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Matchbox Girls
Publisher: Candlemark & Gleam

Matchbox Girls by Chrysoula Tzavelas is a book that initially really hooked me, but then sort of lost me with the myriad characters and character types that are introduced throughout the book.

Marley Claviger is a writer on anti-depressants who doesn't have much motivation in life. However, she really enjoys going to the park, especially since meeting Zachariah, a handsome, independently wealthy young man who is guardian to his two adorable twin nieces, Lissa and Kari. Then one day, she gets a fearful call from the young twins, and she discovers that Zachariah has disappeared, instructing the girls to call Marley should anything happen. As she investigates the house and tries to reassure the girls, bizarre things start to happen, including Marley finding strange messages and having catastrophic visions.

As she tries to make sense of what is happening, she is approached by a menacing lawyer named Jeremy White, insisting that she hand over the girls. Jeremy's overtures are interrupted by a harried looking man named Corbin and his sidekick, a girl named AT who has a pack of dogs under her control. Corbin knows Zachariah, so Marley places some trust in him, only to discover nothing is what it seems. Her new reality is one where she is the protectorate over these young girls and she must be on her guard against dangerous angels, violent kaijus, helpful demons, confused nephalims, and impish fairies during an all-out war between them. What's worse is that her two closest friends, Penny and Branwyn, have been dragged into the mess with Penny having fallen in love with an angel, Ettorial, bent on a mission to destroy Kari and Lissa before they lay waste to the world, and Branwyn having been taken hostage by a Fairy Lord named Tarn.

As I said earlier, the book initially really dragged me in and it was very exciting, but by the end, I felt bogged down. There were different agreements between the angels and fairies, and other creatures, as well as events called valences that were supposed to happen, plus peoples' chakras to keep straight, and it just got a bit confusing. While I still enjoyed the story, I just think it was a little too much info crammed in. I suspect another book is in the works based on the teasing end to this one, where Branwyn may get her own story. We shall see. As for whether this book is for you, read an excerpt and see, but if you aren't a fan of angels, demons, fairies and other such folk, it may not appeal to you.



-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ashley Perkins
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