Helpful Score: 5
The characters were a little irritating at times, but, overall, I enjoyed this book.
Helpful Score: 4
This book is absolutly wonderful. If you like fairies and believe in their world, you can't go wrong!!! Truely an adult fairy tale!!
Helpful Score: 3
If you're not really big into science fiction, but don't mind a story mixing the world of fairies with the modern day city of Berlin, this is the story for you. It involves a young woman who is an orphan, her live in boyfriend who has a secret, a missing childhood friend, and fairies. Once I started this book I was hard pressed to put it down and now I;m on the look out for more books by Ms. Wilkins.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent story weaving fairy folklore into a modern day story. Although I was not surprised by the story's turns I like how they were handled. And at the end I liked the fairytale style wrap-up of the story. It ended as I wanted it to. If you liked Gaints of the Frost then I think you will like this one too.
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book. It was a little predictable, as I figured out a major plot point a little early, but I am glad the way it turned out in the end. It was an interesting and engrossing read, hard to put down to do other things... Some people may not like how it ties up so neatly at the end, but I liked that it. (And didn't leave me wondering like Giants of the Frost did!) Looking forward to reading another Wilkins.
Helpful Score: 1
book is a fairy tale, magic & love, also the truly evil man can do. I enjoyed the story & characters. The author kept my attention from page one, but also happy that the story came to an end.
Overall not a bad book. It seemed to be slow getting started, then it had a twist , that for me made it hard to put down.
I have been wanting to read a book from Kim Wilkins for a while now. I listened to this on audio book and the audio book was well done. This was a pretty good book. It is an urban fantasy but reminds more of Charles DeLint type of urban fantasy versus Laurell Hamilton type. This book also channels a very fairy tale like vibe; you have a fairy princess, an evil killer, and an evil crone.
The book switches between the viewpoints of four different characters. The first is Christine who lives in an artist colony with her boyfriend Jude and whose life is ruled by the chronic pain (caused by a horrible car accident) she goes through every day. The second is Mayfridh, the fairy queen and childhood friend of Christine, who is drawn into the real world and starts to inadvertently cause trouble for Christine with her beauty and attraction to Jude. The third is Emanuel (Manny for short) who is a fairy hunter who kills fairies to use their bones in his sculpture, he runs the artist colony where Christine and Jude live. The fourth is an old crone who controls the fairy kingdom's magic and hates Mayfridh with a passion; she believes Mayfridh is not the true fairy queen. When Christine enters fairy land and discovers a pain free existence, she begins to get addicted to it; when Mayfridh enters the real world she begins to be addicted to Jude; the old crone is out for Mayfridh's blood, and Manny wants to bone Mayfridh to complete his Bone Wife sculpture. Needless to say Midsummer's Dream-like chaos ensues in matters of love, life, and death.
There are a few things I really liked about this book. The characters are well done, easy to sympathize with, and easy to understand. The fairy world that Wilkins has created is interesting in how the realm switches location with seasons, it is interesting how much of a role this fact plays in the storyline. I love how Wilkins weaves a story in which all these somewhat unrelated characters are drawn together to create an intriguing story.
Most of the story is propelled forward by the reader's need to learn Jude's big secret. Wilkins does a good job of keeping the secret...well..secret and also does an excellent job of having the characters gradually pile deception on top of deception until eventually they are all caught up in a web of lies.
I do have some complaints though too. I really didn't like any of the characters. Christine is too passive and whiny for most of the book, Mayfridh is self-centered and naive, Jude self-centered and cruel...and those are the "good" characters. To be honest I was kind of happy to not read more about them; these characters all personified elements of what is wrong with humanity and society in general.
This book was more of a mystery/drama/romance than anything; there isn't much action at all. This is an urban fantasy that is more like some of Charles DeLint's works than the more modern urban fantasies that are being published by the boat loads. To be honest, although I enjoyed the fairy-tale like quality to the story, it was a bit slow for me at points and I missed the action. The set-up took a bit too long and the story seemed to drag on towards the end.
The story ended well with a satisfying and happy ending. In fact the ending seemed a bit too happy given the tone of the rest of the story, but I like happy endings so I won't complain.
Overall a good story; recommended for fans of dark fairy tales and urban fantasies like Charles deLint's. I also have Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins to read and I will be reading that. I wasn't totally sold on Wilkins as an author, but I liked it enough to read another book by her before I make a final judgment.
The book switches between the viewpoints of four different characters. The first is Christine who lives in an artist colony with her boyfriend Jude and whose life is ruled by the chronic pain (caused by a horrible car accident) she goes through every day. The second is Mayfridh, the fairy queen and childhood friend of Christine, who is drawn into the real world and starts to inadvertently cause trouble for Christine with her beauty and attraction to Jude. The third is Emanuel (Manny for short) who is a fairy hunter who kills fairies to use their bones in his sculpture, he runs the artist colony where Christine and Jude live. The fourth is an old crone who controls the fairy kingdom's magic and hates Mayfridh with a passion; she believes Mayfridh is not the true fairy queen. When Christine enters fairy land and discovers a pain free existence, she begins to get addicted to it; when Mayfridh enters the real world she begins to be addicted to Jude; the old crone is out for Mayfridh's blood, and Manny wants to bone Mayfridh to complete his Bone Wife sculpture. Needless to say Midsummer's Dream-like chaos ensues in matters of love, life, and death.
There are a few things I really liked about this book. The characters are well done, easy to sympathize with, and easy to understand. The fairy world that Wilkins has created is interesting in how the realm switches location with seasons, it is interesting how much of a role this fact plays in the storyline. I love how Wilkins weaves a story in which all these somewhat unrelated characters are drawn together to create an intriguing story.
Most of the story is propelled forward by the reader's need to learn Jude's big secret. Wilkins does a good job of keeping the secret...well..secret and also does an excellent job of having the characters gradually pile deception on top of deception until eventually they are all caught up in a web of lies.
I do have some complaints though too. I really didn't like any of the characters. Christine is too passive and whiny for most of the book, Mayfridh is self-centered and naive, Jude self-centered and cruel...and those are the "good" characters. To be honest I was kind of happy to not read more about them; these characters all personified elements of what is wrong with humanity and society in general.
This book was more of a mystery/drama/romance than anything; there isn't much action at all. This is an urban fantasy that is more like some of Charles DeLint's works than the more modern urban fantasies that are being published by the boat loads. To be honest, although I enjoyed the fairy-tale like quality to the story, it was a bit slow for me at points and I missed the action. The set-up took a bit too long and the story seemed to drag on towards the end.
The story ended well with a satisfying and happy ending. In fact the ending seemed a bit too happy given the tone of the rest of the story, but I like happy endings so I won't complain.
Overall a good story; recommended for fans of dark fairy tales and urban fantasies like Charles deLint's. I also have Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins to read and I will be reading that. I wasn't totally sold on Wilkins as an author, but I liked it enough to read another book by her before I make a final judgment.
This one did not hold my interest. But it might hold yours.
good story
Wonderful book -- loved it!
