^[1]Arrabella Candellarbra

& the Questy Thing to End All Questy Things

by A K Wrox

Clan Destine Press

PAPERBACK ISBN: 978-0-9807900-6-1

EBOOK ISBN: 978-0-9871603-5-5

Reviewed by: Gaile Hughes ^[2]

Arrabella Candellarbra & the Questy Thing to End All Questy Things is the debut novel for newly minted author, A K Wrox.

It’s clear from the outset that this isn’t your average bodice-ripping, er, fairy tale, well um… comic fantasy and romance – with a hint of the erotic.  Yes, it does have a heroine, a hero, a fairy prince and the wisest of all wizards, and yes, it’s a quest story.  It’s all these things and much, much more.

The author’s crazy creativity is sheer genius. Arrabella Candellarbra is an adventure filled to the brim with quirky pop culture references and double, no triple, entendres.  It’s reminiscent of those much-vaunted full-bodied wines that leave the tasters or, in this case, the readers, with a fabulous story that lingers,  plays with the mind, and threatens, even days later, to gurgle and burble into full-bellied laughter.

You won’t want to put this story down; you’ll leap from one page-turning moment to the next.  The brilliant repartee and endless witticisms will hold you in thrall until the last page.  Then, like me, you’ll pick it up and read it again, in case you missed some morsel of mirth.

The story? Well it’s about Arrabella the chosen one; Lord Gary, the wisest of wise wizards; Prince Jim, the very fey fairy prince; and Lord Langley Kilkenny, the perfect specimen of manliness. Their quest has them pitted against the evilest of evil beings: the crone, Betty Sue, and her dastardly minions: the Barrella Monkeys, the Vicious-Tongued Frogs and, worst of all, the Sawtoothed Bunnies.

It’s also about love, lust, loyalty, sexual shenanigans, high kicking carry-ons, side-splitting hilarity, naughty to-dos, trickeries and troubles.

I’ve had the privilege to read this first offering by A.K. Wrox (who in reality is the talented duo of Amanda Wrangles and Kylie Fox) and can’t recommend it more highly.  Both authors have taken honours in the Sisters in Crime Annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards and individually write in other genres.

This is a tale of epic and hilarious proportions and while they may think that they’ve completed their story, I feel that the reading public will demand much, much more.