Prince of Foxes is the first novel in the Bright Spear trilogy by H.L. Macfarlane.
Finished on: 31.8.2023

Plot:
When Faerie Prince Lachlan is turned into a fox and banished on the night of his mother’s funeral, he needs help. If he can’t break the curse and take his rightful place on the throne, he will have to stay a fox forever. Surprisingly, he finds help in a human: Sorcha Darrow is reluctant, but faced with the choice of marrying a man for the sake of her family’s finances and going off on an adventure to find a kelpie and help a faerie prince, she chooses the latter.

Prince of Foxes is a nice read, but some things didn’t sit right with me – and those kept me from enjoying the story as much as I would have liked.

This is billed as a romance in many ways, and that is a fair description – although it is certainly a choice to have one of the romantic partners spend most of his time in animal form. There is some dream action when things get spicier, but there is also a scene where Lachlan in fox form literally paws Sorcha which was a bit weird. But hey, okay. I was much more thrown by Sorcha’s relationship with the fox, though. Knowing full well who he is, she still treats him like a pet sometime, petting, sleeping cuddled together or getting undressed in front of him – and that just didn’t sit right with me. It makes no sense for her to act this way, and I found myself pulled out of the story more than once because of it.

That being said, I had fun reading it for the most part and it is a quick read. I loved the dive into Scottish mythology and fairy tales as the inspiration for this one. I definitely haven’t read many stories yet that feature a kelpie, so that was definitely nice.

But I don’t think the book grabbed me enough to make me continue reading the series. But that is more a matter of taste than a matter of (lack of) quality from the book.

Summarizing: if it sounds good to you, give it a go, it’s definitely not a bad book.