Line #39 Literature/TheEnchantmentEmporium


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emporiumhuffcobaltcover.jpg]]
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3	''The Enchantment Emporium'', released in 2010, is the first book in a series, either called "The Enchantment Emporium", or "Gale Women" by Creator/TanyaHuff. It begins the day Alysha (Allie) Gale receives a letter from her "Auntie" Catherine[[note]]really her grandmother, but every woman in the family eventually gets called that as their power develops, and it's a big family, so she's ''someone's'' aunt[[/note]] stating that she's dead, the [[TitleDrop titular]] store now belongs to Allie, and she's expected to investigate.
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5	Oh, and her family is [[InTheBlood magical]], her own power may be acting up, and there may be a dragon invasion to deal with.
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7	Followed by ''The Wild Ways'' in 2011, and ''The Future Falls'' in 2015.
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9	----
10	!! This Series Provides Examples Of:
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12	* AlliterativeTitle: The IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming of "The [Alliterative adjective and noun]":
13	** ''The Enchantment Emporium''
14	** ''The Wild Ways''
15	** ''The Future Falls''.
16	* AskAStupidQuestion: "Do you play?"
17	-->"I just like to carry a guitar around with me."
18	-->"Right, stupid question."
19	* AssassinsAreAlwaysBetrayed: At one point (in the first book), Graham is asked to add some of his blood to a specific bullet, with it being explained as allowing the shot to be more accurate. It's later discussed that it might instead allow the Dragon Lords to find him, in case something goes wrong, and potentially eliminate him.
20	* BigBad: The Gales are taught that sorcerers end up becoming this, no matter how much they try to justify it. And Allie automatically assumes that whatever ''may'' have killed Auntie Catherine is this, due to how hard it would be to kill her without a fight. And Stanley is treated as one, [[RunningGag because he funds and publishes a tabloid]].
21	* ChangelingTale: Joe (the Leprechaun) is a Changeling, with almost no loyalty to his birth home because of it.[[note]]As in, 'They cared so much for me the just gave me away? And I should '''love''' them for this? Yeah, right.'[[/note]] For most of the first book, he needs to take a potion every so often, since the human he was swapped for died (of unknown causes, but old age is brought up as a possibility, which means Joe may be [[OlderThanTheyLook at least 80]]) and Joe needs something to balance the 'call home', when he really doesn't want to go.
22	* ClaimedByTheSupernatural: When Allie starts moving up in power (and ability), she starts marking various people and objects with charms. Since she's in a new city and striking out on her own, they tend to be the relatively simple, territory-marking, "Mine".
23	* ColonyDrop: The plot of ''The Future Falls'' is kicked off by the discovery that an asteroid, hidden behind another, will hit in two years.
24	* DoubleStandardRapeSciFi: The aunties once suggested Allie magic her gay best friend, who she used to be in love with, into loving her back. Allie refused, on the grounds that he wouldn't be Michael anymore if she was mind-controlling him, but it's treated as only mildly bad and never called rape. The same thing happens when [[spoiler:an auntie mind-controls Michael's boyfriend into cheating to make Michael go to Allie's side]]. Allie is angry because Michael's heartbroken, not because [[spoiler:her aunt just raped two people [[note]]boyfriend plus the random construction worker who'd probably have said no if he knew about the sex spell[[/note]]]].
25	* DrivesLikeCrazy: "No Gale ever said ''driving like an old lady''. Old ladies in the Gale family drove like they owned the roads. And the other drivers. [[OverlyLongGag And the local police department.]] And the laws of physics."
26	* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Gale Boys tend to be coddled (since there's so few of them -- the ratio tends to be about 5:1-6:1, almost making them a OneGenderRace), but the belief is any that have an excessive amount of power are guaranteed to become [[InTheBlood sorcerers]]. This leads to a side-plot of Allie trying to find a way to save her brother David, since they're their parents' only two kids, and there's already gossip that he has "all the ability" of the sisters that he ''should'' have had, as well as his own. Given that she can [[spoiler:cow him by looking at him like she wants to [[RuleOfFunny smack him on the nose with a rolled-up paper]], there may be no worry there]].
27	* HistoricalInJoke: It's claimed that Stanley is behind the Oil Crisis of the '70s, as a side effect of him trying to build power in Syria around that time.
28	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming of "The [[[AlliterativeTitle bit of adjective and noun]]]": ''The Enchantment Emporium'', ''The Wild Ways'', ''The Future Falls''.
29	* InTheBlood: As Allie finds out in the first book, while all of the Gale Girls have 'The Power', Gale Boys are virtually guaranteed to have strong magical abilities (which are used to anchor the family rituals), and- if not contained- will cause them to strike out on their own, presumably to gather personal influence and greater personal power.
30	* InsistentTerminology: As the women in the Gale family grow older, they start having "Auntie" appended to their name. Even Allie's own grandmother is called "Auntie Catherine" by Allie. (Given how large the family is, Catherine is pretty much guaranteed to be ''someone's'' aunt, just not Allie's aunt.)
31	* TheInternetIsForPorn: Charlie is known to visit at least one porn website ([=GirlsWithGuitars=].com), and it's implied that Jack does too.
32	-->'''Charlie:''' [O]n this side of the gate, Gale boys don't eat anyone they can have a conversation with unless... [[DopeSlap OW!]] Allie!\
33	'''Allie:''' He's fourteen.\
34	'''Jack:''' And not stupid. I have an internet connection.
35	* KissingCousins: The Gales want to keep the family magic within the family (partially since things would get out of hand if they can't keep track of troublemakers), so they raise each generation to be comfortable with this. They do accept that too much inbreeding has its own problems, so each 'undecided' family member has a list of approved potential marriage partners, and occasional outsiders (like Allie's father) are allowed into the group.
36	* MagicMusic: Charlie is a low-key version of Stile, from ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'', but with a guitar as the preferred instrument. And an ability for TimeTravel, which sets up a subtle StableTimeLoop in the third book.
37	* MagicalSeventhSon: Graham is a seventh son of a seventh son, and it's believed that he was trained to be an assassin because this would lead to nearly perfect aiming skills. In a later book, it's discussed that his 'perfect' aim extends to another area: Allie ends up pregnant with two sets of twins in very short order. The Aunties are curious as to what would happen if ''he'' has a seventh son (making a seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son).
38	* TheManBehindTheMan: While Allie believes it to be [[spoiler:Stanley/Samuel Gale]], and Graham is told it's [[spoiler:Jack, Samuel's son]], both end up being informed [[spoiler:it's Jack's ''mother'', using Jack as a beacon to find Samuel in order to get revenge]].
39	* MayDecemberRomance:
40	** Due to "selective breeding", the family treats anything outside of an individual's "seven-year break"[[note]]as in, you can't have children with, or marry, someone more than seven years older or younger than you. Even if it's by a day.[[/note]] as this. Jack doesn't take this well when he starts crushing on Charlie, since she's about 12 years older and he's a potentially immortal Dragon Lord.
41	** One of the Aunties takes up with a Leprechaun {{Changeling\|Tale}}. No-one makes much of a fuss, since he may be 80-90 years old (see OlderThanTheyLook), to become an Auntie involves menopause, and nobody wants to argue with two magic-slingers.
42	* OlderThanTheyLook: Joe looks about 25-30. While he doesn't ''say'' how old he actually is, he's a Leprechaun involved in a [[ChangelingTale changeling swap]], taking a potion to be avoid being dragged back home to the FairFolk, due to the human side dying, and throwing things out of balance. He doesn't know how they died, but figures enough time has passed that it could have been from old age... which has Joe in the 80's, at least.
43	* OneGenderRace: While boys are born into the family, the combination of KissingCousins and gender-ratio[[note]] At least 5:1 in favor of girls; Allie and David are considered odd because they don't have at least five more sisters... and the fact he was firstborn[[/note]] means they are ''almost'' this, and only the occasional influx of outsiders, like Allie's father, prevent them from dying out completely.
44	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: It's mentioned that Dragons (or at least Dragon Lords) will occasionally eat their own eggs; however, they're not really considered 'real' until the egg hatches. Even then, sometimes young Dragon Lords end up eating each other, leaving their parent(s) to carry on. Also, one Dragon Lord expresses the hope that if something happens to [[spoiler:Jack]], his mother would start laying eggs again.
45	* RuleOfFunny: Allie is worried throughout most of the book that the rest of the family will expect her brother David to eventually get DrunkOnTheDarkSide. But it turns out he's still her brother, because in the middle of a conversation where he ''acts'' like a protective older brother, she feels like swatting him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Keep in mind he can (eventually) shapeshift into a massive stag.
46	--> '''Allie''': It must have shown on my face, because he took a step back.
47	* RunningGag: Tabloid publishers get no respect...
48	* SerialEscalation: The BigBad is first believed to be [[spoiler:Jack, a teen half-Dragon Lord]] (referred to by a sorcerer merely as "the enemy"). Then, the Gale decide it's going to be [[spoiler:Jack's uncles, fighting over whether he should be here at all]]. They also are trying to find out what a sorcerer is doing in the town... he's waiting for [[spoiler:Jack's mother, a Dragon Queen, who's coming to take revenge on him for getting her pregnant in the first place]].
49	* ShmuckBait: Allie is drawn into the plot (and taking over the titular store from her grandmother) by receiving a letter stating Auntie Catherine was dead, there ''may'' be something going on, and no matter what they say, don't let the other Aunties get involved if you don't want them to.
50	* ShroudedInMyth: The origins of the Gale family. Discussed in the first book, hints as to what actually happened [[spoiler:show up when Charlie TimeTravel's in the third book]].
51	* SituationalSexuality: While the Gale Boys are expected- and encouraged- to pick from their numerous female cousins, said cousins can and do spend time with each other as a way of passing the time.
52	* StableTimeLoop: Set up in the third book, by Charlie's use of MagicMusic in 'The Wood' to make sure she arrived when she needed to: [[spoiler:Charlie, figuring she needs to 'find' one of Allie's sons from the future in order to divert the upcoming [[ColonyDrop asteroid strike]], TimeTravel's to when he's (roughly) old enough- and powerful enough- to take care of it. Except it's the older version of '''Jack''' she needs. And the son? He uses the Wood to travel back in time to become the ShroudedInMyth founder of the Gale Family, along with one of the current-generation Aunties. And the only reason he was ready was the story he was told about Charlie's attempt... by Charlie (in the intervening years).]]

Context Literature / TheEnchantmentEmporium