Title: The Goblin King
Author: Shona Husk
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Number of Pages: 352
Source: Sent to me by the publisher
I requested The Goblin King because of Bells at Hanging With Bells. She was so excited about this book that it made me take a second look at it. The premise was interesting-there aren't too many paranormal romances with the hero on the verge of becoming a goblin. This is one of those reviews where I'm all over the place with my thoughts. There were some thing in the storyw I really liked, and some that just didn't work for me.
Roan was a warrior King in his lifetime, and he and his men were cursed by a druid who thought they were just after gold instead of looking after the good of their people and sent to the shadowlands to live until the curse could be broken. Centuries have passed, and the curse remains unbroken. Roan is dangerously close to becoming a full goblin, and a few of his men have succumbed to their goblin side already. Time is running out, and he thinks that having a queen will solve all of his problems. Enter, Eliza who was told the story of the Goblin King by her mother. She was told that the Goblin King when called upon could make any problem go away. When she was a teenager she called upon him once, and never forgot him. Trapped in a loveless relationship with Steven, who is a jerk of a fiance, she feels trapped and has nowhere to go, so she once again calls upon the Goblin King for help.
Once she calls on him, Eliza finds out that he isn't like he remember from that night when she called for help so long ago. That night he took her to the summerlands-a beautiful place where dreams begin, but this time she is taken to the shadowlands. Everything here is devoid of life-it's gray, scary and anything can kill you. Roan tells Eliza flat out that this isn't like last time, and if she stays then it's for good. While Eliza feels attracted to Roan, she's scared, and decides that her life with her awful finance who was blackmailing her wasn't so bad after all. This is the point of the story where I began to have trouble with the heroine. From this point on she changes her mind a lot about which world she wants to be in. When she is in the human world-or fixed realm as it's called in the book, all she can think about is Roan. When she is in the shadowlands with Roan, all she can think about is what she left behind. She eventually gets a spine, and becomes more likable, but for me it was almost too late in the story for me to really care who she wound up with.
The villains in the story also didn't hold my attention the way I wanted them to. Steven, her finance, was the perfect evil villain. However, I didn't understand why Eliza who had all this money didn't just leave him and hire an attorney to deal with the blackmailing stuff he had on her. The druid villain was just predictable. When the showdown happened at the end of the book between him, Eliza and Roan my feelings were that if "finally, it happened" instead of jubilation that they finally got the bad guy. I think a lot of that though had to do with my feelings for Eliza and the fact that it took me so long to like her..had I connected to her earlier, I think I would have loved the showdown a lot more.
Despite all of it's flaws, I kept reading to see what would happen because I really did like the story of Roan and his men. I liked his brother Dai, who kept searching for a cure of the curse and never gave up hope that they would be saved.I so hope we get to see read his story!
Curran Crush Meter: Low
Martini Sigh Meter: Medium
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Low
Rhiannon Kick Ass Heroine Meter: Low
Finn Sidekick Meter: Medium
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Low
