To Love a King

August 11, 2014
In Husk’s limp third Court of Annwyn fantasy-romance (after Lord of the Hunt), poor Prince Felan sees misery all around him. His fairy land is dying, his father is fading away, the parallel world of humans is perishing from plagues, and he’s got just two weeks to marry and impregnate the only woman he’s ever loved if he wants to save both dimensions. Jacqui is nursing emotional wounds from their former relationship and the loss of their fairy-human hybrid child, who would have saved both their worlds. She thinks she has moved on to a normal fairy-free life, but when Felan steps back into her California coffee shop, she realizes she’s still addicted to the swoon-inducing, green-eyed prince who wants her to give up her soul and be his queen. Romance prevails, of course, through fairy intrigues, feats of derring-do, and delicious human frailties. The story is only a little clouded by chatty dialogue and predictably erotic interior monologues. Husk offers a quick romp through a breathless and occasionally tasteless fairyland, but no real magic resides there.

October 1, 2014
In her new paranormal romance, Husk (Kiss of the Goblin Prince, 2012) transports her readers to Annwyn, the fairy court and realm of the afterlife, where the king nears death, throwing both mortal and mystical realms into peril. The throne's heir, Prince Felan, has a little less than two weeks to find a wife and conceive a child, or risk losing his position to an evil adversary. There is not exactly a shortage of human women willing to be queen, but the problem is that Felan already knows the partner he wants, his ex, Jacqueline, with whom he parted ways on terrible terms. He decides to follow his heart, setting himself up in a race against time to try and convince Jacqui to abandon everything she's ever known and risk her future on a man who once left her behind. Husk does a great job of describing the alien landscapes, fashions, and customs of the fairy court, a make-believe place readers will dream of visiting again and again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)