Tyger Tyger, by Kersten Hamilton

[tea_and_tomes]

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Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Teagan Wylltson's best friend, Abby, dreams that horrifying creatures--goblins, shape-shifters, and beings of unearthly beauty but terrible cruelty--are hunting Teagan. Abby is always coming up with crazy stuff, though, so Teagan isn't worried. Her life isn't in danger. In fact, it's perfect. She's on track for a college scholarship. She has a great job. She's focused on school, work, and her future. No boys, no heartaches, no problems.

Until Finn Mac Cumhaill arrives. Finn's a bit on the unearthly beautiful side himself. He has a killer accent and a knee-weakening smile. And either he's crazy or he's been haunting Abby's dreams, because he's talking about goblins, too . . . and about being The Mac Cumhaill, born to fight all goblin-kind. Finn knows a thing or two about fighting. Which is a very good thing, because this time, Abby's right. The goblins are coming.

Thoughts: Tyger Tyger was slow to get going to with action but certainly not with the intrigue. It follows the story of Teagan, called Tea for short, who has a fairly normal life until her cousin, Finn Mac Cumhaill, shows up. After that, it's mayhem and terror as goblins and sidhe and all sorts from Celtic mythology come after her, ripping her family apart and sending them on an adventure into the dark world of the sidhe.

This book wasn't flawless. For one thing, it's very lax on giving the reader a guide on just how to pronounce the Gaelic languaged that's scattered throughout. It was only prior knowledge that kept me from mentally thinking Finn's last name was pronouced "Mac Come-Hail" and not "Mac Cool."

For all that the primary mythology source was Celtic, there was a bit of myth-mixing going on, as last time I checked, Yggdrasil belonged to Norse myth and not Celtic. Normally I wouldn't mind this, as I find mixed myths to be quite interesting, and tying various world mythologies together can be an art. This time, though, it seemed a little jarring, as the rest of the mythology presented was clearly Celtic in origin. Yggdrasil's presence seemed to come out of nowhere, with no purpose other than minor convenience to the plot.

Other than that, though, this book was well-written and enjoyable. A little bit of light-hearted joking over modern youth culture was amusing and appreciated, and the characters were believable and relatable. I was particularly impressed by the way nearly all of the main characters were either Christian or had a Christian upbringing, yet there was no heavy-handed attempts at indoctrination, no talk about how Christians are good and everything else is bad, or any of the other heavy-handed indoctrination attempts that seem to be rife in Christian literature, or even just literature that has Christians in it. This also added to the believability of the characters, and I was pleased to see it done that way.

This was a definite page-turner, and a very enjoyable read. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the series! I hope it lives up to the expectations created by the first one!

(Received from the publisher via NetGalley)