The Restorer by Sharon Hinck Published by: Navpress (2007) 455 pages Rating: 9/10 Buy it Now:    Also by Sharon Hinck: The Secret Life of Becky Miller Renovating Becky Miller The Restorer's Son The Restorer's Journey

Okay, so you've got a fantasy world named Lyric. Check. Swords and battles. Check. A hero from Earth who crosses over to this world to save the day. Check. The hero is... Wait. Is this part right? The hero is a depressed, middle-aged mother of four? How can that be?

Sharon Hinck has taken the typical fantasy story and turned it on its head. In fact, she's created an unorthodox (unholy?) blend of mom-lit and fantasy! Is that possible? Is that sane? Is that legal? Somebody check the publisher's handbook!

Actually, I love it when what's typical gets twisted around, and Sharon Hinck has done that again. Her Becky Miller novels were such an extraordinary twist on the genre already - stories focusing on a mom that a dad could enjoy. So now she's infiltrated the male-dominated fantasy genre and dragged another maternal character along with her.

Oh, yes, the story. That maternal character is one Susan Mitchell, mother of four, married for twenty years, etc., and feeling insignificant and purposeless. Cue mystical portal and sudden jump to another world. Susan finds herself lugging a big sword around (a sword she can barely lift), while around her are people involved in a struggle she can barely comprehend, with technology and cultures slightly removed and simultaneously very different from our own.

And just when I thought Susan was settling into this role too much, and the story was starting to veer toward a more "typical" fantasy novel, Hinck throws in a major twist right in the middle that I never saw coming. Brilliant.

My only complaint is one that is not exclusive to this book, but one I couldn't help but ponder as I read: why is it that no one in these stories has ever read any of the numerous other stories like this? With Susan being a mother of four, surely she's heard of the Wizard of Oz? Narnia? Alice in Wonderland, even? Yet she never draws any kind of comparison with any of those, which would seem the most logical thing to do. (Insert your own "women aren't logical" joke here. Thanks.)

The Restorer is a wonderful start to a new series. And you know what's even better? The second book is due out in just a few months. Highly Recommended.