Review: The Hob

by Dana Marie Bell
Rating: 4/5

Robin Goodfellow has met his match. When the Black Queen kidnaps one of the White Queen's nephews, Robin Goodfellow is sent to ensure that the young prince safely returns to the bosom of his family. True to his role as Oberon’s Hobgoblin, he is ready for anything…except meeting his truebond, the very delicious, very human Michaela Exton. Michaela has dreamed about a flame-haired rogue named Robin Goodfellow since she was a little girl, but everyone knows Puck doesn’t really exist. In real life, it’s a dark-eyed man named Ringo who makes her heart beat faster. She is closer to her dream man than she thinks, and nobody knows it better than Robin, who wears the guise of Ringo. But there’s competition for her love in the form of Lord Raven, who holds a secret that will rock the foundation of Robin’s world. As a Black Court delegate does the unthinkable, leaving an enraged, grief-stricken Robin hanging onto his humanity by a thread, only Michaela has the power to bring him back from the killing edge—if she survives. Product Warning: This book contains explicit sex, graphic language, Robin Goodfellow and... Really. Do I need to say any more?

Ah, Dana Marie Bell. One of my favourite authors, possessing the seal of complete trust from me. Which I’m sure she’s completely honoured by. The Hob is book four in the Gray Court series.

I was a little disappointed by this. Now if you pay attention to my ratings then you might wonder why I say that about a 4-star book. Yes it was very good and I try to review good books as much as possible and only give the worst books attention to warn others. I want to tell you about authors I like to give them a greater following and thus secure more books for me. But… I was expecting a 5-star read in this and it just didn’t quite get there.

Let’s start with what I expected/hoped for and didn’t get. Number one, I wanted to see behind Robin’s seeming, like with the Dunne’s and their mates. We got hints on what Robin looks like (apparently it’s monstrous – according to him) and we do get most of an explanation on what the Tunguska explosion was. Apparently both Robin and Oberon got extremely angry in a heated argument and lost control. Nevertheless we don’t see Robin lose his seeming (and incidentally his shit) through Michaela’s point of view only through Robin’s and at that moment he’s not sane enough to mention what he looks like.

Number two, we don’t really get a good explanation of what Robin’s kind is and how they mate. It’s implied that he, like Oberon is actually immortal instead of long-lived and contrary to my thought’s not actually a Sidhe. Somehow they make love, Michaela says she’s his and BAM! We’re done. I thought he was just going off on a me-man you-woman macho thing not claiming her.

And finally, what about Michaela’s family? They’re all (I assume) Tuatha De Dannan descendants too so theoretically they can be changed as well. In “Dare to Believe” Ruby is very clearly an orphaned only child who has only one friend left. She can spend the rest of her life with Leo and seeing as she’s now in Nebraska visit Mandy often for ten years and then email and such for as long as possible, even if in her later years Mandy wants to visit Leo could roll Mandy and make her think that they both got old. Michaela has parent and several siblings and even if they can convince the family that Michaela hasn’t lost her mind marrying this guy after a week, she’s got way more people to miss and miss her. Now if in a later book, Robin follows up on the hint and sets up Red and Michaela’s sister I might forgive this issue, but otherwise it’s a big thing to ignore and pushes the HEA ending into more of a HFN. And I don’t like HFN’s in series’.

Now onto the positive goodness. Robin is awesome. He has not lost an ounce of his awesome in translation, in fact between Tunguska, Oberon, Cassie and everything he exceeds the three previous books of awesome. Michaela is also awesome and I really felt like she was good enough for Robin. Don’t you hate it when you wait and wait for a character’s story and their partner isn’t as good as past protagonists, let alone good enough for your favourite character. *cough* Archeron *cough*.

The background where we see Robin and how he deals with his Blades, (can I have Big Red?) and they way he wants to recruit Kael is classic. What we see and discover about the Raven Lord? Well I don’t want to spoil but my heart broke a little for him and his parents. The red cap who vowed his fealty to Michaela. Wow.

But the most surprising, amazing thing really is Oberon. He got kidnapped and left Robin as his regent. Holy hecksicles. I was not expecting that at all. But maybe that will make him loosen up in regards to Cassie.

So yes this was really enjoyable and a great entry in the series, but the few tiny nitpicks stopped me from giving it a 5/5. If any of them get sorted in a future book I’ll revise this score to a 4.5.

Currently Listening: Reckless – You Me At Six