Fairytale Apocalypsetic Fantasy was good in parts, overall OK, while I was reading it, but I had to go back to the novel to refresh my memory to write this review. A really good book sticks in your mind more than a day or two.
The plot is complicated. Believing she is called to be the Lady of the Verge, Lauren crosses into the elven realm at the castle of Lord Kagan Donmall, the Protector of the Verge. Lauren’s twin sister, Tessa, has looked out for Lauren, or in Lauren’s mind, bossed and fussed and kept from having fun, follows in a panic. Tessa has to fight her way through the Verge, and reaches Lord Kagan’s castle just as Kagan and Lauren are sealing their engagement. Lauren’s arrival causes the castle to catastrophically fail, pushes Kagan, Lauren and Tessa back to earth. Lauren gets home just in time to see her parents and home burn in a fire. Kagan gets stuck at the crossing between elven lands and earth. Lauren gets home around the same tiem as Tessa.
Lauren’s home isn’t the only thing destroyed. Most of the earth is a wasteland; most people are shells and no one can have children any more. We next see Lauren and Tessa living in a bunker community, sheltering from the empty people and raiders. Kagan shows up, gets into fights, then Tessa gets kidnapped by raiders, Tessa and Kagan and others go to the rescue. And on. Of course everything ends up just as it should. Tessa and Kagan fall in love and the earth turns back to its green loveliness; Lauren goes back to the elves’ home to be Lady of the Verge.
The plot was far more complicated than this synopsis. I didn’t mention the many people who die or get introduced but we never see again, or the goddess-type creature who calls Lauren to the elven land or how the Verge has been losing its magic, or the agreement another elven lord, Damin, makes with a demon, or Laruen’s spurned lover or any of the other umpteen things that happen.
The plot is pretty good, although I thought the ending was ridiculous; the earth magically goes back itself because Kagan and Tessa stop being mad at each other. What about all the people and animals and plants that died? Did they come back too?
The setting was interesting. Kagan lives in the land of the Fae, which connects to our earth via a bridge. The Fae lands have declined and faded the last many years which worries Kagan and is the reason he is willing to marry Tessa when she arrives and announces she was sent by Danu to be the Lady of the Verge. The bunker on wasteland earth was sketched in enough we got a good idea of the miserable conditions.
Characters were predictable with few sidekicks who added humor or dark interest, like Stan the dim bunker guy and Damin the would-be villian. Tessa was a bit much. You would think after 5 years of wasteland earth she’d stop interfering and taking care of Lauren. Nope, even at the end she’s still fretting. Lauren was selfish and shallow. She was 16 at the beginning so selfish and shallow are the job description, but she didn’t grow out of it. Kagan was unpleasant and unattractive, convinced of his own wonderfulness and high status.
The Fae are unpleasant. Kagan remembers wars fought over an insult, bloodthirsty, overly proud people, just like he is.
I don’t know that I would have finished Fairytale Apocalypse – A Romance of Apocalyptic Proportions: Epic Romantic Fantasy (The Verge Book 1) had I not been given a copy with the expectation of a review. It was OK, not bad or boring. None of the characters were appealing or people I want to spend time with, the complicated plot seemed endless and I had to push myself to finish the last third. Overall I’d give this three stars, perfectly decent if you like fantasy.
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