Review of Miss Landon and Aubranael

‘Miss Landon and Aubranael’ intrigued me due to its blend of Jane Austen style historical fiction and fantasy elements, such as a heroine who travels into a faerie land, a goblin king, and a troll bridge keeper. Historical and fantasy fiction are two of my two favourite genres, so I learned a lot from exploring how author Charlotte E. English blended the genres in this book.

The book is heartwarming, funny, poignant and kept me guessing what would happen next right up until the end. The plot line had a lot of movement to it and the worlds in which the story was set felt very real.

I loved the characters of Sophy Landon and disfigured inhabitant of faerie land Aubranael and it was a nice twist on the 'Beauty and the Beast' type story that Sophy came to love him as he was in the end. I also liked how Aubranael came to a sense of self-acceptance as he realised through the goblin king’s trickery and that good looks and wealth don’t always bring happiness. I also liked how Sophy became independent from her rector father by setting up her own dressmaking business in faerie land, not having her fortunes resting on marriage as is the case for Jane Austen’s heroines. Sophy’s kind and intrepid character had me cheering for her throughout.

A bonus was the lovely illustrations, which gave the book a traditional tale feel.

For me, a drawback of the book was how quickly Sophy and Aubranael fell in love. She only travelled into faerie once and spent an afternoon exploring a faerie town with him. However, he soon goes to the extreme of making a pact with the goblin king in order to win her favour by allowing the goblin king’s glamour to transform him into a Mr Darcyesque character who takes a country house in England and meets Sophy at a ball. I would have liked to see them spending more time together in faerie land to make their attachment more realistic. If Sophy had returned and met Aubranael a few more times it would not only have added believability but given the reader time to discover more about the faerie kingdom in which he lives.

Another thing I would have liked altered was the heavy phonetic dialogue used by Balligrumph, the troll bridge keeper. Although he was a memorable and fun addition to the story, his phonetically spelled words were hard to read and somewhat broke the immersive spell of the book.

Otherwise, it is an excellent read and highly recommended.