Alys has been struggling to learn her father's trade as a tinsmith because he has been very sick from an epidemic that engulfed her village. While he has slowly recovered, she has helped him to make enough tin wire, buttons, and other wares to earn money to help them survive. Hers is a male-oriented society. It is unusual for a girl to learn her father's trade; the man is supposed to take on male apprentices if he has no sons of his own to carry on his work. Perhaps this is why the villagers of St. Toby's so readily believe that Alys is somehow fey, being associated with dark magic. She had let herself dream of actually becoming a tinsmith.

Intelligent, strong willed, and tough, Alys makes for an attractive main character. She is also impulsive, which is sometimes nearly her undoing, but which...