Jove, $5.99, ISBN 0-515-12505-9
Paranormal Romance, 1999
How nice – here’s a book that’s a bit different from the same old stuff out there. It has a faerie prince has a hero and a heroine who is pretty smart and capable. I had a wonderful time, and I think my slump is broken.
Blaic is a faerie prince who, if I’m not mistaken, helped the King’s daughter end up with a mortal end in a previous book and is punished by being turned into stone. He now enjoys his life standing in the garden of Hamdry Manor and having an intimate acquaintance with pigeon doo-doo’s.
Felicia Starret, one of the current inhabitants of the manor, is grieving over the recent death of her father. Her stepmother, who has read Cinderella once too often, dislikes her and Felicia doesn’t understand why that woman isn’t grieving for her husband. When she weeps over the statue, ta-da! Blaic is no longer a statue.
But he isn’t exactly free from his curse yet. He still couldn’t go back to his people. And poor Felicia, she seems to be in non-stop trouble (some ugly brute wants her to be his mistress, she wants to teach kids and start an Educational Revolution, she gets tossed in a madhouse, all the usual thingies a heroine must endure in the name of love) so he couldn’t abandon her, could he? But the fine print in Blaic breaking his curse is he betraying Felicia. Oops.
Still, no matter how much Felicia tries to emulate poor Cinderella, she does her best to rise above her troubles, and she has me liking her for that. She’s no teary-eyed clinging ivy – she’s strong and she’s a survivor. Blaic too is a rather sympathetic tragic hero trapped between the deep rank sea and the devil as he slowly falls for the woman he has to betray to be free from his curse. Oh, what to do?
Kissed by Starlight is fun and it’s pretty heavyweight too when it comes to emotions. I sigh at the end when Blaic makes his important decision. The heroine’s constant troubles can be an overkill at times, but she and Blaic do make a fine couple with their romance. What a nice surprise, this book.
