Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey

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. (from GoodReads)

Review:
I was originally drawn to Stolen Away because I really liked Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey (I haven't read the rest of the series yet, but I'm getting there). Unfortunately, Stolen Away was not that good, and definitely not as good as this author's previous novel.

There were several things I didn't like about Stolen Away. One, the book changes point-of-view between Eloise and her best friend Jo. There's nothing wrong with switching narration but I could never tell who was speaking because both characters sound identical. So that was pretty annoying.

The biggest problem I had with Stolen Away is that it lacked development. It lacked plot, character and romantic development, which really took away from the overall story. The novel is fairly short and because of that everything felt rushed. The Faery court and politics could have been explained a lot better and that added information would have made the story so much more interesting. I never really felt a connection to any of the characters, including the trio of friends Jo, Eloise and Devin, and their romantic interests, Lucas and Eldric. Speaking of romance, for both couples there was some kissing and than instant love. I hate instant love so much.

I did like a few things: the writing was pretty good and some aspects of the characters I really enjoyed. I liked how Jo was obsessed with King Henry VIII (like myself) and there is a reference to Ian Somerhalder which added some points in my book. Unfortunately these things are pretty superficial.

If you want to read fantasy, I would stick to Alyxandra Harvey's vampire series, which I think is much better, and skip Stolen Away.

Rating: 5 out of 10.
FTC: received from Flamingnet Book Reviews

2012/Walker Childrens/288 pages.