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9781402292569_p0_v1_s300x Publishing Date: 12/2/14

This ebook was provided to me by Sourcebooks and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In The Girl Who Never Was 9781402292538_p0_v1_s300x Bostonian Selkie Stewart discovered she was no ordinary teenager. No, she’s part ogre on her father’s side, and part faerie on her mother’s. And her mother is Seelie royalty who wants to kill her to prevent a certain prophecy from taking place. Luckily she has her two elderly aunts, a wizard named Will and her quasi- boyfriend Ben (who is also fae) to protect her. At the beginning of this second book Selkie has rescued Ben from Seelie prison only to have him “betray” her when he leaves to search for his mother who he just discovered is alive. Now Selkie and her merry little band have to find the hidden fae also in the prophecy before Boston and the rest of Thisworld falls to the Seelies. I’m still not really sure how I feel about these two books. They’re sort of this surreal mix of Alice In Wonderland with faeries and wizards, and goblins thrown in. I think part of the problem is I’ve never been a huge fan of Alice. I always thought if I had to spend so much time flipping pages back and forth trying to understand what the heck was going on, then that wasn’t the book for me. I basically felt the same about these stories. Selkie also drove me a bit crazy. I found myself going wanting to shake her one minute for her being so obstinate, to wanting to hug her the next for her caring nature and steadfast loyalty. There were also a couple of things that didn’t ring quite true even for fantasy. For instance; if you just found out that your father’s family are ogres, and your mom’s are faeries, and you’re at the center of a world(s) changing prophecy, would you just blithely accept this as an everyday occurrence? I think not. I don’t know if there will be a third book, but if there is I’m kind of on the fence regarding whether I’ll read it or not. So, you’re wondering perhaps why I gave this 4.0 stars. Well, like I said, I’m not sure if these two books didn’t appeal to me because I don’t really care for this style of fantasy. Plus, the themes of family, love, loyalty, and sacrifice were written in abundance. And finally, I loved Ben, aka Benedict le Fay. He was an appealing mix of strength and vulnerability and literally will do anything to protect Selkie.  I would be really interested in seeing if anyone else has read either of these books and what they thought.

***Update***

This is just a two book story arc.