Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Mr. Rumpel and Mr. Grimm
AUTHOR: Echo Ishii
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 98 pages
BLURB:
Claude Rumpel is a goblin turned human, living a quiet life in his little repair shop at the edge of town. He is in sore need of money to fund his inventions, and a cure for his hands, which he must keep covered at all times.
Daniel Grimm is half elf, descended from a wealthy family but now down on his luck. He is determined to restore his family’s prestige and has a daring plan to do so.
The gold thread that Claude spins, and Daniel’s ability to sell it, seems a perfect plan for their goals. The casual sex is a pleasant bonus. But they are constantly thwarted from all sides: Daniel’s dealing with a powerful witch, the opposing magic of their lineages, and Claude’s dark goblin desires…
REVIEW:
Daniel Grimm’s family has been on the losing side of life for a while now. His family castle is now abandoned, his sister is a real witch to deal with, and his brother has gone off adventuring…somewhere, though where is anyone’s guess. But Daniel is not worried. He has a plan to bring back some honor and prestige to his family. And it all involves the very talented hands of Claude Rumpel and his threads of gold. And if Daniel gets to enjoy some fringe benefits from those oh-so-talented hands, well that is all the better.
I quite enjoy the short fairytale stories that come out from Less Than Three Press. So though I have not read this author before, I saw the title and just had to have a chance to read it. There is something about the retailing of the old stories that hits me just right.
There is not, however, a lot of the original Rumpelstiltskin story in this book. Well other than the spools of golden thread. But there is a rather well told fairytale-esc story in its place. It’s got evil witches in forested cabins, some sword wielding heroes, and dodgy deals that come back to bite ya. And while I would have loved to have more of the original story here, I like how this one played out. And not only because there wasn’t nearly enough goblin-on-elf sexy times in the original story.
Some parts of the story did seemed a bit rushed though. Or maybe I just wasn’t paying close enough attention. I’m not sure. But it felt like there was a bit more in the background that needed to be fleshed out for the story to reach its full potential. Every once and a while something would happen in the story and I would be slightly confused. Like the fact that Daniel knows about Claude being a goblin…and yet for the first few chapters it felt like Claude was trying to keep it a secret from Daniel. It wasn’t very detrimental to the story, but sometimes it felt like there was something the author knew, but failed to tell us, that would make the story just a bit clearer for everyone.
That being said, I would still very much love to read another book with these characters. We left them in such an interesting place, and I’d quite like to see where they go from here.
RATING: 
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