Genre: Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: MM Romance (Bi, Gay)
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
To save my brother, I made a promise to the strange and powerful lord of the woods. I didn’t keep that promise, and now he’s taken my little nephew. I swear I’ll get him back, no matter how dangerous the forest between the worlds may be, or how angry its lord. I succeeded when I was only sixteen, after all, surely I can prevail again.
But as I stumble from one peril to another, I begin to think he was taking it easy on me last time. Maybe he doesn’t want me in his realm after all, even though he once offered me a home here. Maybe I waited too long. Well, he’ll have to tell me so to my face. I’m not giving up until I find the heart of the woods, or die trying.
I’ll save my family and escape again. I want to return to my normal life … don’t I?
The Review
This is a delightful novella that draws on a variety of fairytale sources ranging from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream to the modern Labyrinth, taking in myths about changelings, thin places in the world, and other traditions.
Thom needs to rescue his twin brother (for the second time) and his baby nephew. He also needs to keep a promise he made as a teenager. The world he enters is strange, with good friends and serious dangers.
The intriguing romance is hinted at throughout but I would have liked slightly more about the eventual relationship at the end.
The author has a good grasp of the world of fairy stories, their richness as well as their rules, and the writing is beautiful. Despite the shortness of the tale, the reader comes to love the friends who help Thom in his quest.
As with all good fairy tales there is a happy ending. Recommended for anyone who enjoys glimpses into that ‘other world’ beyond the ‘thin places’.
Four stars.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.
