A review by smitch29
Fantastical by Kristen Ashley

3.0

This book just seemed a bit like a repeat of the previous two novels. Too many elements were exactly the same. Alpha-male hero? check. Heroine ripped from our world and placed in a parallel world?: check. The heroine even had the same mannerism and language patterns as the previous heroine, including a lot of niche slang that I rarely hear (i.e. something described as "hip"). And of course, the parallel universe people never seemed to have slang. The heroes and heroines have all had their own personalities but the basic elements of their character and their mannerisms have been way too similar that it almost feels like the same thing over and over again. I'm hoping the next novel will bring something more original to the series.

One new thing that this book did present was that the heroine, who woke up surprisingly in a new world, hardly hesitated in announcing the truth. Whereas in previous novels, the heroines hid it for various reasons. However, in some respects Cora, this book's heroine didn't necessarily help herself in telling the truth, because her hero didn't really believe her. It created some nice tension, that led to a cool moment where the hero, Tor, got to experience Cora's home-world.

There was something about this book that just didn't feel as exciting or interesting as the novels that have come before it. I think it was the lack of a significant adventure, but I'm still debating that in my head. Both Cora and Tor seemed to be constantly out of control of the main conflicts in the novel. They just had to survive them as they came, which was obvious since the author wasn't going to kill the main characters. So perhaps the conflicts just didn't hold enough appeal for me; the jury is still out as to why they might not have held enough appeal, though.