Elizabethan England is one of my favorite times to read about and when Philippa Ballantine mixes it with the world of the Fae you get a captivating story. With main characters such as William Shakespeare, Puck and The Dark Goddess Sive you’re promised a good story, and the story delivers. The weaving of the tale, of the worlds, and Shakespeare’s interaction in both, makes me wonder if A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have been better as A Midsummer’s Nightmare.

I can genuinely say that Chasing the Bard is a splendid story, the worlds and characters are both well researched and well developed. Philippa displays a personal level of pleasure regarding the Bard in her writing, it breaths a certain fascination of Shakespeare from the pages when he’s on the scene. All the characters are so well created that you are left wondering who the real main character is, or is there a focus on a single character at all. Either way, the story works.

Having finished the book I found myself surprised. I love the story, I enjoy the characters, but I liked the villain, Mordant, more than I liked Sive. Pointedly, while I enjoyed Sive, I actually detested her. I found her to be a completely unlikable character with few redeeming qualities until you reach the last pages of the novel. To me she came off as self-centered and willing to stop at nothing to get just what she wanted, no matter who she had to use and run over to get it. This is not usually the case for me, I usually love the main characters.

That didn’t make the novel any less enjoyable. The other characters make up for Sive’s shortcomings by far. Eventually, as I said, she does become redeemable, but that doesn’t mean I liked her any better. That could easily have to do with my own favoritism toward Puck, so don’t judge the character simply by what I have to say about her. Try it out for yourself.

For the plot itself, as you know, I always feel that a blurb can speak better than I can, and this way I avoid spoiling an element as well:

Born into the human world with a gift; a gift that brings him to the attention of powers both dark and light from the World of the Fey, it is his burden to defend all the world.

Sive, the goddess of battle, hopes that he may be able to change the fate of her people.The Fey are dying, killed by something beyond the boundaries of worlds, and Sive will do anything to save them. So she enlists the help of her trickster cousin Puck to guard the child, and watch him grow into his gift. But a dark power imprisoned by human and Fey, plots to destroy both worlds, and unmake all that they have created.

Can one boy stop the destruction, even if he is William Shakespeare?

Currently Philippa is releasing the story via podcast in weekly episodes. We’re currently up to episode seven and it’s worth listening to. She’s got an excellent cast, each one with a dreamy voice of their own. I do encourage people to check it out and enjoy the story. If you get hooked and can’t wait to see how it all ends you can pick up the book here and here.

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