A Kingdom of Souls and Shadows Fae Destiny Book 1
Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Folklore
Ciot Owl Press
March 19, 2024
Kindle
375
Amazon
All her life, Eala Duir, a young college professor, has skirted the edges of a fantasy world.
Visions of folk stories coming alive in hearth flames and vivid daydreams where carousel horses ride off to battle, drove Eala to pursue an academic life specializing in tales of the Fae.
When a cryptic message in her grandmother’s will sends her to Ireland, Eala clashes with Sionnach Loho, an attractive, enigmatic local expert on folklore. After witnessing Eala’s encounter with a ghost girl at an allegedly haunted castle, Sionnach reveals his own ties to the Fae realm. He insists Eala’s ability to connect with the supernatural proves she’s been sent to partner with him and fulfill a centuries-old otherworldly quest ordained by the mighty Finnbheara, King of the Connacht Fae.
As folktales and faeries collide with Eala’s reality, she must decide whether to embrace the fantastic or flee back to the safe and predictable life she thought she always wanted.
Review by Linda Tonis
Member of The Paranormal Romance Guild
Ella O’Dwyer was adopted by her grandmother (Mathair) and had no knowledge of who her biological parents were. She sent her DNA four times and each time it was returned insufficient sample or tampered with so getting the information she craves does not seem to be a possibility.
When her grandmother died and was buried without her being present her life changed, the woman who raised her on fairytales and Irish folklore was gone. Three months after Mathair’s death a lawyer called on Ella with papers and her grandmother’s ring. She now has money in the bank, a ring that says, “find me” and a passport with the name Eala Druid, her real name and a name she never heard before. Her grandmother also asked her to go to Ireland which she assumed meant the place she would find her.
Eala now uses only her real name and since her grandmother’s wish for her to go to Ireland she accepts her best friend Colleen’s request to join a study team from Kennard Parks University where she is hoping to get a professorship. Now Ireland is fulfilling her best friend’s request and her grandmother’s.
While exploring a cave she runs into a man with a limp, Sion who was hired to be their guide. The meeting did not go over well and Eala did not like him, but she knew she had to put up with him. He was hired by her colleague Dr. Jeremy Olk, a man she could see herself with as a boyfriend. He was everything she thought she would want in a man while Sion was everything she would never want, or so she thought.
Eala would learn who and what Sion was when she ran after a fox who stole her pack. The fox turned out to be Sion and he revealed to her why Finnbheara the High King of Connacht Fae brought them together. They are to be partners in saving the souls from the soulfall. For two hundred years Sion failed, and this is his last chance. Eala has the sight, and she manages to do what SionnachLoho was unable to.
Now time is running out and all the souls must be saved before Sion suffers for his failure. Sion is a veil guide, and it turns out so is Eala and her fear is what will happen to her after all the souls are saved.
The romance that blooms between Eala and Sion is beautiful, but he is keeping secrets from her, secrets that could change everything she ever thought. There is also evil following them, trying to stop the souls from being saved. Eala has always been a woman who ran from danger and never willingly faced it and now she faces a lot of danger and as much as she tries to run Sion is there to stop her.
This book was full of surprises, lots of surprises, and secrets, lots of secrets that left me speechless. Everything Eala learns makes her question her life and who she really is. The book ends with a question which I can’t wait to be answered in the next book in the series which I hope will not be too long.
This is a book I highly recommend.