The Lord of Illusion (The Elven Lords)
*Starred Review* The third book in Kennedy’s Elven Lords series is the story of Drystan Hawkes and Camille Ashton. Forced to give up his birthright when it looked like his magic was powerful enough to condemn him, he was raised outside Elf-ruled England. She is a slave with rainbow-colored elven eyes, but no magic, and is seemingly cursed. Drystan has always been an outcast, taking refuge in books because of convulsions and visions inflicted on him by the scepters stolen by the Rebellion. Finding a rainbow-eyed girl seen in his visions becomes his obsession. Just as his research opens up clues as to the identity of the girl, the Rebellion taps Drystan to go to the palace of Lord Roden, which is where Camille is enslaved. Kennedy’s world building, featuring an eighteenth-century England ruled by cruel elven lords facing a rising rebellion of their half-human offspring, is superb. The hero and heroine are also out of the ordinary, and while this novel remains true to romance-genre mores, Kennedy infuses it with unexpected plot twists that will keep fantasy readers enthralled, too. --Diana Tixier Herald