Falling Upwards
by Kassandra Sims

Published by Tor
228 pages
April 2007
Paperback
ISBN: 13-978-0-765-35581-2

This is yet another book that I would not characterize as paranormal romance. It's a fantasy novel with a sensual character and a touch of romance. Anyone who has read the Welsh myth, the Mabinogion, will recognize the characters and story line of this book. A modern young woman, Neva Jones, encounters a strange young man, March, in a pub in Wales called “The Serpents Kiss.”

He tags her, because she's a bit fey, we think, to go on a rambling quest to save him from some curse that he's under, and has been under for centuries. Of course March is a gorgeous young man, with raven hair and blue eyes, and though he's obviously some kind of archetypical mythical character (The Eternal Youth), Jones, who is supposed to be smart as well as sarcastic, doesn't figure that out until the end of the book.

There's plenty of speaking in riddles for March, and plenty of whining and kvetching for Jones, who is not only reluctant, she's stubborn enough to not believe her eyes or listen to the animal guides who tell her what she needs to do. Lots of mythical situations ensue on the quest through fairyland with Jones and March, and she trades barbs for his vague allusions.

Sim's prose is by turns modern and stringent, followed by lyrical and dreamlike pages where she's describing fairyland and its denizens.

I was disappointed that the main characters don't get together, or even really react romantically to each other until close to the end of the book (sorry for the spoiler). Even when she realizes she cares for March, Neva Jones seems unhappy about it, and doesn't want to act on her feelings for some bizarre reason. But, love wins the day, March is saved, and all is well by the final page. I just have the feeling that Jones isn't going to be happy with her relationship no matter how hard she's had to work for it. Jones isn't the most sympathetic character, being too prickly and harsh to provide the reader with any lasting affection for her.

by DeAnn Rossetti
reprinted from BOFFM #4 (forthcoming)