IN THE COILS OF THE SNAKE

The Hollow Kingdom trilogy ends as it began: with a kidnapped bride falling for her captor. Human Miranda has been raised as the promised bride to the goblin heir, Catspaw. After the death of Marak, the goblin king and the target of all Miranda’s affection, she’s ambivalent about her impending marriage. Miranda looks forward to wealth and Catspaw’s affection, but misses Marak and is lonely in the goblin kingdom. On the eve of their wedding, Catspaw is forced by circumstance to wed a frightened elf maiden instead of Miranda. After storming off in a sulk, Miranda is kidnapped by the irresistibly handsome lord of the elves. Inevitably, she comes to love her captor, and the elves and goblins, enemies since time immemorial, discover common ground. After all, both races kidnap terrified young women into forced marriage, so how different can they really be? A trilogy, which opened with some promise, sadly resolves without ever growing beyond a disappointing collection of feeble, uninteresting heroines. Not a substantial contribution to the strong genre of romantic fantasy. (Fantasy. 12-15)