Kiss of the Goblin Prince: Shadowlands series [Mass Market Paperback]

Shona Husk (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 2012 | Series: Shadowlands

"Steamy, sensual, and dangerous...Dark and delicious."—Fresh Fiction on The Goblin King

The Man of Her Dreams

He is like a prince in a fairy tale: tall, outrageously handsome, and way too dark for her own good. Amanda has been hurt before, though. And with her daughter's illness, the last thing she needs right now is a man. But the power of Dai King is hard to resist. And when he threads his hands through her hair and pulls her in for a kiss, there is no denying it feels achingly right.

In a Land of Nightmares

After being trapped in the Shadowlands for centuries with the goblin horde a constant threat, Dai revels in his newfound freedom back in the human realm. But even with the centuries of magic he's accumulated, he still doesn't know how to heal Amanda's daughter—and it breaks his heart. Yet for the woman he loves, he'd risk anything...including a retun to the Shadowlands.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Husk has woven a tale of magic and myth, love and sacrifice. Her goblin and magic lore is fascinating and it creates an intricate and richly detailed plot." - The Romance Studio

"Husk's rich, well-developed world building makes this dark tale of loyalty, love, and redemption equally appealing to both romance and fantasy readers." - Booklist

"A breath of fresh air in the Paranormal Romance genre. " - Pure Textuality

"Shona Husk really blew me away... How she packed so much action, passion and fantasy into one novel, I will never know." - Romance Junkies

"Shona did a masterful job of storytelling with Dai and his quest." - Inside BJ's Head

"KISS OF THE GOBLIN PRINCE defies expectation... A wonderful paranormal romance." - All Things Urban Fantasy

"Husk keeps the reader interested with her unique and colorful characters." - Readaholics Anonymous

"Who knew a former Goblin could be a hottie?" - Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

"A fascinating world... A slightly different take on the world of magic and alternate universes... " - That's What I'm Talking About

"A warm romance with magical overtones." - Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf

"An enjoyable tale with a tender love story. " - My Book Addiction and More

"Wow, wow, wow. Just when I thought I couldn't fit one more tortured hero onto my boyfriend list, Shona Husk gives us Dai." - Cocktails and Books

"An enjoyable tale with a tender love story." - My Book Addiction and More

"Husk's character development shines in this book and will have readers falling in love with Goblins!" - Debbie's Book Bag

"A well-written and intriguing romance. " - My House of Books

"A very interesting and dark story, and it is truly compelling to watch these two well written characters work through their fears and try to connect with each other." - EBook Obsessed

"An engaging tale... " - Midwest Book Review

" A whole new brand of paranormal romance... Detailed and intriguing... Spellbinding." - Book Savvy Babe

"Husk is a fabulous storyteller and has written a paranormal romance that doesn't use the same old clichés. " - Love Romance Passion

"Husk offers up a truly refreshing mythology though in her Shadowlands series... Fascinating. " - BookLoons.com

"Putting these two tormented people together made for one amazing story." - Reading Reality

"Shona Husk has another winner on her hands... a must read for all lovers of dark things everywhere! " - Fresh Fiction

About the Author

A civil designer by day and an author by night, Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Drawing on history, myth, and imagination, she writes about heroes who are armed and dangerous but have a heart of gold–sometimes literally.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (May 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140226206X
• ISBN-13: 978-1402262067
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A civil designer by day and an author by night, Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered romance novels and hasn't looked back. Drawing on history and myth, she writes about heroes who are armed and dangerous but have a heart of gold--sometimes literally.

With stories ranging from sensual to scorching, she is published with Ellora's Cave, Samhain Publishing, Carina Press and Sourcebooks. You can find out more at www.shonahusk.com
www.twitter.com/ShonaHusk
www.facebook.com/shonahusk
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/lySiD

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars - A Kiss to save a Goblin Prince May 6, 2012

By melindeeloo TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Mass Market Paperback

From the first moment they see each other Dai and Amanda experience an attraction to each other, but each will have to decide to let go of the pasts that hold them back if they going to discover whether the golden threads of attraction that are forming between them hold any promise of a future together.

Coming into the story - considering that Dai and his brother Roan are no longer hideous goblins trapped in the gray shadowlands and the curse that nearly stole their last shreds of humanity is now broken - I was really wondering where Kiss of the Goblin Prince was going to go story wise.

Resuming his life as a human after thousands of years, Dai has some serious issues which are making it hard to just learn how to live again, and only some of them are due to having lived (and planned on dying) as a goblin for so long. So in some ways it is natural that Dai gets the vast majority of the screen time in Kiss of the Goblin Prince. I am totally hero-centric and love magic so the story and the romance still worked for me even though there actually weren't a lot scenes with both Amanda and Dai together and there was with minimal smexy stuff. To me it made sense that Dai and Amanda's pursuit of the attraction between them was a cautious one and I liked that Amanda was willing to take a chance on someone as damaged as Dai. And I liked that Amanda actually had the skills to help Dai - I especially liked the part of the story where Amanda gets Dai to finally speak about his past by letting him tell it to her in one of the dead languages he knows - giving him someone to tell to his story to in a very safe way....

So, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Dai's story - I actually ended up liking Kiss of the Goblin Prince even more than King of the Goblins - and, after having had a look at the teaser, am looking forward to the next book as Husk's Shadowland series continues with For the Love of a Goblin Warrior. Read more ›

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed May 21, 2012

By P. White

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The first two books in the series were excellent reads. I couldn't wait to read about Dai. The story dragged on and was quite boring. There was not enough detail about the dynamics of the growing relationship between Dai and Amanda. The end left too many unanswered questions such as the significance of the spider moving on the tattoo on Dai's chest or what was the outcome of the painful talons around Dai's heart. I was disappointed with the plot and interrelationships among the characters in the installment of the Shadowlands Saga.
Kiss of the Goblin Prince: Shadowlands series

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Soulful and Sensuous Paranormal Romance July 14, 2012

By Mina

Format:Mass Market Paperback

From now on Shona Husk will always hold a pole position in my gargantuan TBR list: I fell in love with the fertile imagination, fluid prose, and introspective sensitivity of this Australian paranormal, fantasy novels author. My only regret, if any, is that I should have read this captivating Shadowlands series starting from the novella "The Summons: A Goblin King Prequel" and the first full length installment "The Goblin King", in order to fully appreciate the fairy-tale world structure that holds together The Shadowlands (a desolate land populated by the heartless Goblins), The Fixed Realm (our world), and The Birch Foundation (a mysterious organization that facilitates the transition between these two worlds). Reading the series in order would have certainly helped me from the start to understand the main characters's backstories, the role played by the secondary characters, and the connections existing between them, adding to the enjoyment of a book that can be read as a stand-alone without loosing any of its alluring qualities.
Amanda Coulter is a young widow who has given up on happiness after the sudden death of her husband. She works as a youth counselor at the local high-school and her daughter, Brigit, is affected by severe asthma. At the wedding of her sister-in-law, Eliza, Amanda meets the enigmatic and fascinating Dai King. Sparks of attraction fly immediately between them. Dai is Eliza's husband's brother, apparently a normal young man, Welsh scholar, ancient civilization and dead languages expert, and world traveler.... In reality, Dai is a Celtic Prince, as old as our civilization, a man who has been spending the past 2,000 years fighting against Romans, Druids, and Goblins, before breaking a curse and being reintegrated in the XXI century Fixed Realm (our world) as a free human, just like his brother Roan.
Dai is physically and emotionally scarred: in order to protect his younger sister Mave from the perverse attentions of the Roman General Claudius, he had to endure Claudius' vicious tortures and abuses. Dai was eventually cursed by the Goblin King and held captive for centuries in the Shadowlands, only to endure more unspeakable acts of violence from the Goblins and to be turned into a Goblin himself. He used to be a mage, a man endowed with magical healing powers, but now that his curse is broken and he is back in The Fixed Realm, he is straggling with his new identity provided by The Birch Foundation and a deep sense of dislocation. In the transition between worlds he had to leave behind most of his treasures, but what bothers him the most is that he cannot get a hold of that wealth of knowledge he has accumulated over the centuries: all his books about magic are being retained by The Birch Foundation and without them he feels like he cannot recall his magical powers.
The Shadowlands series fictional worlds are built on the assumption that our universe is ruled by magic and held together by invisible strings: Dai and his brother Roan are able to control them in order to manipulate the fabric that makes the world. I like the way Shona Husk opens her slow-paced narration describing the chemistry and the bond existing from the start between Dai and Amanda. They are both initially unaware of the magical golden threads connecting their souls; although drawn to each other, they're both very tentative at the beginning of the story and they will keep being hesitant for a good part of it. The emotional baggage made of sorrow, secrets, family tragedies, and responsabilities they both carry is too heavy for them to be rid of it and yield to emotions and desire, let alone love, no matter how bad they both need it. Dai has been "out of touch with the world for too long...to obsessed with the dead and obsolete." Amanda can perfectly relate to his emotions, because she has been holding on her deceased husband's memory for years, without being able to move on and look forward to another love relationship.
They are both very likable characters: the tortured and troubled soul Dai, the calm and caring counselor Amanda. It seems to be like a very good characters combination, perfect material for a sweeping and soulful romance. Dai's numerous scars make him insecure: he's afraid Amanda will loath him and reject him because of them. The darks secrets of his real identity and his past hold him from revealing his feelings for her, although the attraction is slowly consuming him. The biggest obstacle standing in the way is in his chest in the form of talons clutched around his heart, a magical grip placed there by the evil Goblin King as a reminder of the evil Dai has been a victim of and a perpetrator. Forgiveness is the only remedy that could set him free, but he is still prisoner of his resentment: the hideous tortures he has suffered for centuries fuel his hate and give strength to the King Goblin's grip. Dai's decision to remain celibate and avoid any kind of physical touch with other creatures poses an interesting challenge to his attraction for Amanda, but it also helps to build up an intoxicating and heart-melting sexual tension between them. They seek physical contact every time they meet, they haunt each other's dreams, they leave each other breathless with stolen kisses and caresses, they hold hands interlacing their fingers in a promise of scorching sensuality, without abandoning themselves to a complete enjoyment. Every time they seem to be ready to get closer and open their hearts, their past stands in the way and breaks the momentum, prolonging that sweet torture up to the last chapters of the novel, when the barriers will be finally broken down and they will find an extremely gratifying release. As a whole, action and major developments are pushed at the end and my feeling is that the author aims to set up the scene for the sequel rather than advance this installment's plot. The Kiss of The Goblin Prince mainly focuses on Dai's and Amanda's quest towards emotional freedom and self-forgiveness and I really appreciate this introspective tone and character development versus an action-driven storyline.
I personally loved the way Shona Husk uses the idea of the invisible threads to describe the different kinds of connection existing between characters and their world: gold strings binding Dai and Amanda, gray and thin strings connecting Dai and The Shadowlands, colorful and numerous strings connecting Amanda and her ill daughter Brigit, loose and pale strings connecting Dai to his brother Roan, fine as spider silk the strings connecting Dai to Brigit. Shona Husk did a great job building Dai's and Amanda's characters, painting them with the brushes of her rich and sensuous prose and the great emotional impact of her narrative style. I simply loved Husk's description of Dai as a man in pieces like an image reflected in a broken mirror, a dislocated man who needs to borrow furniture in the same way he needs to borrow a life in order to start all over again and live in a different world, a man who has been studying hundreds of dead languages for century, but who will remain speechless in front of the woman he loves. I loved the fact he is a book hoarder, spending a good part of the story in the search of his magic books, when the real magic is in his own body (written all over with tattoes and undecipherable spells just like a book) and in his love for Amanda. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars fresh PNR, fabulous writing June 7, 2012

By S. Stogner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

4.5 stars
Kiss of the Goblin Prince is the second book in Husk's Shadowland series. I reviewed the first book The Goblin King and loved it because the author veered away from the same old PNR formula and gave me something different. I was hoping she would continue this in Kiss of the Goblin Prince. I won't keep you in suspense though...Husk does it again with Kiss of the Goblin Prince.

In book one we met Roan, the Goblin King, and Eliza, the woman who rescues Roan and his brother Dai from the Goblin curse that imprisoned them in the Shadowlands for 2000 years. This book is about Dai and his struggle to find his place in the fixed realm now that he is truly free to make his own choices for the first time. Dai is scared figuratively and literally. His body is covered in scars from the 4 years he was a slave to the Roman General Claudius. He went from that to being cursed with his fellow soldiers who tried to rescue him. He spent the next 2000 years trying to find a way to break the curse while fighting to keep his humanity and not turn completely goblin. He learned just about everything there is to know, but magic wouldn't work in the Shadowlands so he didn't know how to apply all his knowledge. He has lived with so much guilt and vengeance and rage that it actually manifested itself as a claw that grips his heart.

Once in the fixed realm again, he realizes he can use his magic, but it is no longer used or believed making him possibly the last magic user. I loved how Husk explained Dai's use of magic and the romantic way she used it in the connection between Dai and Amanda. Amanda found the man of her dreams 7 years ago. He died 4 months later and she was left to raise their unborn child. Amanda still wears her wedding band, not willing to let go of what she lost.... Her daughter Brigit has chronic asthma that eventually will kill her. Amanda hasn't felt a longing for another man since her husband and feels guilty when she finds herself attracted to Dai. Their love story is all about forgiving yourself for the past, letting go and moving on. These two don't go...
read the rest of the review: [...] Read more ›