The Last of the High Kings

I finished book # 2 of Kate Thompson's series. I'm not really sure what the series is called.

"The Last of the High King" takes place 20-some years after "The New Policeman." We see J.J. as an adult with 4 children and a wife. He's a famous musician still living in the old Liddy homestead. His wife is exassperated at having a wreckingball of a two year old and an 11 year old daughter, Jenny, who is too much to handle. The other two kids (a teen girl and 9 year old son) are pretty well-behaved.

Jenny could care less about anything. No responsibility, no thought for consequences, no thought for anyone's feelings at all. Her character really irritated me. I knew who/what she was before she did, but she still annoyed me. I could not be her mother and deal with her careless behavior.

Jenny meets J.J.'s puka from the first book and delves into the meaning or reason for ghost of the beacon. We find out more about Jenny, we find out that J.J. can actually be selfish (the wood for the violins and not thinking through the baby/time thing) and we understand what a High King is. I really can't give more away, especially for those reading the book in the bookclub. I teared up when Mickey finally made it up the mountain, and what he did there. His actions had me teary-eyed, but was also the "A-Ha!" moment of the book where it all finally made sense.

I was happy J.J. and his wife finally got what they were looking for, that Jenny figured out who she was and where she wanted to stay and that Mickey lived his happily ever after protecting all of us.