I read her Goblin series and when I saw that she was to publish a series with fairies I was intrigued. I liked what I heard about Annwyn, it was the not so kind Fae types.

Caspian is a changeling and has never been to his father's court. He is human, but still got those fae qualities too. I must confess that I sooo wanted his father's story while I read it, to see him fall in love. Le sigh, wonderful :) But that is a future book. Now we got Caspian and he falls for Lydia. A nice and sweet woman. They suited each other. Both with pasts and secrets.

But that was not all it was about. We need some drama and danger too and in comes the hunt for a mirror. And the court of Annwyn is in trouble and the ripples are causing bad things to happen in our world. I can't spill it all, but Annwyn was different, and I liked what she did there.

Romance and a man caught between two worlds. A good start to this series ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Great set up to a fairy/human world but with a rushed relationship and frustrating actions by the main character bog this book down.

Opening Sentence: Caspian trailed his finger along the wooden mirror frame.

The Review:

The Outcast Prince is the first book in a new series by Shona Husk. This series focuses on the fae and how their world deeply impacts our own. The world of Annwyn is pretty much Heaven and Hell. The souls of the human dead cross the river but after that it’s unclear what happens to these souls. If a live human sees or manages to get to Annwyn then they think they have made it to Heaven. I am still a little unsure as to how Annwyn is Heaven and Hell but what I do know is that the impact of this world bleeds into the human realm and is beginning to cause terrible sicknesses in humans.

Caspian Mort is the changeling son of the Prince of Annwyn. He was left in the human realm so he couldn’t be used as a pawn against his father and so he could have a mortal life. He has known about his heritage since a young age and as such he has been trying to hide himself from other fairies. As part fairy, Caspian is psychmetric, which means that he can touch an object and see its history. An outcast fairy has figured out what Caspian can do and has forced him into looking for a mirror for him. A mirror that an outcast fairy can use to cross back into Annwyn. Caspian’s new job at a mansion could just be the current hiding place of this mirror.

Lydia Callaway’s grandmother just died and left her with a huge estate. She needs the items to be priced out in order to decide whether or not she can keep the place so she enlists Caspian’s help. She doesn’t expect the hot but quiet guy who shows up at her door.

Lydia and Caspian’s relationship develops quickly and by quickly I mean just two days. Caspian does repeatedly say that if he ever loves again that he would tell her his secret but in this case he pretty much had to reveal it or be a crazy love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy. There are so many crazy rules that Caspian has to live by in order to not piss off the fairy community and be sent to the “Castle” in Annwyn in order to face judgement from the King and Queen. As a reader, I was thinking he was left behind so he shouldn’t have to abide by their rules but no. When he returns from Annwyn he isn’t the same guy and this is where I have a problem. He knows there is something wrong with him but he doesn’t vocalize it. He just assumes that Lydia doesn’t trust him and that he will have to deceive her. That drove me crazy. I felt that the conflict was just added there to add conflict to the story near the end. I feel like something else would have been better here instead of untrustworthiness.

As characters go, I really did like Caspian until near the end. He was so heartbroken over his previous breakup and how he was going to do everything different this time. I was really rooting for him to find love even if his relationship developed way to fast for his frame of mind. Lydia is an independent woman but she is thrown a lot of curveballs throughout this book and I do like how she manages to come out of it without breaking down all the time.

The Outcast Prince does suffer a bit from worldbuilding, although you aren’t thrown the whole world at once. You are given pieces of it at a time but some parts are repeated. The world of the fairy is pretty complex and it is not totally the world of the fairy that we are used to. It has some of the same rules as other fairy worlds but the whole Heaven and Hell angle did get lost in translation for me. I did find the whole angle on outcast fairies and how they are the basis for trolls, brownies and other creatures.

Overall, The Outcast Prince is not a bad start to a new series. The story kept my attention. I was never bored, I just got frustrated with the direction the story went towards the end. I didn’t really like Caspian’s actions. I’m sure other readers won’t have the same problems that I did. I will pick up the next book in the series because I did like the love interest teased and I am interested in learning more about this world. It was more of a 2.5 star read for me but I’ll round it up to a 3.

Notable Scene:

He only had one thing he could do and Dylis would make him pay for it later. “Dylis, show yourself please.”

“No. This is your problem.”

“It’s yours as well. I’m not moving. I’m not doing anything until you show yourself.” And to Lydia it looked as if he was talking to himself. This was getting better and better.

“Okay, I think you should go. I’ll give you a head start before I call the police about the mirrors.” Lydia edged around the kitchen as far from him as she could get.

He didn’t move. “Dylis. I swear if you do not do this for me I will do everything in my power to ensure you suffer for the rest of your very long life.” His words vibrated with power he’d never felt before. He’d tapped into a magic that he hadn’t known he possessed. He knew a fairy’s word had power, but the desperation he was feeling must have given his words enough weight for his fairy blood to shine. Great. He’d spent years suppressing it, only to have it surface now.

“Damn you.” She shimmered for a moment but nothing else changed to his eye.

Lydia gasped. Her hand covered her mouth as she pressed herself against a wall. Her gaze was on the ten-inch woman standing on her kitchen counter.

Dylis gave a bow that bordered on surly. “I’m Caspian’s guardian, fairy godmother, or angel on his shoulder—whatever you like to think of me as.”

Lydia closed her eyes, and after a couple of seconds she opened them. “You’re still there.”

“I’ve been here all night, keeping the imps away from you two,” Dylis snapped. “This was not a good idea.” She pointed her finger at Caspian.

FTC Advisory: Sourcebooks Casablanca provided me with a copy of The Outcast Prince. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )