I picked up this book because someone compared it to Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones. While there are goblins in both books, the two stories present the fair folk in clearly separate ways. Molly Ringle presents the goblins well, just as devious as they are usually known in literature, and she even says one of her main influences was “The Goblin Market” poem by Christina Rosetti. It’s a good light read with a slightly dark story.

I've read a few goblin/fae books lately, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about this one. I ended up really enjoying it! Ringle's goblins are nasty and evil little beings that you definitely wouldn't want to meet in the woods. This was an interesting change from the "beautiful fae creature everyone falls in love with" type that are prevalent in YA fiction. I also enjoyed how the goblins were an invasive species at odds with the local fae groups who wanted the goblins out.

One of my favorite aspects of this novel is the setting. Ringle's description of western Washington and the Puget Sound region made me want to visit so I could enjoy the beautiful forest and beaches in person (while avoiding any goblin paths, of course).

Overall I would consider recommending this book to fans of paranormal romance and anyone who wants an atmospheric read set in the Pacific Northwest.

I really wanted to like this book; what's not to like about Goblins?

It just didn't pull me in. The story fell flat for me. I tried holding onto and trying at different periods where I was reading several genres to determine if I was in a book funk. This one just didn't do it for me.

A beautiful cover, a story inspired by Rossetti’s Goblin Market, and set in the PNW, I was all about The Goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle. Yet, I don’t really know how I feel about it now that I’ve finished it, other than saying it’s a true and solid three start book. The story was solid, but the pacing a little odd. Character development was good, but then weird. And the resolution we received at the end fell flat for me.

The setting and descriptions were fairly spot on. Having been to the PNW and hiking in Oregon, it felt real and authentic. I could almost smell the crisp air and feel the river and ocean mist. Ringle excelled at making this feel like a real place, but simultaneously feeling other. Perhaps it’s because these places, these peaceful out of the way woodland areas already lend themselves to your imagination, but either way, Ringle really brought out the excitement and wonder of running into fae creatures in your backyard as it were.

Character development was a bit odd. I say that only because it makes sense that it would be odd. When you have half of the 4 main characters under a spell, it’s hard to see much of a change in them. The change we see almost fades into the background with them. They exist, things happen, we’re supposed to care, but in the end, don’t really. However, when we get to the non-glamoured half, they really take off. We see how Kit is a good guy in a bad situation. We see him grow from being a loner to making all of these connections and wanting more out of life. With Livy, we see the same. From her devotion to her sister, to finally focusing on her own life, her own future. It was really great and those two were really strong characters that I would have loved to have seen more about.

Which leads me to my biggest issue with The Goblins of Bellwater: the pacing. It just didn’t click for me. There is this huge build-up at a slow and steady pace. Things are happening, slowly growing in intensity, but then suddenly, poof! Everything is fixed in a quick fifteen minute read. It felt like the set-up was more than half the story, and then the journey and resolution combined made only a quarter. I would have preferred the journey to resolving the problem to be as long as the set-up. But instead, we get a journey that happens in the blink of an eye, a resolution that happens even quicker, and then a nicely wrapped up ending. It should have taken longer.

Finally, for mentioned Rossetti’s Goblin Market, I’d feel like there’d be more to it other than hey, we’re goblins and we force people to eat fruit. I expected the tie-in to be greater or more significant. Possibly for the story to go deeper into the symbolism of the poem. For all my complaints though, The Goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle was an enjoyable story. I enjoyed the premise, the setting, and characters and really, only wish it was longer to more fully delve into everything.

The premise of this story was awesome and I enjoyed it. I just wasn't completely sold on the execution of it.

I needed more worldbuilding. So much more building. I found holes all over the place and they drove me crazy. I need to know more about the goblins and why and about their magic.

I had issues with the romance. The way Kit and Livy act, they should be older. I got bored with the sex scenes. The romance between Livy and Kit was good but I didn't like Skye and Grady's at all. It was really insta love and their romance was not developed at all for me. And not dealing with what actually happened is not a good thing at all.

I did like the goblins and Kit's job. I just need more about why. I liked Flowerwatch.

So overall I just needed more. The ideas were good but it just didn't live up to its potential. I needed way more goblins and less contemporary romance and bad sex.

I received an ARC of The Goblins of Bellwater from NetGalley. This is the first title I have read from this author and had little to no expectations in mind. This said I was thoroughly surprised with this story! It started off a little slow, but after about 20% of the way in, picked up and was a quick and enjoyable read! The characters had very little depth, but overall it was a wonderfully enjoyable in-between type of read. I will definitely be trying more books by this author.

I really, really wanted to like this book. With a beautiful cover and an intriguing plot, I had high hopes. The very first part of this book was promising, with an eerie atmosphere and a creepy forest filled with goblins. Unfortunately, the book fell flat after the first few chapters and it failed to capture me after that. I felt like I was forcing myself to read it and I had no desire to pick it up. The characters were so flat and the conversations between them were incredibly stilted. There was also just not enough goblins and magic for a book about goblins and magic. It took too long for anything to happen and when things finally started happening, I just didn't care anymore.

Overall, I was looking for something a bit more eerie and creepy with a much faster plot and better character development.

Goblins, fae, and gold - oh my! Plus, new adult contemporary. So if you like these genres like I do, you're in for an awesome read. I really, really enjoyed The Goblins of Bellwater. Like, 4.5/5 stars enjoyed it. From the very beginning I was swept up in the story and because the writing is so easy to read, and all of the characters are interesting, and its told from alternating POV's, I was engaged throughout the entire book.

The story goes like this: Kit's family is cursed. For generations now, one member of their family must bring the goblins of the forest a tribute of gold each month or else the goblins will attack a member or members of the local town. Kit is the current liason. Now, he's a good guy and he hates stealing from people to give to the goblins but he hates having people attacked more. Lately Kit has been coming up a little short. The goblins aren't always honest and well-behaved either. Enter: the Darwen sisters.

Livy Darwen is a local environmental scientist and Skye is a barista. They both love the forests and have grown up believing in "teeny tinies" living in the woods. Well, to shorten the synopsis, there is a goblin curse on one of the sisters. The curse must be broken. Kit's cousin, Grady, who is a chef, steps in to help. Relationships blossom. The curse gets worse before it gets better. There is adventure, there is an alliance with local fae (the good guys), there's a battle, there's minor drama, there's an ending. Ta-daaa!!

So put this one on your Christmas lists, folks! I really liked this one! It started off maybe a little slow but everything else was just perfect for me. The perfect mix of a bit of paranormal, twenty-something adults, romance, adventure/action, and not mind-numbingly difficult to read. Great book!

I was originally drawn to this book firstly by the cover and secondly the book description.
I wanted to love this book so much that I have tried reading it on several occasions but unfortunately I just couldn't finish it.
Not for me personally but if you like a lot of romance with a splash of magic then its certainly a book worth a try.

While I completely loved the dark and sinister vibe of THE GOBLINS OF BELLWATER, with the fae and goblins and dark forest, it ended up falling apart for me due to the problematic romance and rather slow storyline. It was mostly a contemporary romance about two couples falling in love rather than a totally entwined in the goblins side. The ending, of course, was very magical realism focused, but overall it lacked the magic I was looking for.

I do so love the cover though!

The setting was definitely vibrant and creepy and beautiful. The sinister vibes were so full of potential and I do love these "small town but with fae lurking in the corners" tropes!

I did like the characters, but wasn't ever quite invested in their lives. Grady wanting to be a chef was AMAZING and I loved all the food he made! Kit is forever fated to work for the goblins and bring them gold (although I would've liked to see him do MORE of this thievery on page, instead of just telling us about it) and he hates it but if he tries to get out of it, the goblins would just take his cousin, Grady. Livy is totally uninteresting but like a park ranger or something. And Skye, her 21 year old younger sister, follows a goblin trail and ends up enchanted to become a goblin. She accidentally sees Grady in the woods and claims him as her enchanted mate to try and get out of marrying a goblin. However she just passes the curse to him and together they fall madly and swiftly in love.

Grady and Skye's romance did NOT work for me due to that. It was not consenting, was it?! So while it was full of sex and they apparently "loved it" .... it was really wrong. And the book just sort of glossed over that at the end by saying "well you both enjoyed it!" I felt the gravity of the situation was just flicked away when this was actually something that should've been treated as very very dark.

And the rest read like an average contemporary romance, with Kit and Livy just going out for milkshakes and being so open and functional about their thoughts and feelings. I mean...who does that. Livy had no personality and Kit wasn't even DOING anything. Plus with all the very honestly open discussions about their feelings for each other, it left nothing to be guessed at or shipped. It was just "hi, let's have coffee, let's talk, let's have sex, let's have a crush, let's be in love." Okay then.

It also fell into a problematic mental illness trope of saying "Oh look! GOOD! You're not mentally ill, you're just magical." Which is really a slap in the face to the MI community. There was also a comment from Grady that Skye couldn't be "damaged goods" because she had a degree and was quite successful as an artist. Like depressed people can't achieved those things? Hmm, stop.

Ultimately it had a lot of potential but the execution let down the storyline.

The Goblins of Bellwater is based on Christina Rossetti's poem, Goblin Market but taken into a modern setting. I've not read the poem but I think The Goblins of Bellwater. manages to stand on its own -- you don't need to know the poem to read the book.

I was drawn in by the premise and the twisty plot. The idea the goblins have a liaison which impunity to steal for them is a really cool idea, made all the more interesting by how much Kit doesn't want to be involved. I really liked the goblins -- named for the first things they've stolen like Redring and Slide (for 'Slide to Unlock' on an iPhone) -- they were so quirky and inhuman. The scenes in the goblins woods are wonderfully atmospheric and well-written -- I could absolutely imagine myself being lured into those dark woods by a trail of shining mushrooms.

Unfortunately, I definitely enjoyed the setup and earlier sections of the book, I found myself losing interest as we went along. I just didn't really connect to any of the four main characters -- although I did appreciate the effort the author went to give them each their own interests such as art or cooking. Maybe because I wasn't sold on the characters, the romance(s) didn't particularly work for me either -- although, again, I appreciate we had older-woman-younger-man relationships that weren't treated as something funny or unusual (they're not a big difference though if that concerns you, just a couple of years).

Ultimately, this book just wasn't for me.

This review will be posted on my blog, Foxes and Fairy Tales on 7 Dec 2017.
https://foxesfairytale.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/review-the-goblins-of-bellwater

**I was given an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

So, basically I picked this book up for two reasons.

1. That cover.

2. The fact that it's NA and I was expecting to read some smut.

Only one of those things didn't end up disappointing me at all and that was the cover.

So, this book is told from 4 different perspectives. Kit Sylvain is the liaison to the goblin tribe that lives in the forest near Bellwater, Washington. This curse on his family requires him to bring a monthly offering of gold to the goblins to keep them from causing trouble with unsuspecting people.

Skye is an artist who loves the forest and finds herself cursed by the goblins after following one of their secret paths. She is unable to talk about it and is doomed to slowly lose her humanity and become a goblin. Grady is Kit's cousin, who was pulled into this curse by Skye.

And then Livy is Skye's older sister.

Basically, this book was a lot of meh written romance and creepy, cackling goblins. It did not feel like NA to me. The characters were supposed to be in their 20s, but definitely didn't feel that way. Out of the two relationships in the book, I think I only really liked Kit and Livy together. Skye and Grady was completely instalove. It was totally goblin-curse related, but still.

And being that this was NA, I was expecting some smut. There was a lot of sex going on in this book, but it's all off the page.

I read this book fairly quickly despite the fact that it really started to drag for me. It wasn't particularly exciting until the end, but by that point, I was just kind of over it and praying for it to be over.

If 2017 has taught me anything, it's that goblin books aren't for me. First Wintersong, now this.

I came into this book with my expectations pretty high, but it still managed to surpass them. Wow! I haven't read ANY books with goblins before but this is exactly what I imagine goblins to be: sinister, mischievous and way more powerful and clever than they look.I read Christina Rossetti's poem 'Goblin Market' when I was in school and adored it, and I found this adaptation of it to be superb. It's set in modern day too which made the book even more fun!

I loved basically everything about this book and it's a top contender for favourite read of the year. The story was gripping, full of plot twists and turns that kept it moving. I never felt bored. I liked how Ringle imagined the curse would change Skye, and it's side effects were very clever The introduction of Kit and Grady was great, and I liked them both a lot. Ringle really developed all of her characters well and it made for an interesting read. The story is present-day and Ringle expertly blended magic with a contemporary setting. I could literally picture everything that she wrote happening in my head and I loved that she introduced rules for the Fae too. Also - thank you Molly Ringle for not turning this into a 'girl falls in love with a goblin' story. Much appreciated.

I have no real niggles at all with this one. Everything flowed perfectly and I smiled from beginning to end. Perhaps Livy's reaction to Kit when he told her about his situation struck me as a little off. I don't think anyone would really jump to 'serial killer' more 'wow, this guy is a bit superstitious and weird, oh well laugh it off and move on'. Still, when that's literally the ONLY FAULT I can find with a book, I call it a winner.

I tried reading this a bunch of times and could never finish the first chapter. I really wanted to read it since I was disappointed in Shadowsong since it was also about the Goblin King. At least with Shadowsong I made 75% in it.

I first heard the poem this novel is based on in high school and loved it. I found this book to be enjoyable, if a little short. It captured the essence of the poem with the powerful, wicked goblins tempting a beautiful girl into falling under their curse.

Occasionally the language felt stilted and awkward, I think in trying to make the voices of the characters relatable it just came off as simple. Overall, the novel was a sexy, dark and a quick read

I'm a sucker for Pre-Raphaelites, so a novel based on Rossetti's "Goblin Market" really called to me. And I enjoyed the author's imagery and also the chemistry between KIt and Livy. Any talk of Grady's cooking also sent me running to the kitchen for a snack, too. Flaws - the trials that Livy had to face felt rushed, and most of the battle between the fairies happened "off screen." But I did like the idea of the goblins being an invasive species. Overall, it wasn't a perfect book, but it was a fun, fast read.

unfortunately this novel was not one that was for me. I didn't really understand the concept and felt a bit confused throughout the novel. I think that this novel just isn't one for me, but if you're looking for a cooky, fantastical read, then I definitely think you should pick this novel up.

I received this ARC copy from NetGalley for an honest opinion. Even though it took me a long ass time to finish(life happening), I enjoyed this book. I never read books about fae well if you don’t count TMI/TID/TDA series by Cassandra Clare. I loved someone wrote a book about how evil fae can be & not just the good fae because like who doesn’t want evil fae! I liked everything that happened in the book & I hope there more in the series if not this book is awesome!

Be forewarned: this book is odd and full of sex, and will mess with you. It's not a usual kind of novel, and definitely not contemporary romance as it's being advertised. All this aside, I think I loved this novel, but I'm left unsure because of just how strange it was. Ever see the movie "Dark City," or "Labyrinth"? Even "Pan's Labyrinth"? A bit like that. 

This book falls more under the umbrella of "Magical Realism" than contemporary romance, in my opinion. The fascinating world of the goblins is explored, and boy does it put you on edge the whole way through! The author has an incredible talent for drawing you into the story, all while making you feel simultaneously attracted and repulsed by what you read.

One of the biggest complaints I've seen in reviews has been that the romance(s) felt forces, and the sex was terrible. I think that was the point, and if so, then I really, really appreciate it. It was so different from what I'm used to reading! The relationships are toxic and odd,  so... human. These four people are linked by blood, love, or by lust, and it ties them together in such a way that their lives depend on each other. It's surreal and unusual. All in all, don't come into this expecting a meet cute and romance, prepare to feel uncomfortable as heck.

The atmosphere is so macabre. I loved feeling dragged into this world, and the idea of goblins in the forest, stealing your iPhones, felt like a refreshing update on a tale as old as time. The challenges Livy faces at the end completely encompass the adventure of a fairy tale hero, and I love that the love of her sister brings her through.

So long as you're willing to read a book that will leave you feeling icky and uncertain, then you should give this book a try. Do not go into it looking for romance: get ready for the disgusting side of magic, and especially, for the Goblins.

As someone who lives in the area of where Goblins of Bellwater takes place, I got a big kick out of the description of the environment, jobs, and hobbies of the main characters. It was hilarious to see all the clichés. A Barista, a Chainsaw Artist, and a Forest Ranger? I mean, how much more PNW can you get? It very much does throw the reader into the Puget Sound culture. That made the book worth reading for me. However, the actual story and its characters felt lacking. I wasn't able to connect with either and ultimately did not finish the book. In the future, I'd like to give it another shot and re-read it. Until then, I'll make sure to stop and think of the goblins the next time I'm out on a walk in the woods.