Fantastic Fairytales - Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs

 

Publihsed: November 13th, 2012

Publisher: Entangled Press

Pages: 290

Copy: From Publisher

Summary: Goodreads

While trying to save her brother from a witch’s fire four years ago, Greta was thrown in herself, falling through a portal to Mylena, a dangerous world where humans are the enemy and every ogre, ghoul, and goblin has a dark side that comes out with the eclipse.

To survive, Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young goblin king, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her will to escape.

But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. An ancient evil knows she’s the key to opening the portal, and with the next eclipse mere days away, every bloodthirsty creature in the realm is after her—including Isaac. If Greta fails, she and the lost boys of Mylena will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back...

So technically, Greta and the Goblin King is not a fairy tale, but it does have goblins and gnomes and various other fairytale'ish creatures - both nice and not so nice - so I decided it would work for the purposes of this post.

I was thrilled when the publisher offered me the chance to review this title as it had been on my radar for a little while, and it did not disappoint.  Ms Jacobs handled the world building here very deftly and as the story progresses the reasons behind the abductions become clearer and clearer.  There are some very nasty creatures in Mylena and I loved Ms Jacobs twist of having every creature completely flip when there is an eclipse. It added a very successful element to the story that became an integral part of the plot and helped ratchet up the suspense level.

I found Greta to be a fairly sympathetic character, who has had a tough time coming to grips with a new life in a strange world.  She handles situations rather well I thought. There was a hint of a triangle, but to be honest it is only a little one and there really isn't much doubt who Greta is going to fall for.  Issac is definitely not your typical love interest.  His nasty side is really, really nasty and very unusual I must say. If you think shapeshifters are strange, just wait 'til you read about goblins under the influence of the eclipse.   Wyatt was a nice character.  He is one of a group of humans that Greta stumbles upon and he seems like the kind of caring guy we would all love to meet.  His concern and care for the young kids under his protection is really something.  I liked him a lot.

There is a lovely mystery going on here with the identity of the wicked Agramon and trying to find out just why he has had so many human boys abducted, and when Greta finally has to confront him, the results are not quite what I was expecting.  The action was continuous throughout the story and there is a level of tension that kept the story intriguing and enjoyable. It looks like there are going to be more in the series and I will be keeping an eye out for them. For those of you who like an interesting fantasy, give Greta and the Goblin King a try.