Keeper by Kim Chance

Kim Chance has spun a fantastic story about a young woman coming of age into a world filled with danger and magic in her debut novel, Keeper. The characters are real, the plot is engaging, and I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, Seeker, which is expected to release sometime in 2019!

Lainey Styles is your average teenager, stressing about school and the future, until she comes into her own as a witch who happens to be from a line of very powerful witches. I don’t want to give much away with spoilers, but it can reasonably be assumed that some big trouble is brewing as Lainey is thrown into the world of the supernatural that she didn’t know existed.

I think my favorite aspect of this story was the massive amounts of comic book and superhero references. Lainey’s friend, Maggie, is definitely someone with whom I could get along. We’re all about the superheroes in my house and I think Maggie would fit right in with my weird little bunch. Her enthusiastic support of Lainey’s new circumstances are both endearing and entertaining.

The story dives right into the action and it doesn’t seem like a lot of time passes between the covers. One minute, she was a normal teenager, and the next she was fearing/fighting for her life and the lives of her loved ones. I can appreciate a story that takes its time, but I do love when a story doesn’t play around and yanks you right along with the protagonist’s sudden challenge.

I thought it was hilarious how Lainey tried to reason away the supernatural occurrences, whereas Maggie was instantly on board and ready to dive into the mystical. Realistically, I think a lot of people would initially take Lainey’s reasoned approach. I’m just going insane. How many do you think would share Maggie’s enthusiasm? I’d like to think that I’d ultimately be open to the idea of fiction being real, but I think I’d probably be like Lainey. At least until I knew someone else saw what I did.

I really appreciate that Keeper’s bad guy is a personal obstacle for Lainey. She has a direct stake in taking the Master down because he’s killed off a bunch of her family and is now threatening her. I love seeing a character fight personal battles that happen to be grand in scale. Saving the world is a noble endeavor, but personal battles are relatable to everyone.

[SPOILER ALERT: I’m interested to see where Ty and Lainey’s relationship goes. There’s definite sparks in this book but I don’t think we saw them officially together by the end of it. Due to Ty’s position, I’m curious whether they can legitimately be together at all. Time will tell, though and I wish them the best of luck in the next book.]

I don’t have any real criticisms because I thought this book was very well written. If I had to choose something to mention, I’d say that it would have been great to have just a little more personality from Josephine when she was interacting with Lainey. Being that she’s Lainey’s ancestor, I felt like there could have been a little more diversity  in emotion when trying to connect with her descendant. As a ghost, she may not have been able to say anything but it seemed like she could have given Lainey a better hint of what she was trying convey. 

All in all, Keeper is a highly entertaining story and I’m so glad that I ordered it. Kim Chance created some great characters and genuinely made me laugh out loud several times. I had a feeling that this  book would end up on my shelf of favorites, and I was right. Definitely worth the purchase!

I give Keeper a 4.8 out of 5 stars!