Author: Charlie N. Holmberg
Age: Young Adult
Genres: Fantasy Romance
Publication Date: January 21, 2020
Publisher: 47North
Source: ARC & Paperback
Purchase: Paperback | Kindle | Audible | B&N | Book Depository
Synopsis:
A spellbinding story of truce and trickery from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician series.
Enna knows to fear the mystings that roam the wildwood near her home. When one tries to kill her to obtain an enchanted stone, Enna takes a huge risk: fighting back with a mysting of her own.
Maekallus’s help isn’t free. His price? A kiss. One with the power to steal her soul. But their deal leaves Maekallus bound to the mortal realm, which begins eating him alive. Only Enna’s kiss, given willingly, can save him from immediate destruction. It’s a temporary salvation for Maekallus and a lingering doom for Enna. Part of her soul now burns bright inside Maekallus, making him feel for the first time.
Enna shares Maekallus’s suffering, but her small sacrifice won’t last long. If she and Maekallus can’t break the spell binding him to the mortal realm, Maekallus will be consumed completely—and Enna’s soul with him.
My Rating:
My Thoughts:
This was an interesting story. It’s a 4-star read, but because it felt it was too short I’m going with a 3.75 star rating. This was an interesting story. The writing was pretty good, the characters were pretty intriguing, but the world was not mentioned of as much. Most of the story took place in the Wildwood which got boring at times. I did love the character interactions, though I wish there was a sequel. As a standalone it left more to be desired, but it didn’t keep me attention enough to finish it quickly.
Enna is the female protagonist who is all about learning the different mystings and how to survive them. She is seen as strange because of her birth and the story of her father, but she’s a pretty comptent woman. There were some points when I wanted to slap her silly for being so damn nice and weak. She was strong mentally, but when things happened she began freak out and go crazy. I enjoyed her enough though as a character.
Maekallus was a bit of a bad-boy monster humanoid. A mysting and a human all at the same time. I enjoyed him a ton! He wasn’t a controlling alpha male. He was just rude – he’s a monster. I loved seeing him learn to deal with the new emotions and become human at some points. Maekallus was bad-ass when it came to fighting. I would have loved to get more on him in fuller detail.
The romance was cute and pretty natural between the two of them. They start off as enemies, but then gradually begin to fall for one another. However, Maekallus doesn’t want to acknowledge his feelings because of who he is – a monster. I thought they were adorable, but also annoying at the end. Three months?! Seriously, they should have seen each other sooner than that!
The world needed more definition. You had the human realm and the monster realm which was referred to as the deep. I didn’t get much sense for either realms. I did however love all the explanations of the various plants – epic.
Mystings are still a bit of a mystery. They are monsters from the deep that prey on humans. I loved all the various types of mystings and how they all looked completely different. I enjoyed reading about each of them as they popped up and the various way the killed humans and on how to keep yourself protected from them. I thought the mystings were pretty intriguing.
The Telling Charm was so interesting. I enjoyed that this stone had its own sort of story and that the power it had didn’t get revealed until half-way through. Finding out what it really was made me excited. I was sad at how it ended up in the end, but loved how it fulfilled one last wish
Overall, this was a cute, quick read. I would definitely recommend it for those looking for a quick, low-level fantasy. There isn’t much magic to it, but it’s still a good fantasy to read.
About the Author
Giveaway
- Giveaway is open to International.
- Must be 13+ to Enter
- Ends February 10, 2020
- 3 Winners will receive a Copy of THE WILL AND THE WILDS by Charlie N. Holmberg.
Thank you to JeanBookNerd for having me on this tour!