Review - Tawny by Chris Quinton
Tawny
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Volume 2 of Melusine's Cats
Tags: Fantasy Contemporary UK Setting
Posted in Book Reviews on 5 August, 2026
Hal is a wanderer. He never spends too much time in any one place, but he’s been in the Lynn Valley for a while now. He works at the Black Dog pub which rents him a cheap room in the old carriage house. Hal has also made friends with lots of people, as well as the ginger cat that hangs around the pub and seems to have taken a liking to him. It’s tempting to stay, even more so when a handsome red-headed stranger checks into the pub for a few days. Gryff still carries an unhealed wound from a centuries-ago battle in an attempted coup that he was on the wrong side of. One of his comrades from that ancient war, Morgan, is trying to draw Gryff back into the fight to free their imprisoned leader. Will Gryff choose to honor his pledge to his old leader, or will the desire for Hal prove stronger?
This second book of the Melusine’s Cats series picks up where the first book, Greymalkin, left off. Although this book focuses one two new main characters, Will and Jesse from the first volume still play significant roles in this story. You really do need to read all the books in the series in their published order to know what’s going on in the over-arcing plot line of a centuries-long fight to free a rebel leader.
The narration switches mostly between the two main characters, Hal and Gryff. Like Will and Jesse, Hal has no idea about the other realms and the magical beings that inhabit them. When his association with Gryff and the ginger cat he named Tawny brings him to Morgan’s attention, Hal is drawn into a strange new world. We don’t get to know much about Hal’s background, but he makes for a quite admirable man in this story.
Gryff is a curious character. His determination to maintain his allegiance to the rogue lord he pledged to serve is admirable. However, what seems honorable at first becomes stubbornness when Gryff is faced with the possibility that the lord he pledged to lied about his goals. When Gryff is compelled by his father to seek out an oracle who will reveal the truth to him, you have to wonder whether or not he will accept it.
“Tawny” is available from Smashwords or see Bookshop.org to purchase from an independent bookseller.
