Guy Gavriel Kay is my favourite author, except for this book. ( )

This is honestly a 3.5, maybe 3.75 for me. There's a lot to like here, including the 15 year old protagonist, Ned. Ned's dad is a famous photographer, and while "on location" in Provence, he meets Kate, an unusually forthright teenage girl with an encyclopedic knowledge/interest in history. After they both meet a creepy and curious presence in a cathedral, things start to develop rather quickly. Both Kate and Ned are NOT overwritten and therefore a lot more likeable than most teenage protagonists.

The plot? Well that gets a bit tough to follow in places. There's concerted effort to anchor the story in Celtic and Roman lore, and while the information is helpful and authentic, it sometimes presents itself as boring pontification. The author does well with characters who are neither good nor evil, but instead straddle some sort of invisible moral line that operates outside the sphere of normal life.

The book ended too quickly for me. I could have used a little less of the repartée between everyone at the pool and a bit more time with certain characters: in particular Ned's mother and aunt, as well as his phenomenal uncle. While she is the title character, Ysabel does not get a whole lot of air time, and it is frustrating at the end when all is revealed with a nice neat bow. I needed a bit more of "why" and "how", and I certainly did not see any reason for Melanie's behavior. I get that she was "under-the-influence" (as was Kate), but it felt like a rushed attempt at suggesting a coming of age story for Ned--not needed. We never do get the whole story about Aunt Kim, and that ends up being a tad frustrating. ( )

A very interesting book that always leaves you wanting more.

It's done completely from the point of view of a teenager, and that's exactly where it gets it's mixed reviews from.

Most of the complaints are for me describing a big part of it's magic.

A fifteen year old often feels like the world is mysterious and inexplicable, and in this book you never really know what the hell is going on.

It's an interesting approach that (I'm pretty sure) was deliberate by the authour.

Here's the problem. The environment, plot line and cute links to other works of the author have you dying to learn more page after page, and for the most part that goes unrequited.

It could have been a pretty cool, but typical fantasy series spanning three novels or so. It's written by someone who's done just that before, spectacularly well. (If you haven't read the Fionavar, go do that now, come back to this later... seriously....) It isn't. Get over that, and you might be charmed by this quick read. Don't, and you'll be disappointed. ( )

3.5 stars

Ysabel is a young adult urban fantasy novel. 15-year old Ned is in France with his father, a photographer. While exploring a cathedral, Ned meets Kate, who is about the same age as he is. Odd things start happening. Without giving too much away, the story involves two men and a woman from 2500 years ago, merging in today’s world and somehow Ned and his family are involved.

I liked it. I am not usually a big fan of fantasy, but I’ve found I tend to prefer ya and urban fantasy. I’ve only read one other Kay book, which for me, took an incredibly long time for the story to get going. I was happy that this one started off with the action right off the top. ( )

I liked the contemporary crossover to mythical vibe in this novel. Although the narrative struck me as aimed at the younger end of YA, the tale could easily appeal to the adult who likes historical characters intertwined with a modern day adventure. I like YA, so that's not a criticism, just that the story seemed a younger genre than I remember GGK's writing. After all, I devoured the story late into the night during a reading binge.

In this novel, Kay departs from the rather tedious style of his 1980's fantasies. His writing had much more adept use of historical events from Roman-Celtic times in ancient Gaul (France) and modern times. Whether young teens will relate to the 15-year-old main characters is not certain (a small point, hot mail as an e-mail domain in 2007, when the book was published, is really dating itself).

Minor niggles aside, this book is especially enjoyable in terms of tying in much more ancient myths (Beltane) that pre-date any of the Greek and Roman theologies together with the ruins and historical sites in the France of today. The area around Aix-en-Provence sounds wonderfully intriguing. The final twist in the story was splendid and I was sorry to leave Ned & Kate (the MCs) behind. ( )