The Phantom of Faerie Mountain Review

This is a very enjoyable book. The characters are engaging and relatable, with the bulk of the fast-moving story taking place in a perfect Scottish setting. Abby is the heroine who gets sucked in to the action very early, literally landing on the hero, Rory.

It was refreshing to not have Abby's primary concern be sucking face with the hero. Her mind is on her mission, and Rory and Abby treat each other as people rather than objects of lust. The handling of Rory's Scottish accent was particularly well done--there's enough to absorb us, but it is never difficult to read. A mysterious hound, Finlay, dips in and out of the story to gently lead Abby on her way; I was reminded of Aslan from the Narnia series, without the baggage of having to symbolize a deity. The story has a satisfactory conclusion while leaving the door open for the rest of the planned trilogy, which is not always an easy feat to accomplish. Overall, I enjoyed it, and think most readers would as well (it is appropriate for all ages).

Rainbow Blog #7

Short and sweet today.

15

Big chapter, but let’s not dwell on that—let’s focus on this great line instead: “Months are different in college, especially freshman year. Too much happens. Every freshman month equals six regular months—they’re like dog months.”

 

Nailed it. So true. I can remember taking finals and looking back at the start of the semester like we had ridden to school on a horse and buggy. Then you’d go through it all again the next semester.

Lots of romance stuff in this one, and roommate's boyfriend is now roommate's ex-boyfriend. Well, he has been for awhile, but they neglected to tell..well, anyone really.

Rainbow Blog #6

All right, in the interest of preventing myself from rambling, and droning on and on, and beating a dead horse, and dragging things out, and to keep the posts clear and concise, and not bogged down with too much commentary, and to prevent them from being repetitive, and redundant, and filled with pointless information I have decided that we will limit each chapter to no more than 4 salient points going forward, to strive for brevity, so as not to take up too much of anyone’s time, including my own, in order to keep these brief and to the point, so as not to beat around the bush, and to prevent them from being repetitive, or lollygag, but to come to a direct point, to bring things to a head, swiftly and immediately, and to prevent them from being repetitive, without undue waste or mindless chatter. Thank you.

Chapter 13

1. Cath doesn’t want to go to a party that roommate’s boyfriend is having because there will be drunk people galore. “I don’t like to talk to drunk people.” I can relate to this as a fellow non-drinker. Sorry drinkers. But Cath, holing up in your room is not the answer, either.

2. THIS IS NOW MY FAVORITE CHAPTER. With all apologies, here’s the truth. Until I find a typo within your book, I’m sorry, I just can’t get all the way into the book. I start worrying that I’m reading the creation of some kind of robot or something, potentially sent from the future, because with each book I’ve had a part in, whether it be writing or editing, despite scouring them for typos or formatting errors they always find their way in. Frankly, it pisses me off. So I need to see a typo somewhere when I read, no matter how minor. I need to see the author “bleed” a little bit. I need to know they are human.

So, after 147 pages, I have seen Rainbow Rowell and her team of nearly flawless editors bleed. What is the typo? Oh, it’s no big deal: “and his face with filled with disgust and decision.” No big deal, yet it made me deliriously happy. Or maybe only a little bit happy, but deliriously happy sounds more interesting. #writerstryingtowrite

3. Nick is a perfect fit for Cath even though I don’t want him to be, yet in this chapter we’ve got roommate’s boyfriend making her read her stories to him and so he’s proving to be a good fit for Cath as well, just as I thought he might. And this is why I don’t do love triangles in my books. Because seriously, which one of these fine gentleman should she end up with? The guy who writes with her and seems to be a nice guy, or the one who is read to by her and seems to be a nice guy? I can’t decide. How could I decide as a writer? I couldn't. I'd stare at the computer for hours and hours. So I don't do love triangles for that reason. Well, that and I would be absolutely awful at writing them. 

4. Roommate shows up and there is some definite tension abounding. In abundance. Abounding tension abounds in abundance in chapter 13. Roommate knows there is some unspeakable chemistry floating in the air between her boyfriend roommate's boyfriend and Cath.