Book Review – The Goblins of Bellwater

Book: The Goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle
Release Date: October 1st 2017
Tags: Goblins / Fantasy / Adult / Urban Fantasy / Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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Goodreads

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy in exchange for an honest review

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Synopsis

Most people have no idea goblins live in the woods around the small town of Bellwater, Washington. But some are about to find out.

Skye, a young barista and artist, falls victim to a goblin curse in the forest one winter night, rendering her depressed and silenced, unable to speak of what happened. Her older sister, Livy, is at wit’s end trying to understand what’s wrong with her. Local mechanic Kit would know, but he doesn’t talk of such things: he’s the human liaison for the goblin tribe, a job he keeps secret and never wanted, thrust on him by an ancient family contract.

Unaware of what’s happened to Skye, Kit starts dating Livy, trying to keep it casual to protect her from the attention of the goblins. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kit, Skye draws his cousin Grady into the spell through an enchanted kiss in the woods, dooming Grady and Skye both to become goblins and disappear from humankind forever.

It’s a midwinter night’s enchantment as Livy, the only one untainted by a spell, sets out to save them on a dangerous magical path of her own.

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Review

The Goblins of Bellwater promises us a dark and alluring tale about Goblins. The cover on its own is gorgeous. I was excited to find a book about goblins in such a way to read. Unfortunately that did not quite work out the way I had hoped.

First I’d like to point out this isn’t a badly written book. The writing in itself is engaging and manages to create a dark vibe throughout the book, mostly at the start and the ending. I just wish the middle part had been able to capture the same vibe and this could have been a truly exciting book.

Our story focuses on a foursome, two sisters and two cousins. One of the girls falls victim to a goblins curse and drags one of the guys with her, leaving the other two to work out how to save them. Two girls, two guys. You must have already guessed where this is heading. The romance took over the plot. The whole middle part was more about these four learning about each other than it was about the goblins. And I am sorry to say but with that title I had other expectations.

And it was a shame because there were honestly some very interesting things about the Goblins and Fae that were mentioned nearing the ending that could have woven a great story centered about Bellwater. Instead it focuses in on these four and their romance with in the backdrop a goblin curse.
I did enjoy the ending where one of the girls had to choose a way to save them from the goblins. But even there, there was so much more to expand on that was just casually mentioned along the way. It bothered me a lot. I wanted to know more.

One of the other things that bothered me however was to do with the effects of the goblins curse on Skye. The way it effects her, her sister and those around her call depression. I can see that. However she was ‘depressed’ for maybe a few weeks and her sister seemed to already be expecting quick changes from medication and other things. That rubbed me the wrong way a bit because it doesn’t work that way. Personally I have depression (post partum depression at the moment). I do think the author otherwise tried to sensitively  deal with it, but it was a bit too much from the outsiders point of view looking in for me. I do think it is hard to deal with this topic in the context when it is the curse that is affecting Skye like that. Is the curse what makes her ‘depressed’ or is she getting depressed because of the curse and what happened to her?

Even so I did enjoy reading this book in parts. While I might not have fallen in love with any of the characters, they were for the most part a joy to follow throughout. And I do think Molly Ringle is a name I’ll be keeping my eye out on.