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A review by churliefurlie
The Unseelie Prince by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
4.0
3.75 ⭐️
*mild spoilers ahead*
So I went into this book completely blind except for the blurb, came to Goodreads and saw others’ thoughts… I was shocked.
At the risk of putting my neck on the line, I do feel some of the reviews are unnecessarily scathing.
This is a dark fantasy about a centuries old mythical being, a villain no less, set in a historical time and readers are abhorrent to the fact he’s a debauched, despicable arsehole? This seems a little unfair to me.
Anyway…
Recently divorced Abigail gets kidnapped by the Unseelie Prince, Valroy. On the premise of loosely granting her wish to have a home, he takes her to his maze. She realises she’s been tricked, so to undo her poorly made wish, she must solve his maze in order to be freed; otherwise she must marry Valroy. He has found a loophole in his lands’ lore - that he must be wed in order to be crowned king. To Valroy’s mind, a human will do & what happens after the vows are made, that doesn’t concern him, he could even kill her. Who cares? Well, we sure as shit find out.
Valroy is a villain, with no moral compass and absolutely no filter. His views on the world and those in it are stunted at best. Heed my warning!
Abigail seems to be his salvation and through his developing affection for her; his grinch-like heart grows, he develops thoughts beyond his primal needs/desires.
Abigail appears to be a refreshing change to Valroy, she does not kneel at his feet or bend to his will. Beyond calling him many colourful names, she does challenge some of his questionable decisions and behaviour.
Mercifully, there is a redemption arc well underway (as far as KAKs MMCs go).
Abigail spends a lot of the book being extremely pissed she’s being constantly tricked, when all she asked for was a home (can’t say I blame her) and comes to a lot of epiphanies of her own. She is also at war with herself as she actually finds Valroy, for all his many faults, quite alluring. Quite the conundrum.
I enjoyed the world building and appreciate KAKs witty writing style. I’m also particularly fond of 3rd person POV.
You become attached to the many side characters met along the way, all of which are - for the most part - friendly and kind. A stark contrast to our MMC.
Whilst I’m still a bit bemused as to where the plot is heading; there is an underlying intrigue to the plot which I will continue reading it for. There’s a secret it seems and my brain really needs to know what that is. I hope as the series progresses, we start getting properly stuck into the who, why, how and when.
There were no laugh out loud moments like I experienced in the Harrow Faire series, I’m really hoping books 2-4 deliver on that.
This is a definite slow burn enemies to lovers, both characters have a long way to go before anything genuine can come of their relationship beyond physical attraction.
Book 1 ends on a cliffhanger.
*mild spoilers ahead*
So I went into this book completely blind except for the blurb, came to Goodreads and saw others’ thoughts… I was shocked.
At the risk of putting my neck on the line, I do feel some of the reviews are unnecessarily scathing.
This is a dark fantasy about a centuries old mythical being, a villain no less, set in a historical time and readers are abhorrent to the fact he’s a debauched, despicable arsehole? This seems a little unfair to me.
Anyway…
Recently divorced Abigail gets kidnapped by the Unseelie Prince, Valroy. On the premise of loosely granting her wish to have a home, he takes her to his maze. She realises she’s been tricked, so to undo her poorly made wish, she must solve his maze in order to be freed; otherwise she must marry Valroy. He has found a loophole in his lands’ lore - that he must be wed in order to be crowned king. To Valroy’s mind, a human will do & what happens after the vows are made, that doesn’t concern him, he could even kill her. Who cares? Well, we sure as shit find out.
Valroy is a villain, with no moral compass and absolutely no filter. His views on the world and those in it are stunted at best. Heed my warning!
Abigail seems to be his salvation and through his developing affection for her; his grinch-like heart grows, he develops thoughts beyond his primal needs/desires.
Abigail appears to be a refreshing change to Valroy, she does not kneel at his feet or bend to his will. Beyond calling him many colourful names, she does challenge some of his questionable decisions and behaviour.
Mercifully, there is a redemption arc well underway (as far as KAKs MMCs go).
Abigail spends a lot of the book being extremely pissed she’s being constantly tricked, when all she asked for was a home (can’t say I blame her) and comes to a lot of epiphanies of her own. She is also at war with herself as she actually finds Valroy, for all his many faults, quite alluring. Quite the conundrum.
I enjoyed the world building and appreciate KAKs witty writing style. I’m also particularly fond of 3rd person POV.
You become attached to the many side characters met along the way, all of which are - for the most part - friendly and kind. A stark contrast to our MMC.
Whilst I’m still a bit bemused as to where the plot is heading; there is an underlying intrigue to the plot which I will continue reading it for. There’s a secret it seems and my brain really needs to know what that is. I hope as the series progresses, we start getting properly stuck into the who, why, how and when.
There were no laugh out loud moments like I experienced in the Harrow Faire series, I’m really hoping books 2-4 deliver on that.
This is a definite slow burn enemies to lovers, both characters have a long way to go before anything genuine can come of their relationship beyond physical attraction.
Book 1 ends on a cliffhanger.