Elves, sprites: they are mysterious creatures that exist just out of our sight. No one of rational mind will acknowledge them and those who have the free spirit to do so live on the fringe of our society.

Prince of the Hollow Hills is about two sisters, with radically different points of view when it comes to all things mystical. One is a free spirit name Ivy and a wanderer as true as her name. The other is a realist to the point of fanaticism. Her name is Fern. Ivy wanders all over and covers the land with her music. Fern wishes desperately that her sister would stop being so flaky, get a real job, a real place to live, and raise her baby. Having a sister that is like their parents sets Fern’s teeth on edge.

Ivy insists her Lover must have been hurt or killed to keep from coming back to her and the baby. Fern thinks he simply blew them off as their father did them. Then one day, three things happen. Her sister seems hysterically paranoid, asks her to take care of her nephew, and gives her strange warnings. Two strangers come asking after her sister after her sister had told her she herself and the baby were in danger. Fern however refuses to believe such nonsense. Who could possibly want to harm her spaced sister and a little baby?

Too late, she finds out her sister’s warning just might have been true. Rushing to her sister's apartment after getting a vision that she tries to deny, she finds her sister dead and holding of all things, a wrench. The coroner says she was killed by a stroke at twenty-eight years of age. But doubt begins to creep into her mind. Fern desperately does not want anything to do with La La Land or the life her sister seemed to lead.

Still, if she wants any hope of keeping the only living kin, her nephew in her life, she not only must raise the child, but some how keep him from murderous beings that come from places that should not exist, and keep from falling in love with a man that should be pure fantasy.

For those of you that like spicy adventures, Prince of the Hollow Hills is a fun one with sparring going on between the two main characters. Both are so stubborn you want to clank their heads together to knock sense into them, but at the same time, you are having too much fun watching them circle one another. There are a lot of adventures and chases that are otherworldly. All the characters have dimension and are not simply on and off good / evil types. There is a good sense of place and time, and the tension is realistic.

My only complaint is that they never actually went into the Hollow Hills. The story was really more about the protectors of the prince, not the prince himself, who is an infant. Tongue in cheek, I might have called the story, “A Fern grows (unwillingly) outside the Hallow Hills.” Referring to Fern's refusal to take in all this stuff. But as stories go, Prince of the Hollow Hills is a good and fun read.

Reviewed By Nancy Louise
© December 2006