A little over two years ago I read and reviewed An Elfy on the Loose by Barb Caffrey. At the time I said I was looking forward to the second part of the duology. Yet here it is a year and a half since the release of A Little Elfy in Big Trouble, and I only just finished the second book.
Which is a shame. Because once I started reading it, and got into it once again, I read the second half of the second book in one day. The first half took me a bit to regain momentum. If I had read the two back-to-back the momentum would have carried me forward, but remembering what was going on, I read sections of the first half of A Little Elfy in Big Trouble two and three times.
Caffrey does a lot of mental thought writing with her characters — of course, since some of them turn out to be ghosts, it is a natural part of the plot. While it works for the book, it is a little different than usual reading, and can require a bit of extra concentration to keep focused on the plot motion.
But where she really excels is in keeping us interested and caring for the cast of characters — even when they seem whiny or obtuse.
The second half of the book covers a short time span in quite a bit of detail. That is always tricky as a writer, but Caffrey manages to pull it off, though I did wonder a couple of times when the big action point would drop; and then it dropped, and dropped again.
Depending on your point of view, there might be several climaxes, with the dramatic one earlier, and the plotting one later. Which is the main climax is probably up to the reader’s taste.
So, after detailing those features, what is my summary perspective? I am definitely glad I finally finished the duology. It left me with a satisfied feel, with loose threads tied up nicely, yet allowing the characters lives to go forward. And it leaves plenty of room for other stories of the Elfyverse, when time and the muse allow Caffrey to share more with us.
At The Rainbow 