TEST
Growing up, I was never the kind of girl who daydreamed about rainbows and unicorns. Frankly, I never understood the fascination with unicorns. So when I chose to review a book about a cursed unicorn trapped in a man’s body – the king of unicorns, no less – I was prepared to read a story weighed down with innuendo concerning unicorn horns and the irresistible allure of beautiful virgins. This book was much more “normal” than I expected, perhaps disappointingly so. It focuses on Arion’s trials adapting to human life to the point where his true self is pushed to the back burner until the very end, where there is an overwhelming insertion of fantasy and the magic world.
Mariah Marron is a young American girl forced into a strategic marriage. Her father, never quite happy with being labeled nouveau riche, is ecstatic to marry her off to the Earl of Donnington. Strangely enough, the Earl disappears on his wedding night and leaves Mariah on his huge estate with only his sour, disapproving mother as company. Lonely and deeply unhappy, she wanders the house one day only to find a man caged like an animal. Finding that he is unable to communicate and is in obvious need of help, she nicknames him “Ash” and forges a desperate friendship, bringing him food and speaking to him as if were a close friend. However, Ash isn’t all that he seems; he is actually Arion, the king of the unicorns, trapped in the body of a human by an evil fairy. In order to return to his world he must make the virgin Mariah fall in love with him. Through his conversations with her, Arion quickly gains easy charm and becomes determined to win her heart. This is easy enough until he realizes that the game he’s been playing is not as simple as he thinks – he’s fallen in love with her too.
The development of the story is acceptable, if not entirely engrossing, and it wasn’t a hardship to read about Arion’s astonishingly fast assumption into the role of a proper English gentleman. I must admit I’m not a huge fan of the “civilizing a wild man” plot, but the author does a good job making sure Arion is not a chest-pounding, grunting savage with purposefully bad grammar. But besides that, the main characters were a drag.
Mariah was completely disappointing to me. She was so bland, so loosely drawn that it almost felt like the author did it purposely, so we could insert ourselves into the story and experience it for ourselves. Having finished the entire book, I can honestly say I don’t know anything more about her now than when I first began reading. She was nice enough to strangers, generous with her help, and generally amiable in all situations. Based on what we get of her character, it really baffled me as to why so many men are passionate about her.
Arion had the same problem; there was nothing to make him stand out from the crowd. He’s got an undeniable way with women, is a little witty, generally honest, an all-around nice guy. I was amused by the descriptions of him snorting and kicking dirt like a horse – and I’m glad the author didn’t make him “toss his mane” every few pages to remind the readers that he was really a unicorn.
I’ve only read a few of Susan Krinard’s books, but they all hold the same issues for me. The mystery of the situation and the relationship between the main characters is interesting and kept me turning the pages, and I actually found Ash’s battle with his unicorn/virgin attraction very readable. However, the majority of the book is relatively plotless. The buildup of the story is a whole lot better than the climax, and when the author is forced to tackle the main plot, everything becomes murky and tangled into a big mess. In this book, the reason as to why Arion is forced to become human is sketchy at best, and the whole villain-trying-to-take-over-the-fairy-world thing feels very contrived. At this point, I was really forcing myself to turn the pages. When we finally meet the evil villains and understand their dastardly intentions, I knew I should feel completely robbed at having had to plod through uninspired characters and evil people to get to this lame climax. Oddly enough, I didn’t care. I didn’t even have the energy to say “So THAT’S why he was turned into a human?” I merely blinked and continued reading.
As we all know, a story isn’t a real unicorn story without unicorns in abundance. Well, in the last 50 pages of the book, we’re introduced to a herd of wimpy unicorns that don’t seem half as smart as their king, as well as a talking fox and assorted animals that help Mariah save Arion from death. The transformation from the blander environment of England to Snow White’s Forest of Helpful Animals was completely dizzying, and I felt like the author basically threw in the towel and gave up. With the help of many unicorn horns and fairies, Mariah does save the day, but instead of being strong and admirable she still manages to be utterly without personality. I have no idea why.
Ultimately, I can only describe Lord of Legends as, well, kinda bad. The girl is a contender for the blandest heroine of all time, the guy starts off interesting but becomes mostly blah, and the villains leave no impact on the story. On a side note, I was not happy to find that the man peering at us on the cover is the exact opposite of what Arion is supposed to look like. Uninformed cover art is one of my big peeves.
Grade: C-
Book Type: Paranormal Historical
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 14/04/09
Publication Date: 2009
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.