Alyxandra Harvey
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Interesting
On Goodreads
I got Stolen Away as a Kindle daily deal – I was so intrigued by the blurb that I had to have it. Eloise Hart is just a normal girl who likes to fly under the radar. One day when she’s at the ice cream parlor with her friends, a strange boy in medieval dress kneels in front of her and tells her that she needs to go with him or “the others” will find her. Of course, Eloise is totally freaks out and leaves. As it turns out, Eloise’s aunt Antonia was married to the King of Faery, Lord Strahan, and Strahan wants to lure Antonia back to the world of Faery with Eloise as bait. Soon, Eloise gets captured and it’s up to her friends to try to save her.
Stolen Away is told from alternating point of views between Eloise and Jo. Although I found both girls to be charming, their voices were very similar and I found it a bit confusing sometimes. When the girls were separated, it was fine because of how different their situations were, but when they were together, I could barely follow who was saying what because of the “she said” and “I said”s.
Jo’s story seems to center around her romance. Jo’s romance was cute, but it was really rushed, even more so than Eloise’s. Jo sees this gorgeous stranger at a party, but doesn’t get a chance to talk to him. One day while she’s at a coffee shop, said stranger appears and she starts getting to know him. Of course, when I say, “getting to know him,” I’m using this rather loosely. Jo ends up bringing this guy to her family’s farm and kissing him before she even knows his name. In fact, he actually shows up at her farm later on and they kiss some more and she still doesn’t know his name after this encounter. Once she finally knows his name, she insists that she loves him. Sounds a bit like my favorite Pixar dog…
But seriously. After they actually get to know each other, the romance grew on me a lot more. In between seeing this boy, Jo is supposed to be helping her friend escape from the Faery Rath in which she is trapped. Jo is surprisingly resourceful when it comes to finding her friend, but she’d probably do a better job if she weren’t obsessed with her handsome stranger.
On the other hand, Eloise’s story is a lot more action packed. Her story follows how she’s trapped in Strahan’s Faery Rath and how she finds out about the Faery world and her aunt’s part in it. Through Eloise’s point of view, the reader finds out most of the mythology in this book. Although the mythology is interesting, it’s thrown at the reader a bit too fast. Like Jo, Eloise had a romance, but hers was much briefer. Eloise’s romance was so sweet and made me giddy. I wish there had been more of this romance.
The ending of Stolen Away, while finishing the actual conflict of the story, seemed to need more. I wish there had been a few more chapters to explain how everything turns out rather than the few pages of epilogue we get right after the conflict is resolved. It was just too brief. After investing myself in the plot and the characters, I just wanted more from the ending. Honestly, I would love to see a sequel. With a second book, Stolen Away would definitely move up to 4 stars for me.
Overall, I really wanted to enjoy Stolen Away more than I did, but it was just too brief. This book had so much potential with its story, but it lacked the follow through and elaboration I was looking for. However, I would still recommend this story for someone looking for a fun paranormal story with interesting faery mythology.
- Kiersten
How would you react if some faery king kidnapped you?
Let us know in the comments!
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