Through the Veil by Colleen Halverson – a Review

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Description:
Elizabeth Tanner is no Tinkerbell, and her life is no fairy tale. Broke and drowning in student loans, the one thing she wants more than anything is a scholarship from the Trinity Foundation. But after the ancient Irish text she’s studying turns out to be more than just a book, she becomes their prisoner instead. And when Trinity reveals Elizabeth is half-Fae, she finds herself at the center of a plot to save the magical races of Ireland from a brutal civil war.

As Commander of Trinity’s elite warriors, Finn O’Connell isn’t used to having his authority challenged. He doesn’t know whether to punish or protect the infuriating young woman in his custody. When he discovers the Dark Fae want to use Elizabeth’s abilities to control the source of all power in the universe, he’ll risk everything to help her.

At the mercy of Trinity and enslaved to the Dark Fae, Elizabeth finds herself alone on the wrong side of an Irish myth thousands of years in the making. Refusing to be a pawn in their game, Elizabeth has to fight her way back to the man she loves, but to do so, she must wage her own war against the magic that binds her.

Review:

Through the Veil is Colleen Halverson’s debut novel, and for a debut novel I was rather impressed, even though she left me annoyed and wanting to pull out my hair after reading the last page. If anyone knows me in regards to my reading habits, cliff hangers in series are not my fancy, as I hate waiting to see what’s going to happen next. Let me just say, I’m on pins and needles waiting for the next installment to Ms. Halverson’s Aisling Chronicles. I need to know what’s in store for our hero and heroine, Finn O’Connell and Elizabeth Tanner. Things just can’t end the way they did in book one. They deserve their happily ever after and screw the archaic laws of Trinity and Amergin. Don’t even get me started on that character, I absolutely hated him and in my books, he’s a villain and not on Finn or Elizabeth’s side. I’d love nothing more then for Elizabeth to use her aisling powers on him and send him off to some dark cave or nether region never to be seen again. But I digress, and sorry for my ranting. As you can see Ms. Halverson definitely captivated my interest with Through the Veil and has earned herself a new fan.

At first I was torn with our hero Finn and how he was towards poor Elizabeth who knew nothing of her Fae heritage. He drove me absolutely batty with his double treatment of Elizabeth. One minute he was sweet, charming and falling for her, then the next he’s cold, detached and trying to push her away. It wasn’t until midway through the story, and then near the very end where it all falls into place why he was acting that way. Being the gallant hero he is, Finn was trying to protect both him and Elizabeth from the archaic laws of Trinity and the Fae world. I was heart broken to learn of their fate should their relationship be discovered. In the end Finn did win my heart and I wanted nothing more then for him to find true love and happiness with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is such a well written heroine. She’s strong, intelligent, feisty, with a vulnerability that draws you too her. Having known nothing of her Fae heritage poor Elizabeth is literally thrown into a whole new world she knows nothing about, but bravely accepts everything that is thrust upon her. One thing I did like was the way Ms. Halverson balanced Elizabeth’s humanity with her Fae powers. As she’s learning her Fae powers as an aisling(a creature able to travel between worlds/dimensions) she never forgets her humanity and the rights or wrongs of her actions in using her powers. Elizabeth is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Fae world and I can’t wait to see where her aisling powers will take her.

Through the Veil is a well thought out story, with rich world building and twists and turns at every corner surrounding our heroine and hero. The character development for not only our leading couple, but also the amazing cast of secondary characters helps propel the story forward and keep the reader intrigued and hanging on every word uttered by our amazing cast of characters. It’s definitely a page-turner and you don’t realize how fast a read Through the Veil is until you’ve read the last line and scream, NOOOOO it can’t end that way. Yes that was my response to the last line of this story, LOL!! Okay, so I like my HEA’s tied up nice and neat at the end of good story, what can I say I’m a romantic at heart. 🙂

Until next time, happy reading everyone!

Reviewed by Marcie

Copy provided by Publisher