Silver Hollow: 2018 Edition (Borderlands Saga #1) by Jennifer Silverwood

Amie Wentworth buried her beloved parents ten years ago and in the ensuing time had built a life and a growing career as a novelist. Returning home one evening from a welcome home party for one of her best friends, she’s attacked and fatally stabbed by a man who’d been lurking in the darkness by her doorway. She’s rescued and miraculously healed by a mysterious, dark stranger she’d seen lurking around town that day who then fades away into the shadows.

The following day, she leaves town without a word to her friends to travel to Wenderdowne, her ancestral home in England at the request of her Uncle Henry, a man she’s never met and whose invitation and traveling preparations had conveniently arrived, unbidden, the previous day.

During the train trip from London to Wenderdowne, she is once again attacked but makes her escape with the help of Emrys, the same man who had saved her before.

Finally reaching her uncle’s home, a dark and crumbling estate in the middle of nowhere, she discovers that her life back in East Texas had been one elaborate lie. She had been taken away as a small child from her rightful place in the family by Durstan, her father, and “glamoured” into forgetting her previous life and believing the new, made-up one, to save her life from those that wished her dead.

Wenderdowne is located in Silver Hollow is a different world, an alternate world from the one she’s known for the past 20-something years. Magic and magical creatures exist, and Amie must uncover her own magical powers with little help from those around her. Confused, somewhat homesick, and not know who to trust, Amie struggles to come to grips with her life. Information comes at a decidedly slow pace. However, when she and Emrys slip away from Wenderdowne for what was to have been a quiet day out, Amie starts to regain her memories as she encounters other people and places from her past. And then things really start to happen.

I really enjoyed the mix of modern, fantasy, and myths that the author has woven together to create Silver Hollow and the Borderlands. Amie is a likeable heroine and Emrys is dark and sexy and mysterious. I loved her grandfather, Arthur. And was emotionally shocked over Brillig Toadstool. I have not read many stories involving King Arthur or Merlin nor those involving mythical creatures such as unicorns, so their appearances were a surprise and delightful in how they were presented: new to me and very entertaining.

I recommend this book to readers of fantasy that is mixed with ancient myths and those that enjoy romance in their fantasies as well. This is the first book in the Borderlands Saga and I now look forward to the next one.