Review - Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey

Publisher: Walker Children's (Bloomsbury)

Release Date: January 17th, 2012

Number of Pages: 288

Where I got this book: eARC from Netgalley

My rating: 3/5

Goodreads Summary:

"For seventeen years, Eloise Hart had no idea the world of Faery even existed. Now she has been abducted and trapped in the Rath of Lord Strahan, King of Faery. Strahan was only meant to rule for seven years, as Faery tradition dictates, and then give up his crown to another. But he won't comply, and now chaos threatens both worlds.

The only one who can break his stranglehold on the Faery court is his wife. . . Eloise's aunt Antonia. Using Eloise to lure Antonia, Strahan captures his wife, desperate to end the only threat to his reign. Now Eloise must become the rescuer. Together with her best friends Jo and Devin, she must forge alliances with other Fae, including a gorgeous protector named Lucas, and Strahan's mysterious son, Eldric-who may or may not betray them."

Review:

First, a big Thank You to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for allowing me the chance to read and review this book!

Fae stories just don't seem to be my thing. I want to like them - really bad. I feel like I should. I don't know why I don't. But, I can't seem to get into them. I seem to be one of the rare individuals who do not salivate over The Iron King series by Julie Kagawa, for example. As a kid, I went through a phase where all I read were fairy tales, and I even wrote a series of fairy "books" for awhile. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at, is this book was a fae book, and I had a hard time getting into it. I did find it very similar to The Iron King in many ways, so if you are a Kagawa fan, you will probably love this book as well.

I do have to say that I really liked the characters that Harvey created. Eloise was a fun main character. She was a self-declared "rockabilly" chick - kind of tough, but with a touch of dorkiness at the same time. Her best friend is a very interesting personality too. She is boy-crazy, obsessed with literature and medieval history and a very loyal friend. Devin is their friend who is always there for them. All of the fae characters are described well, and have very vibrant personalities as well in particular, Lucas (Eloise's love interest) and Eldric (Jo's love interest).

What really stood out to me about Harvey's writing, however, was her sense of humor. She is very funny, and it kind of sneaks up on you sometimes. I love that kind of humor! Here is an example - I literally snorted out loud when I read this. This passage is where Jo is trying to describe Isadora the faery to Devin, who can't yet see her: '"She looks like a flower fairy from a book of nursery rhymes." Isadora, in her delicate flower petal skirt, gave me the finger." Just the picture of this little Tinkerbell like creature in a cute little petal skirt flipping Jo off just caught me off guard and was hilarious to me...I don't know, maybe I'm easily amused, :) Anyway, this kind of humor is sprinkled throughout the book and just makes it a much lighter, more fun read. The ending is very satisfying, and the action is pretty fast paced. Very little bad language, and very minor sexuality. (I think I will recommend it to my 11 year old, so I consider it to be quite tame.)

So, while this wasn't personally my favorite read - I would have to say it is because I'm not crazy for fae stories, not because Harvey is not a great writer. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good fantasy tale with a dash of humor!