Kindly provided with a ARC via Netgally in exchange for an honest review.......
This was right up my street !!! I had zero expectations about this book. Oh my god I sounded convincing didn't I ?. I was all ready and waiting for some human and paranormal interactions. A little shock, a little twist and a whole lot of heat and this book delivered !.
This was Grim and Annie's tale. Grim is our para and polices the paranormal citizens of sorts. Annie our lead is a human who suddenly is up deep and personal with the things that go bump in the night.
I must admit, in the beginning I really had to concentrate to keep up with the back story and the whose who.
Overall great start to the trilogy !! Hopefully I will get the opportunity to emerge myself again with The Next Book in the Folk Trilogy.
Well done Meg and many thanks for this opportunity xx
Later peeps xxx

Loved this book. I have read a lot of books on the "fae" and some have proved disappointing. The world is rich and draws on world lore of the different kinds of "folk"

I really enjoyed Away. Yes, it is obviously the first of a UF series, which means a lot of world building. There were a lot of characters/groups that needed to be introduced. But it held my attention. It was at times slow, but I think (hope) that will be resolved in future books. Interesting world and characters, and a solid plot. I will definitely look for more books by this author.

I'm a big fan of Meg's books and I love PNR, so when I saw this on Netgalley I was excited to get a copy. I read her Ramos Family series which followed a family that could interact with ghosts and thought she did a great job in balancing romance with paranormal elements and some creepiness (although not too much). In this book, instead of ghosts, the paranormal elements come from Fae and other paranormals who migrated to the US from Europe many years ago and settled in the area around the Rocky Mountains and Denver, CO.

The book was a bit confusing initially as she introduced the various families but didn't really give any info about why they were paranormal. I assume this was done because in this world, they are hiding their true natures, not "out" to humans. The main character, Annie, is a human woman who knows nothing about them, so they are only revealed as she starts to learn more. She's come to Golden, CO and gotten a job as a waitress in a bar that unbeknownst to her, caters to the paranormal families. As the book opens, she is starting to notice some strange things about the bar patrons, and then, at the end of the night, she has a run in with a group of Fae (she doesn't know that's what they are) and could swear that one of them was her long-lost older brother. He walked into a cave in the mountains at age 18 (leaving her at the mouth of the cave), disappeared, and was presumed dead. Also on the same night, Annie meets the hero, Grim, who she is told is a type of detective, so the next day, she hires him to try to find her brother. She doesn't yet know that Grim is actual part of a paranormal organization that is charged with policing the local families and making sure that they don't reveal themselves to humans.

I find that Meg excels in writing romances between adults. Her characters fall in love and actually trust and talk to each other instead of acting childish and running away whenever they are hurt. Annie and Grim are no exception. As the book goes on, Annie is targeted by some supernatural creatures, and when it becomes clear to Grim that she is in danger, he promptly discloses the truth about the paranormal families in the area to her so that she knows what she's dealing with. Usually, this would be endlessly drawn out and the poor human hero or heroine would be left in the dark way too long, so I really appreciated that the author didn't do that here. Plus, Grim is already falling hard for Annie and wants to protect her. He doesn't deny his feelings are try to hide them, but lets her know how is starting to feel and I loved that.

All in all, I really liked the book and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one. My initial confusion with the worldbuilding cleared up as the book went on. My only complaint was that there wasn't enough magic, but again that's by design as in this world, the paranormals have all pretty much lost the really strong magic that they had and are now just left with remnants - enough to set them apart, but not enough to make them all powerful.

Away, Book 1 of the Folk Trilogy,  Meg Benjamin

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Romance, Sci-fi and Fantasy.

I've never read any of Meg's books before so I didn't know what to expect. I really enjoyed this story, and look forward to reading more in the series.
I did get a little confused in the beginning by who was who and how they fitted into the story, there are a lot of different supernatural groups, and they integrate differently. It took me a while to work out just how they all fit together. Maybe a glossary of characters would be helpful? Explaining things like the difference between the Ward and the Guard when at first they both seemed to me to be doing the same thing. I certainly didn't guess who was behind things, and I love a story that catches me out like that.
I found the characters pretty realistic, even fantasy folk have to feel real to me. I liked Grim, liked his determination to do what was right, when it was needed, to find out the truth, not just do a supernatural cover-up from the humans thing. Annie was great too, and her story very plausible.
First books in a series have a difficult task, introducing a new world and characters while delivering an interesting story. This book does that pretty well I feel, could have had a little more depth and drama but that's me...I love drama. Its not heart stopping romance, nor edge of seat scariness, but a fun read, and a world I want to read more from.

Stars: Four, an excellent start and I'll look out for book two.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers