{"id":624,"date":"2012-10-27T19:40:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-27T23:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=624"},"modified":"2017-01-29T05:57:47","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T10:57:47","slug":"review-fantastical-fantasyland-3-by-kristen-ashley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=624","title":{"rendered":"Review: Fantastical (Fantasyland, #3) by Kristen Ashley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Book 3 in Kristen Ashley\u2019s Fantasyland series takes us away from the dark (but brilliant) intensity of\u00a0The Golden Dynasty\u00a0and back to the lightness with a similar feel to book 1 \u2013\u00a0Wildest Dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, we find our heroine waking up in an alternate reality – this time into what is essentially a Disney movie \u2013 birds chirping, quirky furniture, mountains, waterfalls, a bird that talks to her, and even a blonde prancing around in a nightgown and singing tra la la la la. Then before she knows it, all hell has broken loose and she finds herself whisked away to safety by a hot guy on a horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was an administrative assistant! How did I end up on a horse, in a forest in a hellacious thunderstorm with a man wearing breeches, for God\u2019s sake?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cora eventually realises her situation \u2013 that she has has been somehow transported into a parellel universe and has changed place with the Cora of this world. She then sadly discovers that that Cora is a class-A bitch, and that the hot guy who rescued her is her husband, Noctorno (Tor) who is also a Prince and pretty much hates her guts \u2013 and understandably so.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou proceeded to kill my love for you and twist it into something else entirely \u2026 You twist it until there\u2019s nothing in it to recognise as anything even close to what it once was.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But on the upside, she gets to spend some quality time with the luscious Tor as the two of them go into hiding while he protects her from an evil witch out to destroy them. Due to his intense hatred of the ‘other’ Cora, he\u2019s a bit of a bastard to her in the beginning, but of course he sees the change in her from the cold, mean bitch he married to the sweet but sassy, funny, caring woman with him now. Cora tries to explain to him what\u2019s going on, but he doesn\u2019t believe her, and tells her to stop playing games with him. But as things get a little steamy between them, and they get to know each other more, they start to develop strong feelings for each other. Cora follows her heart and falls hard for her gorgeous but somewhat scary husband, but I really felt for poor Tor – as much as he likes the new Cora, he still thinks she\u2019s playing with him and he so wants for it to be real. –\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve changed my mind. Play this game, my love, I want you to.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Thankfully it doesn\u2019t take long for Cora and Tor to come together and when they do, it is INTENSE! Wow, these two are steamy! I loved watching Cora find her place in a world where pretty much everybody that has ever encountered the \u2018other\u2019 her loathes her on sight, and Tor provides some swoony moments as he settles her into her life as his Princess.<\/p>\n

But as with all of these Alpha jerks, Tor pulls the absolute pinnacle of all asshole moves, which had me swearing at my kindle (and him) as I tried to understand what the hell happened to my swoony, romantic hero. How could such awful things come out of his mouth?\u00a0

<\/span>Spoiler <\/div>
And I\u2019ve gotta say – I\u2019m still peeved that he never really made amends on the things that he said. Where was the abject apology and grovelling that Cora deserved??? GRRRRRR!\u00a0\u00a0<\/div><\/div>\u00a0But this big moment leads to a sensational twist, which I won\u2019t spoil, but I will say that I really liked where KA took the story from this point on. It added a new dynamic to the overall storyline, and to their relationship, which I thought was brilliant. Plus it allowed Tor to be all swoony again, and there were some amazingly beautiful moments between him and Cora as they dealt with all that was happening around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be all right, my love,\u201d he assured me quietly.
\n\u201cRight,\u201d I whispered, not believing him.
\nHis hand brought mine to his chest as his other hand came out, hooked me around the neck and pulled me to him. \u201cIf it isn\u2019t, I\u2019ll make it so,\u201d he declared. \u201cThat\u2019s a vow.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The introduction of Noc was also a sensational move. He\u2019s a great character, and I\u2019m hoping to see more of him in the next book.<\/p>\n

Being Kristen Ashley, of course there is a gorgeous HEA. The epilogue was also awesome \u2013 not in the overly swoony way that KA\u2019s epilogues usually are (although there is definitely some of that), but in the \u2018Oh holy shit, this is so awesome I can\u2019t believe it’s happening, and I can\u2019t freaking wait for the next book!\u2019 way. It establishes Apollo and Ilsa\u2019s story beautifully, and sets the stage for the epic battle to come.<\/p>\n

SQUEEEEE!! Hurry up March 2013!!!!<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

The Fantasyland Series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Wildest<\/a>\u00a0 \"Golden<\/a>\u00a0 \"Fantastical<\/a>\u00a0 \"Broken<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Midnight \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Wildest Dreams (#1) <\/strong>(Frey & Finnie)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy: Kindle Ebook<\/a> | Paperback<\/a>\u00a0| Audio<\/a><\/p>\n

The Golden Dynasty (#2)<\/strong> (Lahn & Circe)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy: Kindle Ebook<\/a> | Paperback<\/a>\u00a0| Audio<\/a><\/p>\n

Fantastical (#3)<\/strong> (Tor & Cora)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy: Kindle Ebook<\/a> | Paperback<\/a>\u00a0| Audio<\/a><\/p>\n

Broken Dove (#4)<\/strong> (Apollo & Maddie)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy: Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a>\u00a0| Audio<\/a><\/p>\n

Midnight Soul (#5)<\/strong> (Noc & Franka)
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a>\u00a0| Audio<\/a><\/p>\n

Gossamer in the Darkness: A Fantasyland novella<\/strong>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more KA awesomeness, check out our Kristen Ashley Author Spotlight\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0|\u00a0Paperback Review Book 3 in Kristen Ashley\u2019s Fantasyland series takes us away from the dark (but brilliant) intensity of\u00a0The Golden Dynasty\u00a0and back to the lightness with a similar feel to book 1 \u2013\u00a0Wildest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,522,49,10,9,29],"tags":[63,22,48],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epic-romance","category-fantasy","category-feeeeeeels","category-paranormal","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-fantasyland","tag-kristen-ashley","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Fantastical-2.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-a4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}