Title: The King’s Courage (North Pole City Tales: Book Six)
Author: Charlie Cochet
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 77 Pages
Category: Fairy Tale, Holiday
At a Glance: If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Cochet’s magical tales of the inhabitants of North Pole City, then you have no excuses. The series is complete; get on board.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: With the wedding of Jack Frost and Rudy Rein Dear only three weeks away, everyone travels to Jack’s palace in Svalbard, Norway, where the happy couple will exchange vows beneath the northern lights. Festivities have been planned leading up to the wedding, and Dasher eagerly anticipates not just the fun, but staying under the same roof as the blustering winter spirit who’s caught his eye—the King of Frost, Jack’s father.
A long-ago tragedy has left Eirik fearing to ever love again. As the King of Frost, Eirik maintains his distance from everyone, especially the young Christmas elf who insists on intruding on Eirik’s solitude. But Dasher is determined to find a way to show the lonely king that his heart still beats and he shouldn’t fear allowing it to beat for another.
Review: I adore Charlie Cochet’s North Pole City Tales, and the fact that The King’s Courage is the final installment gives me a bittersweet feeling. I started reading the series almost exactly four years ago, when my mom was in the hospital just before she passed away. The first two books gave me the escape and the little lift I needed at a time when I really needed it. So, it was with both eager anticipation and a little sense of loss that I started The King’s Courage—where we finally get to see things play out between Dasher and the King of Frost.
The seed for this story was planted two books ago, in Loving Blitz, when we first saw Dasher being a little bit forward and cheeky with Jack’s father, the king of Winter Wonderland. Dasher’s interest seemed obvious, and though it was but a blip in that book, and completely one-sided, there definitely seemed to be a little current building between them. In this sixth book, Dasher is still hard at work trying to gain the king’s interest, while the king, Eirik, is trying equally hard to feign indifference. However, neither Dasher’s charm nor his stubbornness are any match for poor Eirik, and he soon finds himself not only failing to rebuff Dasher’s advances, but making advances of his own.
The romance between these two wasn’t as well-developed as some of the others in the series. There just isn’t the history between Eirik and Dasher that existed between many of the other characters. We know the king’s past, of course, and of the loss of his wife, and we learn Dasher’s story of lost love and the prejudices he dealt with, but I definitely felt the lack of personal history between them. I did enjoy their interactions, and where Cochet ultimately took the relationship, though. I especially loved how Dasher always stood up to Eirik and acted as his equal, even though he was a bit sassier than a Christmas elf maybe should be. And, I loved how Eirik comes to adore Dasher.
“I’ve never met anyone as courageous or in possession of a greater heart, than you.”
As always, a huge standout of these books is the language, and every single detail that transports me to this magical, Christmassy place each year. There is a part in The King’s Courage where Dasher goes into Eirik’s garden at Jack’s vacation home, and is met with the most enchanting scene of woodland creatures made of ice, including a unicorn, and an amazing ice mural. The imagery was breathtaking. And, of course, the big event the story is leading up to is the wedding of Jack Frost and Rudy Rein Deer, which was also so lovely. One last thing I found wonderful was the improvement of Jack and Eirik’s relationship, and the closeness they regain over the course of this story. I loved their moments together.
If you’ve been in love with this series since the beginning, like I have, then I know you’ll be all over this one already. And, if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Cochet’s magical tales of the inhabitants of North Pole City, then you have no excuses. The series is complete; get on board. Seeing the blurbs for all of the books in the back of this one definitely gave me a strong urge to pick up Mending Noel and start the whole journey all over again.
You can buy The King’s Courage here:
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