Prophecy by Stephen H. King

 

My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

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About the Book:

A child of two worlds, Alyssa has long been prophesied to leave her human mother to return with her father, the elf king, to the land of his birth to claim the throne that is her birthright. The crown does not come easy, though, as the Mississippi girl faces lessons and language gaps along the way. Her ranger-trained cousin and the dashing warrior prince are all who stand with her as she battles against magical foes in a land where the use of magic has been forbidden for centuries.

 My Thoughts:

As always when I accept a review request, I went into this book thinking I was going to like it. It was a little different than what I usually read, but in a good way considering I'm always searching for something a bit different. 

I LOVED Alyssa's character. Her whole life is flipped upside down and she sort of takes it in stride while the rest of us would, honestly, be curled up in the corner rocking back and forth like a baby in a cradle. I also really liked how she had a sort of "southern" layer to her, reminds me of well, me, in that sense.

 Another thing I found really cool was the society. The King and Queen aren't married in this story, instead they are allowed to choose who they're with, which is definitely unique in these type of books. Every little character made an impact in the story, at least from my perspective. 
Alyssa is swept into this whole new world, basically, and she doesn't really know what to expect. Everything is different, and even more so for her as she is being groomed to take over the throne. There is just so much going on in this book that I could not put it down, it's actually a decent sized book, but I devoured in about two sittings. The Queen's daughter's strive to make Alyssa's life a living nightmare, all while real life danger looms in the shadows, and attempts are even made on her life. 
I must say, this book is truly extraordinary in the world that King creates, and I honestly cannot wait to see what he crafts next. I could go on and on telling you all the things I absolutely love about this book, but I'll make it easy and say if you love a good fantasy-type book then definitely pick this one up. Odds are, you'll be as swept up in this new world as I was.  

Excerpt:

“Princess Alyssa, it’s time to wake up,” a husky voice near my bed had the audacity to say. It even sounded eager, as though the girl actually liked the idea of rising early in the summer.

I opened one eye to see who the brave fool belonging to the voice was. She seemed young-ish, though I confess to having no idea how to judge the age of an elf. Medium-tall, with short reddish hair. Goofy smile, teeth showing under an upturned button nose. Same long ears people had made fun of me for back home. The brown tunic and light green trousers she had on were much simpler clothes than I’d have expected to see in the King’s castle, but who was I to judge on my first morning there? 

I could take her, I figured. Which, I hoped, meant I wouldn’t have to; a simple growl would probably scare her away. Opening both eyes, I sat up halfway and sent my most menacing growl her direction.

That was when the bear popped its head up and over the side of the bed, growling right back at me. The fur on its wide neck stood straight up, giving the creature a demonic appearance to go with a menacing throaty growl.

Now, I have a pretty good growl, if I say so myself. It’s not nearly that good, though. I ended it with a not-as-impressive squeak as I sprang to my feet on the other side of the bed in a move that must’ve looked pretty athletic.

“What…. What—why is there a bear in my room?” I stammered.

“Bear?  What—no. Oh, no, Your Highness, Booboo is a wolverine.”

Oh, a wolverine. Right. She said it like that was better, but it wasn’t. Last I heard, bears eat salmon, wolverines eat people.

The elf girl must’ve seen the panic in my eyes—or perhaps in the fact that I had backed all the way to the corner of the room, cowering behind the sheet-shield I’d taken with me in my white-knuckled grip. Whichever it was, she started pulling backward on the waist-high shaggy brown beast’s fur. “Down, Booboo. Down. This is the princess that you’re scaring. Stop it!”

“Booboo?” I asked, finally ratcheting my fear down enough to make some sense out of what was happening. “You named that furry, mean little monster Booboo?”

“He only looks mean, Your Highness. Booboo wouldn’t hurt you. Please believe me.”

“Okay, fine. Look, I’ll believe you if you can get him to put that growl away. It makes my skin crawl. And what is Booboo doing in my room?”

She looked confused and said, “Helping me wake you up, Your Highness. Booboo follows me everywhere.”

Ignoring the strangeness of that, I went after the title. “Quit calling me Your Highness!”  Once again I made a wrong move, apparently. As the little elf girl shrank back, the wolverine renewed the growl that would’ve sent Chuck Norris into a crouch, and then it strained forward, looking for all the world like it was just about to tear my throat apart.

I held my hands up, unfortunately letting the sheet-shield drop in the process, in the hopes of preventing the beast from attacking me. “Sorry, sorry. I’m a little grumpy when I wake up. But seriously, do you have to call me Your Highness with every breath?”

“What would you prefer I call you?”

I sighed. This had started out all wrong and was going worse. “Um, Booboo’s not gonna bite me if I walk over to you, is he?”

“Booboo, behave,” she said to the beast before shaking her head. “No, Your—ma’am. He’ll be good.”

Unconvinced, I walked slowly around the foot of the bed till I was just inside handshaking distance of the elf. Extending my arm way out, I said, “Let’s start over, then. My name is Alyssa. What’s yours?”

About the Author:

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A Mississippi native, TOSK (Stephen H. King) moved in high school from the small town of Corinth to San Bernardino, California. A series of mostly unexplainable decisions led him through a strange sequence of events beginning at the United States Military Academy, where he double-majored in physics and electrical engineering, followed by a fairly short career as an Infantry officer and then an electronics technician, a product engineer, a carpenter's helper, and an elementary school janitor, before ending up on the faculty of a small college in Anchorage, Alaska.

During those years, he learned that reading science fiction and fantasy allowed him to escape the strangeness into the more understandable worlds crafted by Isaac Asimov, Piers Anthony, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and many other great writers. As time went on he began to mold his own worlds, and thus his novels were born.

Stephen now lives in Memphis, Tennessee, with his wife, daughter, and two white Chihuahuas that seem to enjoy morphing from therapuppies into miniature dragons at the sound of food being opened.
 Stay tuned for my interview with Mr. King himself!

Giveaway Time:  
Stephen has so kindly agreed to give away two winner's choice of either paperback or e-book copies of Prophecy to two lucky Electively Paige readers! You can enter by filling out the Rafflecopter below.   

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