The Summer King is a haunting, absorbing, and lavishly told tale set in both present-day Ireland and the world of Fairy.

Laurel, an 18-year-old girl who is grieving the death of her twin sister Honor, returns to Ireland and the scene of her twin’s death to try to find out who killed her sister. While the devastated family thinks it was an accident, Laurel, armed with her sister’s puzzling journals, believes her sister was led into something unsavory. She finds, in addition to other disturbing entries, odd references to little people, in particular one little man. She’s also starting to be plagued with dreams.

Upon arrival in Ireland, Laurel finds her old boyfriend Ian Grey, who she was with the day her sister died, still nursing hurt that she had left him. She blamed him for her not being there to save her sister. These young people have lots of angst and passion to work out and that alone could fill a book, but wait: There’s the small matter of a cluricaun, something like a leprechaun but a little darker. This little guy reminds me of a small Bacchus, always toting around his poteen and pissing drunk when he’s not lying through his teeth.

There are ravens that turn to warriors, scary sea fairies called the boctogai, a wild Irish pirate named Grace O’Malley, eagles that talk, and worlds within worlds. There is also the possibility that Laurel’s sister isn’t dead, but sleeping somewhere in Fairy. If Laurel can complete the quest of freeing the Summer King, then her sister will be freed. The quest isn’t all that it seems, though, and neither is Ireland, the Summer King himself, Laurel’s grandparents, or Ian - who may just have the darkest secret of all.

I loved The Summer King and was completely swept away by it. I discovered that it is the sequel to Hunter’s Moon, which I haven’t read (now I will). It stands as a single novel, though. You really don’t need to read Hunter’s Moon, although, if you are like me, especially after reading this, you will most probably want to read it and everything else Melling writes. The Summer King comprises romance, magic, mystery, betrayal, legend, lore, history, and simply marvelous, engaging storytelling. It’s wonderful.