Outcast Prince by Shona Husk (TBR 7/2/13)

3.5 Stars

This is an ARC copy given for an honest review.  It will be released July 2, 2013 and is definitely the first book in a new series. 

I absolutely love the premise of this story because I love fairies!  Caspian is half fairy.  In this story a half fairy/half human is called a “changeling”.  Technically this term is used to describe a child that is suspected of being 100% fairy left in place of the 100% human child.  So I don’t know if the author is just taking some liberties here or if she is saying that changeling children are actually 50% fairy.  His father is a prince of Annwyn (the world the fairies live in), but Caspian has never met his father.  He also has a special talent.  He can see and understand the history of an item by touching it which is called psychometry in this book.  Caspian is divorced and runs an antique shop (obviously his little trick comes in handy in determining the value of antiques). 

Lydia is human and is grieving the loss of her grandmother who raised her.  Lydia is a Calloway and the Calloway House is very famous in Charleston.  Lydia’s grandmother did many things to keep the house and one was to be a place where all the “movers and shakers” of the 20’s and 30’s could keep their mistresses.  Lydia has hired Caspian to do an appraisal of the house and all the things in it. 

Caspian has always kept his fairy repressed, but Annwyn has chosen this moment to come knocking.  The banished fairies are making trouble for Caspian, but if he makes a deal with them he could lose his soul.  All of Annwyn and those who are banished are frantically looking for a mirror that is gate into Annwyn.  The Annwyn Court is in upheaval and Caspian (and thus Lydia) is thrown right into the middle of it). 

What I didn’t love about the book was the inner dialogue of both Caspian and Lydia.  At times they were both overly dramatic and making leaps of logic that the reader should be able to get without it being spelled out.  They both waffled back and forth so much I wanted to smack them.  Waffled about what, you ask?  EVERYTHING!  If something could be waffled then they waffled.  Should I sell the house or should I keep it?  Should I sell the diaries or keep them?  Should I invite him over for dinner or tell him to get lost?  Should I call him or not?  Should I go inside or not?  Blah, Blah, Blah!  I get that not everyone knows what they want all the time, but these characters didn’t know what they want any of the time.  I really hope that they mature some in the rest of the series.  Which is odd because, while I don’t know their age, they both come across as forty-ish adults! 

The Goblin King by Shona Husk (The Shadowlands #1)

3.5 Stars

There is a prequel to this book (The Summons by Shona Husk) that tells the story of the first meeting of Roan, the Goblin King and Eliza, a then 16-year old girl. I thoroughly enjoyed the prequel but you don’t need to have read it to understand this book.  This book picks up 9 years after the prequel when Eliza calls to the Goblin King for a second time. 

Eliza is about to get married to a man she doesn’t love, a man who has blackmailed her into staying with him.  And when Eliza catches Steve with another women at her birthday party she gets back and Steve by ruining his suits and calls for the Goblin King again.  This time, as warned, he won’t return her from the Shadowlands.  He thinks that the curse that has kept him as the Goblin King for almost two thousand years will be broken if he takes a willing queen.  Only Eliza isn’t willing.  Once she goes back to the Shadowlands she decides she wants to go back home.  There is a lot of that in this book.  To the Shadowlands.  To the Fixed Realm.  No, to the Shadowlands.  And back to the Fixed Realm.  Make up your mind Eliza dear!  

Roan and his brother Dai are trying to fight off the druid who wrongly cursed them, thinking this may also break the curse.  They are the last of the Decangli who were cursed and have to fight off the call to give up their souls and become wholly goblin.  It was a great story line.  I haven't read anything like this...ever.  

I felt like the last half of the book was a lot of nothing.  Roan had given up and was just picking the time when he would die.  Dai, had given up and Eliza didn’t have any sort of plan.  It just felt odd.  They had a few plans and they didn’t work, then it was “…meet me here…” and “…come to dinner…” 

I was also a little put off with the amount of time Eliza spent pushing the goblin part of Roan away.  I can understand the first time she saw the goblin that she wouldn’t want to be near him and that it might take a while to get over that, but it took until their last dinner for her to see past the goblin.  She had told Roan she loved him before this and knew she loved him way before this, but still didn’t want anything to do with his gray skin.  She knew it was still Roan so get over it Eliza!

Summons: A Goblin King Prequel by Shona Husk

This is a very quick read (I actually enjoyed how quick it was!). It occurs before "The Goblin King" which is the first book in the series. I haven't read The Goblin King yet, and at first I thought, "I am not sure I want to read a prequel about the Goblin King and some girl right before I read the first book in the series with him and another girl." Of course, the author thought of that and it is actually the same girl in both books. The prequel is a short story about how The Goblin King first meets Eliza. It was sweet (and very fast), but I got into it immediately. Since (as I said above), I haven't read the first book in the series I can't say whether this book needs to be read before the first book, but it was published first. I suspect it is just for fun and you could follow the first book without it, but its free (and did I say quick?). I look forward to starting The Goblin King. I liked both 16 year old Eliza and The Goblin King.