Unlikely - Frances Pauli

   2013; 227 pages.  Book One (out of 4) in the Kingdoms Gone series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Fantasy; Romance; Sword & Sorcery.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

    Oh, what Satina wouldn’t risk for a night in a warm bed, in a warm room, in a warm house!  Alas, most of the time she gets to sleep outdoors on the cold ground because frankly, not a lot of folks like her kind.

    Satina is unpopular on three accounts – she’s a Goodmother, she’s a Granter, and she’s a Half-Blood.  The local gangs (the Shades and the Starlights) don’t want her around because she can do magic, which means she’s a threat to their bullying.   Those who can’t do magic (they’re called “Humans”, not “Muggles”), don’t trust anyone who practices such arts.  And full-blooded magical beings (they’re called “Gentry”) have a prejudice against any person (or creature) less “pure” than they are.

      That pretty much eliminates everyone from the list of those who Satina can trust and rely on.  Except for one.

    A fellow Half-Blood.

What’s To Like...

    The excitement starts almost immediately, and in a library, no less.  The would-be ambushers apparently know Satina’s weak point – she’s a book-lover.  We get a hint of a world whose better days have past – times when castles were built, spells were cast, and kingdoms maintained armies for protection.  Now the castles are in ruins, magic has been banished, and it’s every town for itself when it comes to survival.

    Unlikely is part-Fantasy and part-Romance.  The storytelling is straightforward; the target-audience appears to be YA girls with an interest in those two genres.  Fantasy lovers will like the wide range of critters that show up – fauns, imps, fiends, gargoyles, and goblins; just to name a few.  The Romance angle is developed equally – the first kiss comes a third of the way through and the first spat shows up around halfway through.

    There aren’t a lot of characters to keep track of; I listed just nine of them in my notes.  The setting has an “English countryside” feel to it; I liked the menhirs that were present.  The magic system includes portals and sigils, powders and pockets, and herbs such as thistledown.  There are lots of allusions to lot to bygone things like “Old Magic”, the titular “Kingdoms Gone”, and the “Final War”.  Weapons-wise, this is a Sword-&-Sorcery tale.

    It took me a while to figure out what the main plotline was.  Yes, the Romantic portion was obvious from the get-go, but I kept waiting for some sort of epic quest or conflict to develop.  It gradually dawned on me that Satina and company wouldn't quite be saving the whole world; just a town needing help to rid itself of a gang of bullies squatting in their midst.

    The ending is geared toward the target audience.  It is suitably twisty, romance blossoms, sequels beckon, and all parties get their just desserts.  I liked meeting Henry, and the brush with the magic mushrooms brought back old memories.  The story ends at a logical spot, with some of the plot threads hanging loose, serving as teasers for the next book in the series.  Unlikely is a standalone story, as well as part of a (ANAICT) completed series.

Kewlest New Word ...

Ensorcelled (past participle) : enchanted; fascinated.

Kindle Details...

    Unlikely is currently free at Amazon, and I think it’s that way most or all of the time.  The other three books in the series are priced at $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99 respectively.  Frances Pauli offers a couple dozen other e-books; they range in price from free to $4.99.

Excerpts...

    Hadja sat and banged her elbows onto the tabletop.  She stuck her chin into her palms and pursed her lips.  “Now we need a plan.”

    “What?”

    “Well, we can’t exactly storm up to this Vane fellow, just the two of us, and demand he gets out of town.”

    “But we can do something.”  Together.  She felt lighter with an ally.  The task seemed less impossible.  “You have an idea?”

    “Nope.”  (loc. 1334)

    Henry romped in their direction, wagging his long, forked tail merrily.  She could only imagine what Marten saw.  The look on his face gave her some clue, though he followed her directions and made no sudden movement.  Then again, he might have been paralyzed with fear.  Henry’s size, his armored flesh and long, curling talons had registered.  She could tell by the way his lips moved, by the way he said “g-g-g.”

    “Henry, sit!”

    “Gargoyle.”  (loc. 1597)

 A crumbling stone foundation criss-crossed the alley, a snake from the past reminding the upstart town that something else had thrived here before it – that nothing lasts forever.  (loc. 575)

    There are a couple of quibbles.

    There is zero backstory, and this made for lots of questions early on.  You can suss out that the “Granters” are those who grant wishes (although Satina never does end up granting one), and that the Gentry are full-blooded magic-wielders.  But what exactly is a Tinker, a Skinner, and even a Goodmother?

    Similarly, how does the magic system work?  What is the history behind this fascinating, but past-its-prime, setting?  On a personal level, why, and from what, is Satina fleeing as the story opens?  In lieu of a backstory, it would’ve been nice to at least have a glossary covering all this.

    The other issue is more technical.  There are chapters, 22 of them, but the Kindle version has no chapter tabs, so you can’t easily skip back to an earlier point unless you bookmarked it.  Because of this, there is no “time remaining in chapter” info at any given point, just the time remaining in the whole book.

    But these are minor annoyances and who knows: the three sequels may explain the backstory, and the technical issues may be corrected by Book 2, Horded, which resides on my Kindle.  Overall, Unlikely was a fast, fun, and easy read, even for someone like me, who shuns Romances whenever possible.

    6½ Stars.  Add 2 stars if you are a teenage girl who likes reading stories with both gargoyles and Prince Charmings in them.   You’ll love this this book.