The Sixth Wife

by Laura Lond

Adelia has no one to blame for her heartache. She’d been cautioned, many times and by many people. Everyone except her mother had told her it was folly to marry an elf, citing a host of reasons. Adelia knew their warnings were not unfounded. She knew he was very different from her and her kind, he was much older, and he’d had five other wives before her. She didn’t care. She had chosen her path.

Genres: Fantasy

21 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 30, 2012

About the author

Laura Lond is an internationally published author of 20+ novels, novellas, and short stories. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. Her first job was at a literary museum. After that Laura had entered the world of business, working for large corporations like Xerox Ltd. and Fluor Daniel. Writing, however, has always been her passion. When she was blessed with an opportunity to write fiction full time (well, almost...), Laura embraced it and never looked back.

Laura prefers to write in the fantasy genre, but she has ventured out into contemporary fiction as well ("Five Million Dollar Cat," "If Grandma Ain't Happy"). She appreciates good, clean humor and often incorporates it in her works.

In addition to novels and short fiction, Laura has also released a series of children's coloring books and picture books ("Rhyming Names Funny Animals," "Help! We're Black and White" "Funny Poems," "The Kitten Who Liked To Dress Up"). While she sometimes uses artificial intelligence tools to create book covers and illustrations, Laura's texts are always 100% authentic, written by herself without any use of AI.

Reviews

[Kayla]

Years ago, I read the book A Merman's Kiss by Laura Lond and really enjoyed it. Ever since then, I've wanted to read her other books but found myself getting distracted by other books that were on my list. Recently, I decided to pick up her book The Sixth Wife. I'm glad I did. I'm kicking myself for not reading it sooner. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

There were so many things I loved about The Sixth Wife. One of the things that made it stand apart from other books was that covered the human's perspective living with elves. In all of the fairy tales, you don't really ever see that, especially later on in the human's life when they have to deal with aging. It was a fresh perspective that really brought something new to the table and made me fall in love with the writing and the characters.

I also enjoyed seeing Ametar's backstory, and learning why he was affected the way he was. When I was reading the book at first, I just thought he was being a complete jerk with one of his rules, even though he did override it. Then once I learned his backstory everything started to make sense. I felt a lot of sympathy for him, and genuinely really started to like him. I also really loved the way the book ended. I don't think the author could have come up with a better ending. It made me so happy that after everything that had happened, the book ended the way it did (trying to be vague because I don't want to spoil it for anyone).

I think Laura Lond is becoming one of my favorite short story fantasy writers, if not one of my favorite short story writers in general. I love the way that she can take a 20-page story and make you fall in love with the characters, the setting, and the plot in such a short time. I definitely plan on picking up more of her books. This time I'm not going to wait 4 or 5 years before I do. I have one clicked some of her books once I was done with The Sixth Wife. I plan on reading them over the summer. I can't wait to dive into more of her work.

[Mummy Cat Claire]

This is a nice paranormal/fantasy novella.

Each wife has retired to Rosendoll at the age of 50. Adelia is the first wife to reach the age of 75 and is preparing to leave to Rosendoll, where she will live out the remainder of her life, away from her husband.

The book opens up with the introduction of the heroine. She reflects on when she was 18 and met Ametar. Adelia tells about her family didn't approve of her marrying Ametar because of what he was. They felt he couldn't offer her everything she deserved from a spouse. She concludes with her marriage and what it has meant to her. She talks about how she doesn't want to retire to Rosendoll but feels like she has to to make her husband happy.

"She knew he was very different from her and her kind, he was much older, and he'd had five other wives before..."

As the reader learns about Adelia and her part comes to a conclusion, the book switches POVs to Ametar. He tells about his history and about each of his wives.
1.Hannah
2. Isabelle
3. Matilda
4. Eleanor
5. Camilla
6. Adelia

He tells how his Elf kind think him odd for choosing human wives. His true love was Hannah but he loves Adelia as well. After he meets up with an old war buddy, Ametar learns of a ceremony he never knew about before.

This was a second read through of this story. I remember reading this several years ago but couldn't remember the specifics. I was happy to read through it again as I liked it the first time through.

I noticed the names in the book aren't super creative. Some are better than others. The world building is non-existent. It wouldn't have added much to the story anyway. The story really is about the two, Adelia and Ametar.

Overall, there's not much of a resolution concerning Ametar and his first wife, Hannah. The author makes it clear that he loved her very much. With the sixth wife, Adelia, I wanted to know more about why he loved her more or the same as Hannah. It almost was forced for me. The author really could have spent some time with this issue. There wasn't much depth to the characters. I know now that novellas can have depth and substance and this book doesn't. As far as being creative, there's nothing new. The idea of Ametar marrying humans was interesting but the author could have given the reader so much more because the story ends up flat.

Content: clean

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Cindy]

Laura Lond - The Sixth Wife

This is a short, very charming piece with a fairy tale feel. Our heroine, Adelia, is the sixth wife of elven knight, Ametar. No, he’s not Bluebeard or Henry the Eighth for that matter. Since he is extremely long-lived he simply outlives his mortal wives. He married the first one because he felt sorry for her – he wished to give her ease and comfort from an extremely unpleasant situation. He fell deeply in love with her but lost her to sudden illness nine years later. He was devastated.

He tried to recapture the happiness and love he had had with Hannah with wives number two and three but chose badly. He was more successful with wives four and five but suffered all the more when they aged and died. He had no plans for another mortal wife, in fact, the elven priest has repeatedly pressured him to find an elven woman with whom he could share the centuries. But he met Adelia and fell in love…

Adelia, who married him at eighteen, loves him deeply – as deeply as he loves her. Being surrounded by the cool and eternally beautiful elves was always difficult for her and now she is aging. At the start of the story she is seventy-five and looks like his grandmother. He tries to reason with her:
“You do realize looks are deceiving, don’t you? I am not staying young, I only appear so. I am not younger than you are; I am much, much older, with all sorts of scars and burdens inside. My body may not show my age, but it’s there all the same. You don’t need to hide from me just because your body works differently.”
But it is to no avail, she chooses to retire to another location with her memories for company for whatever time remains to her.

Ametar is called to assist with some rescued captives and in so doing finds a friend whom he thought long dead. A friend who mentions an obscure rite, one that would tie her lifeline to his… A rite the priest who claimed to be his friend had neglected to mention ‘for his own good’.

Needless to say they manage a lovely ‘happily ever after’. I really enjoyed this one.

[Kathie (katmom)]

This is a 21 page novella. While it was a nice, short read, it could have been spectacular. Ms. Lond has created a rather fascinating world with elves, humans, deception, and intrigue. While it moved at a fast pace, I felt that I really wanted to see clarification of some points and the end was quite rushed.

Adelia's husband, an elf, has not changed outwardly since she married him more than fifty years ago. She has aged, since she's human, and is now in her 70's. Ametar is a warrior and at the beginning of their story, he's still in love with his first wife, also a human. In fact, all of his wives were human. He keeps searching to find the kind of love that he and the first one shared.

There's mention of wars and backstory as to who all the players are in this book. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of that as it all sounded quite fascinating.

We've all heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this story carries that theme out. Adelia needed to come to that realization.

Ametar, and his search for love, was the best part of the story. I liked him.

While I enjoyed it, I did wish for more within the story. One thing this short did for me was to ensure that I'll be searching out more works by the author.


*Thank you, NetGalley and Laura Lond, for the opportunity to read The Sixth Wife

[Rhonda]

Review: The Sixth Wife by Laura Lond
4 STARS This is a short story that keeps your attention. From the title I was thinking the book would be a lot different than it was. It kept my attention, really easy to follow the story. I listened to it on my kindle. I was given this ebook in exchange for honest review from Librarything. Adelia at the start is packing and getting ready to leave her husband. She has not told him yet. Starts by telling how she fell in love with the Elf. Also mentioned his other 5 wives and what happened to them. I enjoyed it and wish it were a little longer. I would buy other books by Laura Lond in the future. 21 pages.

[Olivia]

A very interesting read, I wanted more. Bring up what you back up! This felt like a children's story, yet it deals with aging... If it had been twice as long, I would call it a novella. The author could have easily spent another four or five hours on this work at added much needed pages and content.

The story was too big for the length, and needed more depth and less fluff.

Could have been good! I enjoyed reading it, but would not pay money for it.

[Loralee]

The story read like an outline of a book rather than a book itself. I realize that it's a novella, but there still could have been more details that would have helped readers connect to the characters. There were also numerous questions that the story never answered. The author's imagination is fantastic, but the lack of details hurt the story.

[Laura]

3.5-4 Stars, Read for HRCYED 3.0

This was a very sweet short story. The author somehow managed to squeeze some interesting world building and romance in under 40 pages.

I could see myself reading more from this author and rating it higher.

[J.A. Fleming]

Love the idea of this story. Not sure it's entirely realistic, but I enjoyed it just like I would have an unrealistic romantic movie. I really enjoy Lond's writing style and the worlds she creates.

[Robert Zimmermann]

Without much to go by from the blurb, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into when I started this story. To go along with the vague blurb, the cover was also misleading. All in all, I was pleased with how this story worked out.

This story takes place in mainly Adelia’s later years (her late 50′s) as she’s dealing with the fact that she’s an aging human living in an ageless elf world, living with her elf husband who hasn’t changed in appearance since the day they married. On the surface, this story wasn’t the completely to my liking. But when I took a closer too at the themes involved, I found that there was more to it than I saw at first glance.

This isn’t only a strange attempt at a romance between an elf who’s still hung up on his first wife, who died on him countless years ago, and a human who’s grown to accept the fact that she doesn’t belong in a world surrounded by elves. There’s an underlying theme of what inner beauty really means, and how vanity can often get in the way of happiness. I’d like to have seen this be a little more prominent, but it was still there and in a way worked well not as an in-your-face element.

This story started out a bit slow, but my enjoyment picked up more when it got closer to the big revelation. That was when the story began moving forward instead of dwelling on the characters’ pasts, when it wasn’t going anywhere. It made me wish there was more to the story because it set up a better, bigger picture of the world these elves, humans, and other creatures live in. In turn that brought up a conflict between some characters that could have been elaborated on for a bit more story to add.

I felt that while the characters weren’t terribly written, Adelia lacked much dimension and Ametar’s character bordered on more complex. There was much more back story to work with for Ametar, and with his numerous wives, he was more complicated. It was this combination of characters that has me questioning just what kind of romance they have.

Despite some areas where I feel this story was lacking, I did after it all, enjoy what was accomplished. If the author were to have a story, or even novel, that elaborated more on Ametar’s character and his accomplishments, I would be sure to check it out. There’s much to that character that could make a great companion to this short story.

[SARIT]

This is a short story. It was a rather interesting storyline and one that I think many can relate to aging and loving someone. The story takes place in Adelia’s late years (50' to 70′s) as she’s dealing with the fact that she’s an aging human living in an ageless elf world, living with her elf husband who hasn’t changed in appearance since the day they married.
This isn’t only a strange attempt at a romance between an elf who’s still hung up on his first wife, who died on him countless years ago, and a human who’s grown to accept the fact that she doesn’t belong in a world surrounded by elves.
There’s an underlying theme of what inner beauty really means, and how vanity can often get in the way of happiness - Ametar tried to recapture the happiness and love he had had with Hannah with wives number two and three but chose badly. He was more successful with wives four and five but suffered all the more when they aged and died. He had no plans for another mortal wife, in fact, the elven priest has repeatedly pressured him to find an elven woman with whom he could share the centuries. But he met Adelia and fell in love… Adelia, who married him at eighteen, loves him deeply – as deeply as he loves her.

At age 50 Ametar succeeded to convince her to stay with him. But when the time pass by and her body kept betraying her - despite his begging her to stay, at age 75 she choose to retire to another place for whatever time remains to her. Ametar tried also to bring forward the argument that out side look is deceiving and he just look young but actually very old on the inside. Adelia, wasn't convinced, and left him to far away manor, of course preferring that he wouldn't come to visit.

The solution appear when Ametar called to assist with some rescued captives and there he find a friend whom he thought long dead. This friend mention to him a rite, that would tie Adelia lifeline to his(A rite the priest who claimed to be his friend had neglected to mention ‘for his own good’).

Usually i don't like to read short stories, as I finish them too quickly. But with this story I found myself keep thinking about many days after I finished it.... so I believe that it reach it target.

[Evie Woolmore]

At 7,500 words, The Sixth Wife is a long short story or a short novelette. It tells the story of Adelia, a human woman, and her elven husband Ametar, from both points of view, and has a strongly allegorical feel to it, as opposed to a fantasy one, considering the nature of ageing, death and love. A well-written story with a nice flow to it, the characters convey depth despite being simply drawn and Ms Lond includes enough description to set the scenes but not so much that the pace of the novelette slows.
But perhaps therein lies the missing 5th star for me, in that while the author has mastered the shortness of the form very effectively, I felt it didn’t quite fulfill its potential because it could have been longer. The easy charm of the two central characters and their different backgrounds left this reader wanting just that little bit more, and certainly there was capacity to do more with every aspect of the story, to show us more background, to share with us more insight into their personalities and experiences, to show rather than tell us better why there is such tension in the decision that has been made about their marriage. For two characters who loved each other so much, they seemed to keep a lot of information from each other! And I confess the ending almost disappointed me in its neatness, not least because there was scope to tell us so much more about why the solution had been kept from Ametar to begin with. But again, perhaps that was a concession to the shorter form, and it does not particularly harm the story.
Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable read and would make a great addition to a set of allegorical stories were Ms Lond to consider writing more in the same vein.

This novelette was reviewed for consideration by Awesome Indies (http://awesomeindies.net) and appears on the allonymbooks website too (http://wp.me/P2phbU-6u)

[Amélie]

Arc provided by Netgalley.

This short story is about Adelia, the 6th wife of an elf lord. At 75 years old, Adelia reflects on her life, how happy she had been at her husband's side and how, little by little, she has changed as she aged. At 75, she has made the decision to leave him in order to avoid the pain she suffers as the only human among a race of eternally young people. Adelia doesn't really understand her husband motivation, but faced with Adelia's decision, he too reflects upon his past and how he ended up marrying six human women.

I am not usually a great fan of narration through memories, but here it worked really well with the story and allow us to understand well Adelia and her husband as well as their feelings for each other and their motivations. We do not really learn much about the world where the story take place or about other characters, it really only focuses on the relationshp between Adelia and her husband. I was happily surprised by the happy ending as I expected something a bit more tragic. However, I was a bit disapponted at how short this story is (21 pages) as I would not mind spending more time with the characters, learning more about their live togetheir and their world.

It is a very short and sweet story and I would advised anyone to give it a try.

[Love Reading Romance]

The Sixth Wife is quite a peculiar story, so I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Much of it is written in the far past, beginning by recalling Adelia's decision to marry an elf, Ametar, and the difficulties of growing old around him. We then get his perspective which seems to be driven by a somewhat twisted desire to continually marry unfortunate human women despite the fact that he does not age.

The story progresses as Adelia and Ametar come to terms with how they might live without each other as she ages, or whether there are options for them to make it work together.

I didn’t understand Adelia’s feelings for Ametar since he seemed really creepy to me! Equally, too much of this very short novella (more a short story) was not spent dealing with their relationship but with his past and his discoveries away from her, so no passion felt developed between them.

The world building, however, was intriguing. It was well incorporated so that it didn’t take over the story, since there definitely wasn’t space for this, but captured an interesting fantasy world that I think I could read more of. It definitely made me wonder what Laura Lond’s longer stories are like. While The Sixth Wife didn’t work for me, I am a little curious as to how she might develop her ideas in a novel length story.

[namericanwordcat]

This story is written in the far removed third person of a fairy tale. The writer meticulously begins to build the world and the tone. However, the plot (while good in itself) is really a outline. All the details of developed characters, dialogue, and love are mere sketches. We simply have the big moments but we really don't connect or care because we don't get to the layered storytelling necessary.

This is a interesting world and the writing is clear but not compelling in terms of romance or fantasy. I think the writer does have it in her, however.

I was given this book for my honest review. So, there you have it.

[Lorin]

I really enjoyed this book. What a magical world to live in and it has left me wanting more after the discovery that Ametar and Adelia can now live forever as long as the other is not killed. You do feel sorry that Ametar wasn't aware of this pact when Hannah was alive but does make the story more intriguing this way. Would love to read a continuation of this book or maybe it will be made into a series. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

[Kathy]

While I knew this was a novella , it was really too short. This is a sweet story which could have been written into an interesting book but the author just seemed to stop. I was quite disappointed.

This was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. While I enjoyed reading it I would not pay to own it.

[Dana]

This is a short story - a novella about Adelia, a human woman who married Ametar, an elf, who has outlived his previous human wives because elves live much longer than humans. It is a sweet love story, with an interesting plot twist, but it is rather short. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

[Rachelle]

This is a great story, though I'll echo what other reviewers have said with it being too short. I know that's the point of a novella, but this was definitely one novella that left me wanting more. I hope that the author will write a full-length novel picking up where The Sixth Wife leaves off.

[Deborah Blanchard]

received this book through Library thing for an honest review. Too short, could have elaborated on the characters a little more. A human marries an elf. What she wrote was written okay, but way too short, left a lot to be desired.

[Jeraca]

Here is my review for "The Sixth Wife": http://jeracalea.blogspot.com/2012/08...

[Wanda]

The idea of the story was interesting but was too short. It left me feeling like I wanted more.

Copy Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

[Arianna]

This book was provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
It was very nice, bittersweet, full of longing, but definitely too short. It left me unsatisfied.
Vote: 3 stars

[Awesome Indies Book Awards]

Awesome Indies Book Awards is pleased to include THE SIXTH WIFE by LAURA LOND in the library of Awesome Indies' Badge of Approval recipients.

[Andrez]

Interesting enough.

[Aria]

What a sweet read!


This is a beautiful story about Adelia, a human woman who decides to marry an elf. A woman who fell in love and got married despite warnings and being cautioned by many people not to. He was older and had already had 5 human wives before her. Yet, the decision had been made and she would not regret it. She didn't care.


The way this book starts is particularly unique. We meet an old Adelia reminiscing her younger years and ready to leave her husband. She is no longer as beautiful or as youthful as she was and yet he remains the same as when they met. To spear him the sadness of her human state and future death, she is willing to leave his side.
Though it's a sad beginning, you feel that Adelia is wise and is still madly in love with the hero. And love may persevere... Who knows?


The feels and development of this short story are amazing! Yes, there's angst. But fear not, just read it and risk your heart. I guarantee you'll like it, but I don't want to spoil anything because it's so beautiful!

I wasn't sure how it was going to end, and I had my doubts. Turns out it filled my heart with fuzzies.

So why the low rating?
The book goes from Adelia's POV to the heroes. It flows nicely and romance is on spot and its a very satisfying read. Plot-wise, it's light and not too complicated. Its fast paced and it quickly makes an easy ending. Which was fine in some aspects but in others, it just made it a little too plain and unsatisfying. Did it need a little boost in the intrigue or a dose of action?
Not sure really... It was just evident that it was not looking to be mysterious for too long. So it's not that I don't like it. It's just that it's super easy and barely an inconvenience when you think about the main problem of the heroine.

So it turns out slightly unsatisfying when it comes to building the story and developing the plot.
No backgrounds and no detail to feed my brain, so that was also a con.
And I came to realize that for a short story it was good anyway despite that.

So this I was between 2.5 or 3 Stars. And I settled at three because it was sweet and enjoyable despite the flaws. Bus ride read it is! Recommended for people in a hurry and romance fans.