Review Detail

Riley and her sister Hattie work in their family's Korean alternative medicine practice in Los Angeles, but while Hattie is soon going to be initiated as a healer, Riley is "saram" and lacks magic. She was adopted, and while she loves her family, she is sad that she can't be part of their Gom world of healers. There are six gifted witch clans, each with a protective goddess, although one clan, the scholarly Horangi, has been banished after confrontations that led to the death of Riley's birth parents as well as her friend Emmet's mother. When Hattie expresses a desire to share her magic with her sister, the two investigate the possibility, and find that their family does have such a spell. They liberate the book in which it is written, obtain the ingredients, and plan to cast it at Hattie's initiation. All goes well until they are stopped by the elders, who tell them that the spell could possibly kill them both. Looking for other methods to share the magic, they decide to contact Mago Halmi, the mother of all creation, and plead for Riley to have powers. Instead, Hattie collapses and they end up summoning Gom's Cave Bear Goddess, who does have a plan. In exchange for a relic called the last fallen star, this goddess will not only give Riley powers, but she will restore Hatties life. Finding the last fallen star, when she has no idea where it could be, seems daunting, but with her sister's shrunken heart in a glass vial around her neck, there really isn't much choice but to get help from Emmett and other friends to find the relic. This quest takes them around Los Angeles as well as the magical realm, puts them in contact with a variety of magical creatures (I did enjoy the tiny talking horse, although others were scarier!), uncovers family and clan secrets, and teaches Riley a lot about herself.