundreds of years ago (there’s even mention of Leonardo da Vinci). As always with literary world-building, it is vital that the reader believe these realms could exist and there is an exciting authenticity and originality to Sprunger’s universe. With a main character who is easy to love, the reader empathizes completely as Skye struggles to understand the strange turn her life has suddenly taken. Open-minded, laid back, and brave, Skye demonstrates maturity with her family’s financial struggles and her friends’ problems. But when she finds herself drawn to the mysterious, attractive ‘exchange student’ Olli, her boring life becomes way too exciting. The narrative slows down somewhat when it dwells on the teenage travails of Skye and her friends. But the suspense builds steadily and with ingenuity as the author pulls on the many threads within the plot. Each character, even those who are secondary to the story, are well-crafted and three-dimensional. There is nice humor sprinkled throughout – related to the quirky personalities of various fantastical beings – which lends additional richness to the story. And at the end of the first-in-a-trilogy novel, readers will be thrilled to anticipate more about this unique double-world and its fascinating characters.

Author Tabitha Sprunger has penned a masterly work of fantasy fiction with HART STREET & MAIN, a great read for those seeking fantasy fiction with sophisticated world-building, compelling characters, and intriguing plots.

~Kathleen Kenney Peterson for IndieReader