The Goblin King (Shadowlands, #1) in Aussie Readers

Jul 04, 2011 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it liked it

Shelves: aussie-author

I've been wanting to read this paranormal series by Australian author Shona Husk for a while and with the imminent release of the third book, For the Love of a Goblin Warrior I decided to read all of them, one after another.

The Goblin King introduces Roan, once a Celtic King in Roman times, cursed to the Shadowlands, along with several of his loyal men, by a druid, now at the beck and call of whomever may summon them. After 2000 years only Roan and his brother Dai have survived the pull of the c I've been wanting to read this paranormal series by Australian author Shona Husk for a while and with the imminent release of the third book, For the Love of a Goblin Warrior I decided to read all of them, one after another.

The Goblin King introduces Roan, once a Celtic King in Roman times, cursed to the Shadowlands, along with several of his loyal men, by a druid, now at the beck and call of whomever may summon them. After 2000 years only Roan and his brother Dai have survived the pull of the curse that threatens to strip them of their humanity and force them to live as mindless, gold greedy goblins. As their will begins to fade, Roan is summoned to the Fixed World (our modern world) to save Eliza Coulter, but Eliza may be the one who saves them.

I really like the world-building in this novel, the lore that supports the curse is something a little different, the relationship between the Shadowlands and The Fixed World is creative and the idea of goblins as hero's is intriguing. There are lots of other interesting touches, like Roans ability with magic, the travel between worlds and the nightmare visions of the Shadowlands.

While I quickly grew to like Roan, and his brother Dai, I never really warmed up to Eliza a great deal. It is not the first time our hero and heroine have met, in the The Summons: A Goblin King Prequel, Eliza called on Roan for help as a teenager when she panics fending off the unwanted attentions of a drunken party goer and wants to escape. When she calls on Roan in The Goblin King she is trying to escape a situation where she is being blackmailed into marrying a man she does not love. To be fair Steve, Eliza's fiance, is an intimidating jerk but I didn't really buy into the helplessness of her situation, especially as she has the resources to save herself. Eliza was just a little to self pitying and martyr like for me to be satisfied with her as a heroine.

The story was a little heavy on the romance for more tastes, not unexpected given it is a paranormal romance, but I really liked that there were good reasons for Roan and Eliza to be kept apart. In the human world, Roan can only appear as a Goblin, in the Shadowlands, Eliza is under constant threat, the only way they an be together safely is to break the curse, but it seems that not even love is enough.

The Goblin King is an enjoyable romantic fantasy, a fairytale not unlike Beauty and the Beast with enough appeal to ensure I look forward to reading the next book in the Shadowlands series featuring Dai, Kiss of the Goblin Prince ...more

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