Two twin half-elf sisters, one a thief, one a sorceress, meet two twin
half-elf brothers, one a thief, one a sorcerer... what are the odds? And
there’s this instant attraction... Well, we can see where this is
going, can’t we? Still, there are enough original twists here to give
this a fresh spin. Elves are the rulers in this world, with humans as
the underdogs, but the bottom of the heap are the half-elves, where
those with magical ability are scooped up and trained and the rest are
slaves or (at best) low ranking servants. They can’t set up in business
or own property... which makes it tricky to live independent lives,
except by thievery.
This was my first foray into fantasy romance,
which in this case is romance with pointy ears. There is a plot, of
sorts, involving stealing four items, one for each of the four elements -
earth, air, fire and water - for someone or other, but really it
doesn’t matter. It’s all just an excuse for smouldering glances over the
campfire, sizzling accidental touches while hiding from dragons in
caves, and a lot of heavy breathing. The first kiss is a quarter of the
way into the book, and before the halfway point we’re into improbably
athletic sex of the panting, thrusting, never-been-so-amazing variety.
Elvish porn, if you like. And you know what? It’s a helluva lot of fun.
This
isn’t a masterpiece of epoch-making literature, but then it has no
pretensions to be anything other than entertainment. As fantasy, the
world-building is sketchy, the plot isn’t terribly original and the
magic is fairly conventional. There’s a lack of realistic detail in the
background - the world has a few scattered towns and a lot of emptiness,
and the characters simply amble through the scenery, always managing to
find enough food and shelter. There appear to be no great threats out
in the wilderness, apart from the beasties they themselves seek out as
part of their quest. There always seems to be time for a quick roll in
the hay. Or a slow one, for that matter. Followed by much, much more of
the same. The setting isn’t the important factor, though. The characters
have a lot of charm and the ‘romance’ is more plausibly done than some
I’ve read, seeming quite natural for the circumstances. Even the
obstacles keeping them apart seem reasonably believable. The author has a
nicely unobtrusive writing style, and I didn’t spot any typos at all. I
did wonder a bit about the morality of all that light-hearted stealing,
but it didn’t seem like they had many other options so I’ll go along
with it.
A minor grumble. I like a map with my fantasy, and
there’s a very nice one here. So what’s the grumble? The map is at the
BACK of the book, with no indication it’s there. Probably OK with a
printed version, but in an ebook - please put the map at the front! Or a
table of contents.
This is a fun book. It follows the
conventions of romance, so yes, there’s that instant attraction thing,
and there’s a lot of barely suppressed passion right from the start. The
fantasy elements play second fiddle here and anyone looking for
standard save-the-world fantasy should move right along, although the
characters at least have credible motivations. The ending is just a tad
too slick for my taste, but there are some good action moments along the
way. The events at the monastery were exciting enough to keep me
flipping through the pages, breathless to find out how it turns out. And
how do our heroes celebrate afterwards? The usual way, that’s how. I
have to confess that the constant humping gets a little bit repetitive
after a while, and frankly if the male interest had been a vampire I
wouldn’t have got through ten pages. But if you have a thing for hot
elves (or half-elves, in this case) with a smattering of dragons thrown
in, this is an entertaining read. I rarely give romancey type stuff more
than three stars, but you know, I really enjoyed this, it’s better
written than average and I have a soft spot for dragons (and sexy
half-elves, apparently), so four stars it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment