Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A single mother comes home to find her daughter stolen by the fae. Now, she must team up with a wizard, elf, and warrior in order to get her daughter back in this book that had a lot of promise, but ultimately ended up falling a little flat.

Opening Sentence: Brendan Kavanaugh smiled and examined the wrought silver claddagh ring, admiring its fine details.

The Review:

I’ve lately become very interested in books dealing with the fae, whether they’re depicted as good or evil. So, I was very excited about starting this book once I read its description. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. While it certainly moved quickly and was entertaining, I had a lot of issues with character development that hampered my enjoyment of the story.

Caitlin has had years to adjust to being a single mom. She loves her daughter Fiona more than anything and often puts her personal life on hold in order to spend as much time with Fiona as possible. Her friends finally convince her that she needs to have a night out, so Caitlin makes a decision that will change her life forever. She hires a babysitter and goes out with her friends. The night starts off with Caitlin feeling as if she’s being watched from the shadows. Then, she’s attacked by two creatures who at first glance, appeared to be teenagers, but proved to be much more than that. She rushes home just in time to see Fiona taken by more of those same creatures. The creatures knock her out, and when she awakes, she finds herself at her friend Eddy’s house. She frantically tells Eddy what happened, worried he won’t believe her, but Eddy has a secret of his own. Turns out, he’s a wizard. Together, they team up with an elf and a warrior to go into the fae lands and bring Fiona back. Will they be able to find her before it’s too late?

I’ll start off by saying I was immediately intrigued by the premise of the story. The first chapter immediately drew me in, and I just wanted to read more. This feeling continued until about the halfway point in the story. At that point, I found myself feeling more and more detached. While I was still interested in what was going on, something just wasn’t clicking for me anymore. I think the fault for this lies in the fact that the characters just aren’t developed very much. We only get to know the very basics of who our main four characters are, and we never really learn anything else. I found Brendan to be the most intriguing, but we never really learn much about him beyond what happens in the first chapter. Caitlin is defined by her love for Fiona. Eddy is a therapist wizard who loves Caitlin but has resigned himself to being just friends. Dante is Brendan’s closest friend and also the Magister of the Rogue Court. We learn all this right away, and then never go any deeper into who these people are. It makes it very hard to care about them when we don’t know anything about them.

As I said, the basic story itself is very interesting. I would be interested in learning more about this world O’Connell has created. However, the lack of character development leaves me a little concerned as to how much I’ll like any future stories set in this world. I would say this book is worth a read, but be aware you might not feel much for the characters.

Notable Scene:

“You’re not going anywhere,” the voice behind her said.

The knot in her stomach began to tighten, but she thought of Fiona and her resolve hardened. She clenched her jaw and turned, ready to fight.

“Leav-” Caitlin stopped when she saw who’d been speaking to her.

An eerily beautiful boy, perhaps thirteen, looked at her with more confidence than anyone that young should have. His skin was white–not just pale, but unreal, alabaster white. His hair was sheer black, as were his clothes and fingernails, and he must’ve been wearing some kind of special contact lenses, because his eyes were all black, no whites at all. He was thin and not much over five feet tall, just about her height.

He smiled, showing his teeth. Every single one, upper and lower, came to a sharp point.

Caitlin felt the blood drain from her face and her heart skipped a beat.

The boy’s eyes narrowed and he looked at her for a moment before he smiled wider. “Boo!”

FTC Advisory: Harper Voyager Impulse/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of The Stolen. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )