My Faire Lord by C. A. Storm is a fun read. It’s an urban fantasy/paranormal romance that is irreverently fun without being campy. The humor is pretty on point and the story flows well. It is, in general, an easy read that focuses on the romance and what it means to try to win back your soul mate when you have insulted them terribly. This series is obviously thought-out, as there are hints from near the beginning about future mate/anam cara pairings. These hints do not interrupt the flow of the current story, but are strong enough to make sure you make a mental note of them (Who IS Travis’ mate?!).
Pacing on this is fantastic. I generally want to know the guys’ point of view, but HATE rereading the entire book from that point of view. Storm completely eliminates this insanity by just throwing in scenes from Rik’s (and sometimes Travis’) point of view. The office scene when Rik first hears Sam’s voice? One of my favorites. It is a great balance between never knowing what he’s thinking and having to read an entire book to get to a few key scenes. Somehow, Storm makes it possible to have these jumps (sometimes going back in time a bit to the beginning of the scene) and have them flow nearly seamlessly. It isn’t jarring or confusing to suddenly find yourself riding in the car with Rik after spending an entire 3 days with Sam. Despite there being no segue, the jumps were placed in such a way that they made sense.
I’m also a sucker for a good mythology. Storm stays pretty true to “norm” with some of his stuff and branches off on his own interpretation for others. I like that most of what I think I know about Fae/Sidhe holds true in this series, but the fleshing out of the details is new. How they came to the western hemisphere, what happened to the populations, and all the other pesky details that many authors ignore are given enough detail to have weight, but not so much that the first book in the series becomes a history of the Uncanny.
Character development is similar. Overall, the emotions and reactions of the people are believable, and history is given without having to wade through a complete biography before anything happens. I’m a big fan of sink-or-swim writing, and Storm does that. You know what you need to when you need to and it won’t come at you all at once–PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS! I was on pins and needles waiting for Sam to reveal that she knew all about the world Rik was trying to hide from her. Admittedly, it wasn’t as explosive as I hoped, but it was still FUN. I think that is the best description for this whole book: FUN. Storm knows how to have fun with his story and characters…and he allows himself to. There is some foreshadowing of drama to come. For the most part, though, this book focuses firmly on the characters, their relationships with others (strained and easy), and how those relationships are expressed. There was some cheesy zingers and one-liners; but where some authors would take that to the extreme, Storm just lets it be. It’s a zinger between friends, and life moves on. I read this between books that seem to be constant danger/peril/drama and the fact that this really was a ROMANCE that focused on the ROMANCE made it a fantastic break in what is starting to be the grind in the PNR genre.
I’m anxiously awaiting the release of book 2. So many things make me excited for it. Storm doesn’t shy away from non-hetero relationships, the inclusion of so many different species/types of Uncannies leads to so many possibilities, the tiny bit of drama that leads to a couple of bigger mysteries that I am desperate to have addressed–and who is ACE?! Who is Travis’ mate!? (if you didn’t catch that, head back to the scene in the saloon). Which viking will be next?!
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