Name: The Hollow Kingdom
ISBN: 9780786267699

Clare B. Dunkle

In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two orphan girls recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to be his bride and queen.

The Hollow Kingdom

Book I -- The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy

Aleena Korell

I had to re-read both this and Wintersong (another Goblin King retelling) this year before going into their respective sequels as I realized I'd gotten them mixed up and was struggling to differentiate their plot points.

After a relatively recent revisit to each, I think I've concluded that both are fantastic in different ways. In fact, I think they each hit a mark that the other misses. 

This one is a sweet, simple tale that isn't particularly dark and can be read very quickly. A classic fairy tale. Wintersong is darker, longer, and more romantic-- more dramatic.

In the end, I think this one would be my favorite of the two... if Dunkle had lingered a bit longer on the relationship between Kate and Marak. It pretty much skips over any sense of romance-- in fact, it jumps through time a year to skip over their relationship development entirely. That's its biggest downfall for me, and the thing that Wintersong dwells much longer on.

As it is, both are great in different ways, and this is a fantastic little fairy tale that I'm curious to see develop as I move on to Close Kin.

Briar Rose

In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two orphan girls recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to become his bride and queen.

The Hollow Kingdom

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