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My Review:Title: Forever Enchanted
Author: Maggie Shayne
Series: Fairies of Rush #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 1, 1997
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 384
Genres: Romance, Contemporary Fantasy, Fantasy Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Bookish Resolutions DTTH, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 3
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:
Blurb:In a world of cars and shopping malls, Bridin sells New Age trinkets--and waits for the man who can help her return home to an enchanted kingdom called Rush. She meets a rugged stranger, who is actually Tristan, the usurper who stole her kingdom.
Tristan, deposed by his brother, has escaped into the mortal realm determined to win and wed Bridin--for only the magic of their passion can save their enchanted homeland.
2 stars — First things first, I got lazy and didn’t contact Amazon to force whatever update to whatever latest version I could get (now entitled By Magic Enchanted). So this cover above, this is the version I read, and I truly think it’s a pretty early one. Honestly, I don’t think the blurb on Goodreads that’s associated with this cover is accurate either, and thus I was sooooo confused when I started this book and Bridin was in Rush, and then a bunch happens there before they ever come back to the human side. So I kinda think I won’t post this review anywhere but my blog and Goodreads, b/c I have NO IDEA how much changed between versions…this is really just for my own thought vomit.
I was kind of underwhelmed by this book. It felt like something I might write, and since I’m not an aspiring author, that’s not a compliment. It was flat, shallow, cheesy at times. There were definitely continuity issues with book 1 (though again, I read a newer version of book 1, so that might be why). I didn’t like Bridin or Tristan for the first half. Their romance is everything I’m not a fan of in enemies to lovers. They were snippy and mean to one another, there wasn’t much that connected them. I don’t think I ever really understood what their connection was, and I definitely didn’t feel it. It’s almost like at a certain point it changed and they weren’t the same characters I had been reading. I don’t know. I also had a few days in between reading and might have gotten out of the zone.
When they finally go back, it was almost over the top how much they both wanted to sacrifice for one another. They both claimed to care about the kingdom, but it felt a bit shallow. Vincent was horrifically evil, in a creepy way.
The last “steamy” scene between the two of them made me feel kind of gross, and I don’t understand the point.
And then it just…I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe it other than the entire climax felt like an eye roll. *sigh*
The difference in writing between the two books has me believing that if I’d been less lazy and gotten a newer version of this book, it would have been better. How much better? I don’t know, but I’m betting at least one star better. So learn from me — make Amazon give you the latest version they can. Or get it from the library. Or, I don’t know, something. Needless to say I definitely won’t be reading more.
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