*Book Review* Garden of Dreams and Desires by Kristen Painter

Series: Crescent City # 3
Publisher: Hachette/Orbit
Releases: April 7, 2015
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Tourists are disappearing at an alarming rate. While Augustine and his lieutenants attempt to find them, Harlow and the evil spirit possessing her remain Augustine's true focus. Freeing her from the spirit's grasp is all he can think about, especially with no real solution on the horizon.

Then he discovers the tourists are disappearing because the witches are stealing souls to cast a dangerous chaos spell. Before he can stop them, Harlow becomes their victim. Now he must race the clock to set her free and end the witches' machinations before the chaos spell strips every fae in New Orleans of their power and bring fae rule to an end. 

Garden of Dreams and Desires brings the Crescent City trilogy to a close. Kristen Painter has created a world where 40 years from now, othernaturals have come out into the open, and live among humans. In New Orleans, Fae Guardian Augustine (Augie) Robelias watches over the city that has become a major tourist destination for those humans intrigued by the othernaturals which includes a variety of fae, witches, and voodoo practitioners.

Augie more than has his hands full in this installment. Giselle Vincent, her sister Zara, and sorcerer Ian DuFrene are continuing to scheme up trouble for the Fae. Harlow Goodwin is still being possessed by her twin sister Ava Mae who refuses to accept anything but complete and total takeover of Harley's body. If that wasn't enough, tourists go missing and amongst them is the son of Senator Pellimento who wants to be President of the Southern Union. She truly loathes the othernaturals and makes plans to take them all down, starting with the Guardian of the City, Augustine.

As with the previous installments, Painter intermingles her story between not only Augie, but Harlow (Harley) Goodwin, and witch Giselle Vincent. Painter loves to create situations that force our characters into looking deep inside themselves for answers, and there is plenty of intrigue, mystery, and suspense as well. The secondary characters like Lally Hughes, Dulcinea, Cylo, Fenton, and Olivia Goodwin give this series a bit of depth and therefore avoids the boredom factor.

Let's talk about the character development of Harley, shall we? From the onset of this series, Harley hasn't exactly been the strongest character in a Painter written story despite her talents for computers. In fact, she scorned her heritage for way too long, and then was forced to face it when dealing with her rogue father. In this installment, we see the character that Harley was meant to be. She's strong, she's feisty, she's accepted her fae heritage, and she uses her fae talents to fight back and become a useful part of Augie's team. I am glad that the Ava/Harley angle didn't drag on for the entire story, and I am especially happy that Harley and Augie have put their antagonism towards the other and become a team.

Now comes the hard part. While I adore Kristen's world building and characters, I don't like the fact that this book ends the trilogy. There is entirely too much that has been left on the plate uneaten. Unlike the House of Comarre series which had FIVE books, this apparently is Painters last foray into the realm of Urban Fantasy. There are, of course, questions. Does Augie and his mother finally reconcile? What is the deal with Ian? Will Olivia ever find her way out of the fae plane?

**I received this book for free from (Hachette/Orbit) via (NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!! This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review**

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