Lord of the Fading Lands by C. L. Wilson

 Lord of the Fading Lands by C. L. Wilson is the first novel in the beloved Tairen Soul quintet. First published in 2007, this book is an oddity and a mishmash of tropes from different time periods. The cover is cheesy as hell and the writing makes it sort of seem like a progressive book from the 1980s in that consent in pretty crucial in the relationship, but there's still a lot of "man must protect women" vibes that runs rampant, but at the same time our main male character is a Fey who changes into a flying cat, so that whole paranormal romance of the aughts is in evidence.  

Interesting characters: So our main character, Ellysetta, is just a regular woodcarver's daughter. The woodcarver and his wife found her as a baby in the woods and raised her, despite Ellysetta's strange orange hair and tendency to fall into seizures whenever she was upset.  Our "hero" (I'm going to use that loosely here) is Rain, the Fey king and last Tairen Soul.  He changes into a flying cat.  He's absurdly protective of Elly.  He's too good-looking, magical to kiss, and every woman's dream.  Aren't you all swoony just reading that?  Turns out that Ellysetta is Rain's soulmate and he is compelled (compelled, I say!) to leave his compound where he's lived for hundreds of years and search her out and make her his.  

Okay, it's clear that Elly isn't "just" a woodcarver's daughter. She has some obvious powers and she's generally kind and thoughtful.  She's also just a bit too fantastical to me - she's a bit too perfect and that makes her boring to me. She also doesn't ask enough questions for me.  Some fey king comes up and says "hey, I'm 1200 years old and I had a true love before, but she died and now you're my mythical soulmate, wanna come be my queen?" and my response would be "the fuck? I'm 24. Go get thee a lady your own age and stop trying to convince me to leave my family and everything I know" and I'd scoot on out of there.

And Rain. Ugh. He's mostly just a boring overbearing guy who's constantly telling Elly to calm down and to stop touching him because it turns him on too much.  

Believable conflict: What is the conflict exactly? So there's a war brewing between the Fey and the Mages and that's like a real thing, but conflict between our main characters is non-existent.  Elly seems to just accept that she's this "truemate" as decided by some all knowing power and other than the whole taking the sexual side of things slowly because Elly is young and naive, everything else moves at lightning speed.  They meet and are engaged in less than 24 hours.  She's enamored with him (he's so good looking and charismatic!) and he's been soul tied to her since before he met her. There's no relationship conflict, believable or not. 

Emotional tension: Again, because there's no conflict, there's no tension. There's hardly any sexual tension, either, since it's clear they both desire one another.  It's just...bleh.

Happily ever after: This is so obviously the first book in a series. These two are just chastely lying next to each other in Elly's bed at her parent's house at the end of the book. I didn't really get any closure here and while I'm happy to know that they're fine for this one night, it's more like Happily Right Now than Happily Ever After.  If I were to read more of this series, maybe this would make sense as a stopping point, but as a first-time (probably only time) reader, this book didn't soothe my romance reader soul.  

The world is fascinating in a way. I'm interested in the tensions between the Fey, the Celerians (the humans with no magic who Elly grew up with), and the evil Mages.  I'm interested in how the magic works. I'm half in love with the old grumpy dude who's acting as one of Elly's bodyguards.  I'm interested in how a seemingly immortal (or at least really long-lasting) fey is supposed to be getting with this human woman. I'm interested in a lot, just not the actual romance. Bummer.