Review: Goblin Fruit by Celia Lake

Goblin Fruit (Mysterious Charm #2)
by Celia Lake

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Historical Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Enjoy this kind and gentle 1920s historical fantasy romance series set in the magical community of Great Britain.

Lizzie loves her sister.

After their father and uncle were lost in a diastrous expedition, Lizzie has done her best to keep everything together. Her younger sister Laura survived tubeculosis, but a decade in and out of treatment has left her stubbornly insistent on doing for herself.

When Lizzie gets hired by a private agency, she thinks she can finally relax. Steady work will help them both keep the family home and rebuild their lives after their many losses.

Carillon is made of curiosity.

Carillon fled his memories of the Great War, preferring adventures and natural history expeditions in Africa and Asia. That was before he unexpectedly inherited his family’s title and had to return to England.

Now he’s been back for two years, finding his place as a lord of the land. When he stumbles across an addictive magical drink that brings visions of distant places, he simply must investigate.

After Carillon collides with Lizzie outside a masked ball, they quickly realise they can learn far more if they work together. The only question is whether they can save Laura and stop other people being hurt or even killed.

Goblin Fruit is the second novel in the Mysterious Charm series. All of Celia Lake’s Albion books exploring the magical community of the British Isles can be read in any order. Goblin Fruit is full of magical potions, an aristocratic investigator, fae beings, a fake relationship, and several house parties. Enjoy this gentle romantic fantasy with a swirl of sex set in 1924 with a happily ever after ending!

My Review

After reading Eclipse I found out that the next book in that series has spoilers for the seventh book in the Mysterious Charm series, so I returned to this series determined to finish this series first and picked up Goblin Fruit. The first thing I noticed is how different this series feels, I think this is written earlier and now that I read more books by the author I could notice the difference. I also felt the vibes I had expected for this one from reading Ancient Trust weren’t quite there. I still had a good time reading this one, but it just wasn’t as good as some of the other books I’ve read by this author.

With the way Outcrossing set thins up in the first book I had expected this book to take place in the New Forest and the estate Ytene more, but instead most of this takes place in Trellech, the magical capital. The story follows Carillon and Lizzie, they end up teaming up to solve a mystery involving an addictive new drink that is making the rounds in the magical community. I liked both characters and the mystery was a fun one and I liked seeing how they worked together and complemented each other as they figure things out.

While I liked both characters I just felt like something was missing. I just wanted to know more and get a better feel for their personalities. Luckily there will be more books about these characters, so I will probably get that chance eventually. I liked how they worked together and they seemed to complement each other’s skills and work well together, but I just didn’t fully feel their romance. The romance also progresses quite slowly most of the time, but then makes some sudden jumps forward. There is a bit of conflict later on and I mostly liked how that got resolved, but was a bit annoyed they didn’t just talk more at first.

I was surprised how little connection this book had to the first one, with the way it was set up and Carillon getting introduced in the first book I had assumed these books would be closer tied together, but that isn’t the case. You can easily read this one as a standalone, there are a few brief mentions of the main characters of the first book and the events there, but that’s it. I wonder if future books will return to the New Forest again.

To summarize: I had a good time reading this book, but didn’t enjoy it as much as most of the other books I’ve read by the author so far. I could tell this one was written earlier than some of the books and the style was slightly different. I liked both main characters, but mostly wanted to get to know them more and hope I get that chance in later books. I liked seeing them team up and work together, but didn’t fully feel their romance. The romance started quite slow, but then made these weird jumps forward that felt a bit sudden. I also had expected more ties with the first book in the series Outcrossing with the way that book had set up the series, but this one can easily be read as a standalone with only a few small mentions of the characters and events of book 1.

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You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.