C. L. Wilson - Lord of the Fading Lands

Once he drove back the darkness.
Once he loved with such passion his name was legend.

Once, driven wild with grief over the murder of his beloved, the majestic Fey King Rain Tairen Soul had

laid waste to the world before vanishing into the Fading Lands. Now, a thousand years later, a new threat draws him back into the world—and a new love reawakens the heart he thought long dead.

Ellysetta, a woodcarver’s daughter, calls to Rain in a way no other ever had. Mysterious and magical, her soul beckons him with a compelling, seductive song—and no matter the cost, the wildness in his blood will not be denied.
As an ancient, familiar evil regains its strength, causing centuries-old alliances to crumble and threatening doom for Rain and his people... he must claim his truemate to embrace the destiny woven for them both in the mists of time.

Comment: I had this book in the pile for years, another one I got with the hope of liking it so much I'd want to read the whole series. However, although it had its interesting elements I don't really feel the appeal to keep reading about this world.

In this fantasy series, the fey king Rain Tairan Soul is known for centuries for his actions when defeating the evil mages of Kel and how he sacrificed many for that. Songs and legends were created, even among the mortals of Celiera, stories even Elysetta Baristani knows. Elly is a young woman who, somehow, is able to call upon Rain's soul and his answers. The thing is, Elly can only do it because she is his truemate, the companion of not only his heart but his soul, even though he had a mate of the heart all those cenuries ago and why he went on a rage after her death.

Elly and Rain as as different as they can in may things but it seems their souls do match... but the evil mages of Kel don't want to let this opportunity be missed, for Elly has magic too, untapped and they want to use it... is is any happiness in this couple's future or will their lives be measured by how much they can do do defeat the Elden again?

Well, this was certainly an entertaining novel. I like fantasy novels if they are well constructed or if the world is so captivating that even if the characters aren't as easy to like, I can bear it because the rest makes up for it. At first, this was the vibe I was getting, of course things would happen slowly and we would have to infer a lot from what was suggested, but I was curious to learn.

I liked, from the beginning, the idea of different races and how the fey aren't those malicious pranksters we often see in other fantasy novels, here the Fey were good guys and a long time ago they fought to help others (like the mortals) by defeating the evil mages. Of course, there's plenty of magic and magical situations and expectations going on, and I didn't mind the notion of true mates, who bond in their souls and with time are more and more in sync with one another. I also didn't mind the slow progress of the connection between the main couple, after all they had just met.

It was also intriguing that the heroine had magic but was unaware of it and that certainly affected how she was like a pawn among the different forces. The Fey wanted her safety, her family too but was bound by the rules of the land, with all the political and social maneuvers, and the mages wanted to know she was magical indeed, for their evil plans. This might sound like a complex and fascinating situation to exploit, but I will have to confess that, after a while, I was getting more and more frustrated with how things went on.

First, Elly was just too innocent. I wouldn't have minded this if she was being developed as a character who learns and adapts but sadly, she was too stuck on conventions. I can understand this, but at the same time she is the heroine and she has magic, I hoped her transformation or her learning would be a bit more in par with what was happening, and I found myself annoyed she just couldn't think more on things, like the dreams she kept having, if she had shared them perhaps others could have known key clues sooner? But now I know there are four more books and they are all centered on this main couple and their evolution, so it will take time for the situation to reach the point I imagined here...

The romance is actually a little weak. I say this because not only there isn't a lot of emotional development between them - he is obviously a lot more experienced and mature - but because it got more and more clear as the story developed that the idea was not to focus on their romantic relationship in just this book. Everything took a long time and after a while, all situations which were ongoing became repetitive and long and, honestly, quite annoying to me. 

It really started to upset me how long it was taking for things to happen and, worse, how often we got to see the "behind the scenes" kind of plotting done by the villains or the antagonist characters, even if influenced by the bad guys. I'd rather have scenes with the main couple and their friendly secondary characters actively getting the upper hand on all this or not being caught so unaware of what might be happening until it was too late. Some scenes were also simply boring to go through because I felt they added nothing important to the main plot.

All things considered, this wasn't a bad book and for the genre, I can see the appeal - it did captivate me at first and I easily pictured many possible paths for this. The result wasn't as exciting, after all, and knowing there are more books where I'd probably have to go through more evil plotting and slow progress and machinations that seem to go nowhere, and to top it all, if those books also have an ending like here, where no conclusion happens until the very last book, I still prefer to try something else.

Grade: 6/10