Review: Fun with elves
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 7, 2013
REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT DEAR AUTHOR WHERE I RECEIVED THE BOOK AS FREE REVIEWING COPYDear Alex Beecroft,Based on the blurb this story seemed to be inspired by fairy tales, and I love fairy talesand their retellings for adults, so of course I wanted to review this book.As the blurb indicates, Joel and Kjairtan meet in Joel’s world (“our” world). Kjairtan(Kai) has teleported himself there in order to avoid being killed by his brother, and Joel ishaving troubles of his own. His boss was supposedly hit by a car, but he then disappearedwith a bagful of money. Joel thought the money was going to be used to save the galleryhe works in, but some mobsters have other ideas, expecting it as repayment for a loanthey are owed. Now the mobsters are after Joel and he has his hands full trying to find themoney. In the midst of this, at a most fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how youlook at it) moment, Kai shows up.The hilarity of both of them assessing each other and trying to adjust their assessmentswas amusing, as it always is when beings from the different worlds learn about eachother. Kai knows that humans exist, but he has a lot of preconceptions about them. Joelknows nothing about elves’ existence, but apparently he’s a Tolkien fan, so in no time atall he comes to accept that Tolkien elves exist in reality. As an aside, I was a littleannoyed at first because I wanted the writer to bring her own touch and come up withmore original characterization of elves than just telling me that Joel sees a creature fromTolkien’s worlds come alive. My annoyance soon disappeared , though, because Irealized that one – Joel may not *know* any other elves and has nothing to compare hisimpression but with Tolkien and two – the author showed me an interesting and not quiteTolkien-like characterization of her elves.I thought their interactions were beautiful.“He picked up a pectoral pendant the size of his fist, on which a solitary humanoid figure was battling what looked like Cthulu. It was light and soft in his hand, molding to his grip. “Um. Okay then.” Putting the jewel back on the table, he turned to find Kai only a step away, watching his moment of revelation with bright-eyed pleasure.“Can I…um…I’d like to…” Joel closed the distance and slowly, waiting for a denial that didn’t come, curled his hand around the back of Kai’s neck and pulled him in for a brief, gentle kiss. When he let go, Kai’s eyes were shut and his ice-white mouth was smiling and faintly tingled with pink.“Are you aware how rarely you finish a complete sentence?”Joel blushed, delighted by the sweetness and the ease of the moment. [snip of the sentence for spoiler reasons]. This, though Kai was a far greater danger in real terms, made him feel cherished. Secure. “I can’t help it if you leave me speechless”.I enjoyed the writing, but as you may see from the sample (or not) it is very descriptive, so definitely check out the publisher’s sample. Her style is one of many that I enjoy, but you may find that it is *too* descriptive for your liking.The writing made me temporarily forget as to how fast their mutual attraction flared up,but when I finished the book I came back to the Insta!Part of their Love and was nothappy about it. I think the reason I was not happy is because while we see constant fairytales undertones in the story (the Quest the King sent his sons on, the constant refrain thatthe youngest son always wins, etc.), the depictions of the main characters are deeper thanwhat we often see in fairy tales, where the characters are frequently archetypes and theQuest is the main point of the story.In the “pure” fairy tale I would have much more tolerance for this kind of instantattraction. I do realize that it occurs partially because the story is a novella – I have readseveral novels by Alex Beecroft and know very well that she can write slow-burning lovestories to perfection. It is not the worst variety of Insta!Love by any means, and as I saidabove, when I was reading the story the writing completely swept me away – it is when Istarted thinking about it that the relative dissatisfaction came.I really appreciated how very *unpleasant* a lot of Kai’s fellow elves felt to me. This isnot the first story I have read with elves not being all sweetness and divine light, but Iwould still say that the majority of fantasy stories portray them in a positive. What Iappreciated the most is Kai’s characterization. He is a gentle soul overall, but he certainlyabsorbed a lot of teachings of his world and even at the end of the story when Joel askshim not to do certain things, he agrees because he loves Joel rather than because he thinksJoel’s way of doing things is better. In other words, there was a lot in his character Icould relate to as sympathetic, decent and likeable, but there was always something inhim that felt alien to me and I really liked that. I liked that he felt like being from anotherworld, rather than just looking like one.Joel seemed more like a White Knight type of guy to everybody around him, but even heaccepted some less than savory things being done for the greater good. I liked that too. Iliked how he felt more like an ordinary guy in the extraordinary situation rather thanSuperman. But the battles scenes were very cool.There was a certain plot point in the storyline that seemed like too great of a coincidence.To avoid spoilers, I will just say that who the mobster who was after Joel turned outto be bothered me. I mean, I accepted it for the sake of the story, but I found it jarring.I would certainly read more about these guys and about this world.Grade: B-/B