Dark Possession (Fairwick Chronicles 3) by Carol Goodman (book review).

First things first, this book has been published under two different titles and under two different author names on both sides of the pond, so be careful when purchasing because they are the same book! You either need to look for ‘The Angel Stone’ by Juliet Dark in the USA or ‘Dark Possession’ by Carol Goodman in the UK. Personally, I’d go for the first one purely because the cover is so much better.

There are also issues with the first two books in the series which also have alternative titles and authors so here we go, book one in the ‘Fairwick Chronicles/Trilogy’ is either ‘The Demon Lover’ by Juliet Dark or ‘Incubus’ by Carol Goodman. Book two is either ‘Water Witch’ by Juliet Dark or by Carol Goodman, this time sharing the same title. The pretty covers, in my opinion, tend to be the Juliet Dark versions.

Now that that is sorted, I need to say that this review will contain spoilers for the first two books in the series, pretty major ones, so best you stop reading if you still haven’t read the first two books. Go and read them now!

In this, the third and last book of this trilogy, Callie McFay is again needed by Fairwick to save the day, her town and eventually the world! This time, she needs to travel back in time to find a stone called the Angel Stone that has the power to annihilate Nephilim, being the evil children of fallen angels and human women who have recently taken over the running of Fairwick College, making it a living hell for all involved.

Callie travels back to 17th century Scotland to find herself in a slightly changed version of the Tam Lin fairy tale where she meets her demon lover from the future along with some other characters that we’ve grown to love in the previous few books. Callie has to find the stone, release the witches being held in Castle Coldclough, teach magic to the locals and release her demon lover from the clutches of the Fairy Queen. All this has to be done before the Nephilim can destroy Fairwick and take over the world!

This book is very different to the previous ones. Callie seems to be much more knowledgeable about her Fae and witch powers and has far more confidence in herself. There are also a lot of missing characters, mostly due to them all leaving to live in Fairy at the end of the last book. This was both a good and a bad thing in my eyes. Good because it gave some of the lesser characters from the previous books a time to shine such as Ralph the Mouse (who I love!), the vampires and Mac Stewart. Bad in that we have to learn all about a whole new set of characters which felt odd given this was the last book in a series.

One of my favourite elements of these books is the reference to so many different myths, legends and fairy tales. It really makes me want to read as many as I can so I can get as much as possible from the series. Goodman seems to love a good fairy tale, almost as much as I do, and she really puts her own spin on some well-known tales.

There is one element that I really dislike and that is Goodman’s habit of repeating herself once she has a nice sounding word or phrase. Sometimes this only happens once or twice in the entire book but towards the end it felt as though her creativeness was wearing thin and some of the repetitions happened within a sentence or two of each other. Weirdly, sometimes she even retold a bit of the story over again as if this was meant to be a series of short stories rather than one long book.

Overall, I did enjoy this book even though it felt a lot more contrived and not as deeply written as the previous books. Everything was tied up neatly with regards Callie, but there is enough of a story left for there to be either some more books in the series or even a spin-off series featuring the Nephilim.

Sarah Bruch

January 2014

Dark Possession (Fairwick Chronicles 3) by Carol Goodman   (UK edition)

(pub: Ebury Press. 320 page paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-09195-313-3)

check out website: www.eburypublishing.co.uk

 

The Angel Stone : Book Three of the Fairwick Trilogy by Juliet Dark   (US edition)

(pub: Ballantine Books. Price $12.08 (US). ISBN: 978-0-34553-339-5

check out website: www.ballantinebooks.com