Book Review: Stolen Thorn Bride (Stolen Brides of the Fae #7)

Stolen Thorn Bride

Kenley Davidson

Overall: 4/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

Stolen Thorn Bride is the seventh novella in an eight novella series written by various fantasy romance authors. When Kasia loses controls of the animals she's meant to keep, she risks it all by crossing to the domain of the elves. She's caught and told that her options are marrying an unknown man or death, so the choice was pretty obvious. Now, there's war on her doorstep and she has no idea how her siblings are faring and she has to deal with a guy who's kind of a jerk considering she saved his life. 

I liked Kasia a lot, I think she's a great protagonist because she's intelligent and thoughtful. Honestly, she probably could've benefited from a lot more page-time. I love the root universe of this one so I'm a little biased, it just works really well. I wish that all of these were longer to be honest because sometimes novellas just aren't enough. The one thing I had against the plot was the constant comparison of Kasia to Dechlan's dead girlfriend. I understand it it's just a little annoying and not very easy to get through in such a short piece. 

But all in all, another fantastic addition to this series of books! I haven't read them all and hopefully I'll get back to the two that I missed soon but I think is such a cool and fun idea. I'm really looking forward to reading the other works from the other authors too so it's definitely great for spreading the word.

Novella Review: Stolen Midsummer Bride (Stolen Brides of the Fae #3)

Stolen Midsummer Bride

Tara Grayce

Rating System:

Overall: 2/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 2/5

This is the third book in the Stolen Bride of the Fae novella series, a fun partnership by a bunch of indie romance authors. I've read Tara Grayce before and I've liked what I've seen. In this novella, Basil is a librarians assistant who has risen from pretty impoverished circumstances. He's lonely though, so he journeys to the human world to "steal" a bride which is really only walking past the barrier and finding a girl waiting in the forest to travel to the fae realm. They have to figure out how to combine their interests and make their lives work together. 

Maybe it's just because it's a novella, but everything was pretty poorly defined here. The rise and fall of the conflict was too simple and boring. Everything was so quickly resolved despite no information really being provided about it. Meg and her family is hungry? Walk into the woods and offer yourself even though there's not really any information on that. And luckily, there just happens to be someone there to marry her on the one night she goes out even though it's a fairly uncommon situation. I realize that was the whole plot motivator but it felt like no consideration was given to just how lazy it all was. 

The writing was better than anything and yes I know it's not meant to be super complicated, it just wasn't as enjoyable for me as the last one was. I'll still probably read the next and all and it's a fun way to get to know a bunch of authors. This one was just a little too little.