Ever After popped up on NetGalley (an eBook Advance Reader’s site) and I thought it looked interesting. This is literally a post about what I’m reading, as I’m only about 35% into the book. And thankfully I didn’t realize it was Book #4 in a series! It totally doesn’t read like one, which is surprising for a paranormal romance. Generally, those seem to follow an overall series arc (at least the ones I’ve read), and so there’s just no way you can read those out of order. This book feels more like historical romance series in the sense that it’s part of the same world, some of the earlier characters may appear, but you don’t need to know their story to get the current one. Aaand, which is hard to do later in a series and is something the historicals don’t have to worry about, the paranormal/fantasy world is totally revealed like it would be in a first book. I was never lost at all. Nice.

What’s also different, at least for me as it’s the first time I’ve come across this in a romance, is that it’s a First Person Male Point of View (POV). I’ve read one where there was also a female POV as well, and it was done so poorly (their voices weren’t distinct enough, so chapter to chapter I had a hard time figuring out whose head I was in) I’m loathe to try others. But this one is just the male’s, and I have to say, it’s a nice change.

The series is set in a world like our own where characters from our fairy tales and folktales (called Tales) have mysteriously been pulled from Make Believe into the Here & Now (a term in the book). Ever After is the story of the Tales Little John and Robin Hood, but it’s not M/M, Robin’s a female, and I’m not giving anything away by disclosing that as it’s in the blurb. Which seems like a good breaking point to give that to you:

To Catch a Thief…

For centuries, Gideon Montrose has served the King of Fairies without question and, often, without mercy. So when the King orders him to apprehend a notorious thief, Gideon obeys. But when he finally gets his hands on the beautiful culprit, Gideon’s in for a shock.

Arabella Locksley is none other than the spirited, unpredictable woman he knew back in Make Believe as Robin Hood — the love of his life whose tragic death destroyed his chance at Happily Ever After.

Now, he has an impossible choice. Betray the woman he once loved, or the king he’s bound to serve?

I’m enjoying it so far, despite a physical impossibility happening in the prologue, which made me wary of the book as a whole in the beginning–if Character A is holding Character B’s wrist in a tight grip, Character B can’t ‘let go’, right? But then the story got under way and I didn’t slip out of the story again (well, except for the incorrectly located hymen, but that still seems to happen in books that it doesn’t bother me greatly). Hope the rest of it holds up.

Have you read any of the earlier books in the Transplanted Tales series?

I received this ARC copy of Ever After from Kensington Books – eKensington in exchange for an honest review. This book is set for publication August 21, 2014.

Edited next day to add: Stayed up late to finish this because it really grabbed me! Totally enjoyed it!