Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Kelpie Blue

SERIES: Out of Underhill #1

AUTHOR: Mell Eight

PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press

LENGTH: 228 Pages

RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2018

BLURB:

Mama always said, don’t go near the lake. Rin already knew the forest was filled with dark things, but aside from Mama no one had warned him about the lake. One day, Rin wanders off to the lake, where a beautiful blue horse asks him to go for a swim, and Rin learns too late it may not be a swim he survives.

REVIEW:

It is absolutely ridiculous just how much I enjoyed this book. I’m pretty sure that I read the whole thing with a big stupid smile on my face, because it was just that darn cute. However, I have a suspicion that the majority of readers might not enjoy it quite so much. Judging from the blurb I thought that I was going to be reading something along the lines of a dark fairytale. Instead, this was a story about the love between a boy and his horse, and not in a “I think this porn is illegal” way, but in a young adult paranormal “what happens when a kelpie doesn’t eat his snack” way. Although we never do learn the exact age of Blue, Rin is in his late teens for the majority of this book and both main characters do act youngish. Not immature, but rather sexually innocent, although that is slowly changing. So if you don’t like young adult then I’m not sure if this book will be for you.

In a nutshell, since the blurb is so vague, Rin and his mother live alone on a farm. His mother was a successful horse trainer until they were both injured in a car accident and could no longer ride horses. One day Rin falls asleep by the lake on their farm, the lake that his mother has warned him not to go near. In this lake lives Blue, a young kelpie who loves to crunch on human bones and suck out the marrow. But Blue can’t bring himself to eat Rin, who seems different from all the other snacks who wander down to his lake. Instead Blue carries Rin home, and decides to stay.

The story is told primarily from Rin’s point of view, but the author very cleverly sneaks in Blue’s thoughts every now and again through the use of Rin’s diary. Throughout the story, but especially closer to the beginning, the diary is used to let the reader know what happened in the past and allows for Blue to leave comments and opinions that are highly entertaining. I won’t lie, a couple of times I was slightly confused by the past/present switches, but to be honest I found the diary dialogue between Rin and Blue so hilarious that I really didn’t mind. These two boys are too too cute together! I love that Blue affectionately calls Rin “my snack” as a term of endearment and chews on him in his sleep, though Rin is fairly certain that Blue would only ever eat him if it was a real emergency.

The “action” part of the plot, that requires the boys to head to the fae world of Underhill was definitely interesting though I wish we could have spent more time there. Mell Eight always does a great job of creating worlds that I never want to leave. There were plenty of attention grabbing secondary characters here, but the blurb for the next book in the series, scheduled for release later this year, apparently tells the story of a completely new set of characters. Either way, I can’t wait for the author to continue with this series and introduce us to more of the Underhill world.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon

Less Than Three