Journey into fading lands with C.L. Wilson

cover art/credit: Judy York/Leisure

 In Lord of the Fading Lands, best selling Tampa area romance author C.L. Wilson tells the story of Rain Tairen Soul, the king of the Fey, who having scorched the world in a war between the Fey and the Elden Mages, a thousand years ago, finally comes out of the Fading Lands in order to claim his true mate, a young woodcarver’s, outwardly unremarkable daughter, Ellysetta Baristani. She is both thrilled, and terrified of him, for his legend, for his incredible conviction that she is his destined wife—how crazy must he be from that terrible battle? Crazy enough that he believes that Ellie the woodcarver’s daughter is good enough for him?

Poor Ellie is not the only one to believe this, either as she has a jealous slug of a man wanting to claim her as his own wife, for reasons of which Ellie knows nothing; and then there is Celieria’s queen, who can’t believe the lowborn girl has been elevated to status of Queen of the Fey, a position to rival her own. Rain has to convince not only Ellie, but the king and queen, that he’s not in the least bit mistaken in his regard for her…but that’s not the only reason he’s come back to the Fading Lands, for he is convinced his ancient enemies the Elden Mages are rising again, and if the two lands have any hope of survival, he must convince the skeptical Celierian king and queen of this, as well.

The best explanation Ellie can think of to counteract Rain’s determination to make her more than she is, is the one secret she wants to hide from him: she’s never been quite what one would call a normal child. Unbeknownst to many, there are people that suspect that uniqueness—evil people; and they too will stop at nothing to gain control of the woodcarver’s daughter, and gladly discredit the Fae king, in the process. Is Rain right about the mages, and about Ellysetta? Can he convince anyone of what he fears before the situation explodes? And will he survive his courtship with Ellie? You will have to read this one to find out!

In this age of fantasy and romance novels stuffed with modern city landscapes, C.L. Wilson creates a unique pre-industrial fairy tale vision in the world and characters within this novel, and reminds this reader of all the best of fantasy landscapes and plots before the urban fantasy explosion set the industry in a whirl—this, my friends, is what fantasy fiction should be. There is enough political intrigue going on that I suspect this might even be one the boys would enjoy; yet there is plenty of sensuous passionate angst here to please even the staunchest of romance fans.  I was really looking forward to reading this and, needless to say, I'm so glad I got a copy. I was absolutely blown away by this novel; the writing is impeccable, the story is just the right mix of the elements that make fantasy romance great, and I highly recommend this one.  So, if you like creative landscapes, and compelling, almost mythic characters—and of course, lots of romance—you’ll want to check out C.L. Wilson’s Lord of the Fading Lands* (and its sequels). I’m sure you’ll be glad you did.

   C.L. Wilson at Fantastic Fiction

  Lord of the Fading Lands interview on Youtube (which gives a nice overview, from the author herself, about the novel)

*You can find this at the Dorchester Press site here, or at Amazon, or presumably, any local Barnes and Noble or Borders should easily be able to procure you a copy.

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