From Storm and Shadow cover reveal!

May 30, 2022May 30, 2022

Yes to fae fantasy and unlikely allies!

From Storm and Shadow, by Rachel Morgan, is the first in a new series, Storm Fae, and set in the same world as her Creepy Hollow series. It’s also one of my favorite cover types, but we’ll get to that…

Giveaway and Deals

For a giveaway through Book of Matches Media, head to my Instagram page for details. Otherwise, you can pick up Ms. Morgan’s entire previous series, Creepy Hollow, for just $2.99 until tomorrow (May 31, 2022). And in case you’re wondering, there are nine books! Get the deal through this UBL.

Synopsis

Return to the beloved bestselling World of Guardians…

When Silver’s parents are murdered in front of her by the people she’s trusted for years, she flees the fae realm and begins a new life pretending to be human.

More than two years later, she believes she’s finally safe—until the night someone from the Guild shows up.

Ash.

The boy who was once her best friend. The boy who tried to kill her.

He’s on the run now as well, after discovering the same secret that led to Silver’s parents’ deaths. Or so he says.

The forest they grew up in has become a dangerous place, crawling with fae monsters, and Ash claims he needs Silver’s help. The discovery her parents made years ago could be the only thing to save their home.

Silver knows Ash is only using her—he’s a guardian, after all, and they’re the ones who took everything from her—but she can’t turn her back on the home she still loves.

And so she forms a fragile truce with the boy who broke her heart. Stepping back into the world she swore never to return to, she sets out on a dangerous path to unlock the secrets of the past.

But neither Silver nor Ash are prepared for the true horror of what they will find lurking in the shadows of Stormsdrift.

From Storm and Shadow can be purchased here. And now for the pretty picture…

I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for ominous covers with blossoms. Maybe it’s from my childhood The Secret Garden obsession, but I always want to dive on in!

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

-CKB

The Cruel Prince review

February 14, 2022February 22, 2022

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m posting a day early with an often controversial YA romantic fantasy. Heard a lot about it and wondered whether it was for you? Read my The Cruel Prince review below.

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1), by Holly Black (YA fantasy, romantic fantasy; January 2, 2018)

Based on what I’d heard, I didn’t expect to like this book. A cruel love interest? Not my cup of tea. Yet I finished reading this brisk, pulls-no-punches read in about three days and snatched up book two.

The Cruel Prince is unputdownable, sometimes because of the many bad things that come MC Jude Duarte’s way (the train wreck phenomenon, if you will). Other times, it’s because it genuinely sizzles and hooks the reader. What a strangely effective mix of exciting, high-stakes plot developments and dread! Like the cruel prince himself, it’s a little bit manipulative and a lotta bit addicting.

Part of why this works is because Jude is easy to identify with. One of the few humans in fairy, she is an outsider who has a love-hate relationship with her father figure, stands up to bullies and just wants some say in her life, for crying out loud. She’s a typical teen with familiar problems, only dropped into a wicked, dangerous world where she is constantly at a disadvantage and her mortality is shoved in her face. Except for Jude, the threats she faces are nothing compared to what her protective fae father, the blood-soaked General Madoc, would do in a rage. She chooses to greet them in silence.

I don’t care for books that handle violence—especially against the weak—callously. Verging on grimdark, the casual viciousness of The Cruel Prince’s fae world was almost too dark to keep me reading. Jude’s situation feels as hopeless as it is complex, but just as she’s headed on a mission of self-destruction through challenging Cardan, the cruel prince of the title, she is offered not only agency but a real role in fairy. One that’s not “cowering human.” The way she develops saves the book from wallowing in darkness and dread, without making everything sunny or allowing her an unlikely amount of power.

The chemistry between Jude and Cardan relies on both tropes and a promise: Jude is the girl from the wrong (human) side of the tracks whom Cardan is both repulsed by and attracted to; the reader is regularly reassured that if fairy wasn’t a vile place of twisted politics and people, Cardan would be a pretty cool dude. Whether or not the last part is believable will vary by reader, but there’s real heat behind their forbidden attraction dynamic.

Like any “good girl” drawn to a “bad boy,” the fact that Cardan is an enigma leaves both Jude and the reader to imagine him as someone better than he may actually be. Knowing that Jude is not and does not wish to be the good girl (in fact, she can’t be in this unsettling interpretation of fairy, if she wants to thrive), makes it more than a little frustrating at times.

So will these two schemers learn to plot together? Or will the unwritten rules of the fae leave them plotting against one another forever? Only one thing is certain: don’t expect the answer to come anytime soon.

My rating:

 4.5/5

To learn more about this author, visit blackholly.com.

Review: A Trial of Thorns (Rookwood & Vince)

July 13, 2021July 12, 2021

A Trial of Thorns (A Court of Fairy Tales #2), by Helena Rookwood and Elm Vince (June 17, 2021; fantasy, fairytale retelling)

(Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

A Trial of Thorns departs from its roots as a Beauty and the Beast retelling as a major plot twist plays out, dropping Aster in the middle of court fae trials to determine who will be the next king or queen of the fae. Best of all, Aster, whose character is drawn from Belle/Beauty, continues to forge her own path.

Caught in a contest of fae heirs as an unwilling champion, Aster flounders more desperately in A Trial of Thorns. And it’s no wonder: she’s in unfamiliar territory. Everything about the fae of this series sets them apart from humans, from their unearthly beauty to their superhuman abilities and lifespans. Aside from Thorn and the Forest Court, humans don’t mean much to the average fae—and are treated accordingly. Worse still, Aster’s abilities as a greenwitch and enchantress are rendered null in the Sky Court, where the only plants are contained in greenhouse.

I appreciated but did not fully love A Trial of Thorns at first (excepting the parts with the wonderful brownie Mosswhistle, who is perfect in all scenes). The last third to quarter of the book, however, is superb. The authors don’t let Aster and Thorn have a mindless happily ever after that ignores their problems. Instead, they lean in to the severe issues between humans and fae.

It’s a pleasure to see Aster not let Thorn and her other fae friends off the hook, and to take charge of her situation. The serious conversations between them are well-rendered and everything you’d want from an independent and compassionate heroine.

The descriptive writing is not as strong in this book, largely because Rookwood and Vince excel at writing about the natural world—especially when it skews toward dark fantasy. The Sky Court is almost clinical in nature, full of marble and character-less luxury (the House Hunters crowd would be unimpressed, but hey, Faolan’s got his own style). The Trials themselves are creatively designed, and reminded me pleasantly of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with a dash of Greco-Roman mythology. Which means there’s always a clever twist for readers to enjoy. Those are my kind of trials.

I did miss the authors’ forest descriptions and the constant danger of the Folkwood. The dangers Aster faces in A Trial of Thorns come more from brutal, conniving fae plots and politics; those who enjoyed reading about Tyrion and the other Lannisters in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series will be happiest, while fans of Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching will be rooting for Aster to find her way home.

A Trial of Thorns is something of a transitional book, as so many second books are (I’m looking at you, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!), and that usual means some growing pains. But I put down this book satisfied with the direction the series is going in, happy with Aster’s evolution (get ’em, girl!) and excited for whatever happens next.

To learn more about these authors, please visit helenarookwood.com and elmvince.com.

Review: An Enchantment of Thorns (Rookwood & Vince)

March 27, 2021June 9, 2021

Today’s Indie Book Spotlight lands on a retelling of one of my very favorite tales…

An Enchantment of Thorns (A Court of Fairy Tales #1), by Helena Rookwood and Elm Vince (Romantic Fantasy/Fairy Tale Retelling, May 6, 2021)

Note: I received a free advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Holy mackerel! I love this book.

In all seriousness, this retelling of Beauty and the Beast was everything I could have asked for. For one thing, the magic has been upgraded more than a few levels. The royals of An Enchantment of Thorns are not just people born into the ruling class, but long-limbed, terrifying and impossibly graceful fae who belong to multiple courts throughout the land. But there’s more than one kind of fae in this world, and it’s hard to say which is more dangerous.

Narrator Aster is most familiar with the fae of the Folkwood, which surrounds her home in Rosehill. The Folkwood is a dangerous place, full of wicked tricksters (the small folk) and deadly ones, like the puca who’s been stalking Aster since the day it took her mentor, Sage. There’s also the beast, a fae creature seen once a year at the Tithe (more on the that in a minute).

Haunted by Sage’s death and burdened with replacing her as Rosehill’s only greenwitch, heroine Aster lives her life bottled up, geographically and emotionally. She’s as comfortable in a fight, thanks to her father’s training, as she is nurturing both plants and humans, often doing both in the same day. But she’s not as empowered as she seems. When the local farmers ignore her orders, or when servants in her wealthy half-sister’s household murmur each time Aster visits, there’s nothing Aster can do but suck it up. As her butt-kicking older sister Laurel puts it, Aster isn’t exactly living a complete life.

Roses with thorns

The characters in An Enchantment of Thorns are complex and unique. To break the curse, Aster must drop her prejudices against fae; after 99 years of cursed life, Throne must learn to let go of his. But are the fae to be trusted?

“To Rosehill, you have to be the calm and collected greenwitch who keeps her head in emergencies,” Laurel says, “but I know you, Aster…I know how much you feel.” Those emotions will be the key to Aster’s future and developing her particular human craft. They’re also what lands her at the beast’s Cursed Court, via the annual Tithe.

Once a year, every girl of a certain age must step onto a pathway that forms in the Folkwood. One girl will be chosen, and never seen again; the rest return shaken and almost unable to describe the terrible and beautiful fae lord they’ve just seen. If the people of Rosehill try to resist the Tithe—if even one girl fails to appear—the Folkwood closes in on all the girls, and no one survives. Yet the girls presented at the Tithe are meant to look “pretty and innocent,” with a requisite crown of flowers in their hair. As Aster describes it, “this was not a day for beauty. This was a day for iron and steeled nerves.”

When Aster’s silly half-sister Ava and her friends read one too many fairy tales and want to be chosen, Aster, who is also of age for the Tithe, must intervene. No surprise—though she appears ragged and wearing thorns instead of pretty blooms—the beast picks Aster instead.

It’s hard not to picture the temperamental Disney beast at times, but this one, who goes by Thorne, is more beast after the curse is broken than before (albeit with a really good head of hair). His house is more woodland than palace. Thorne has servants, of course, but they are lesser fae, and include the adorable Mosswhistle, a brownie Aster lures into her service after a few days of torment by the little folk.

And they do torment her: invisible at first, they leave out a beautiful dress full of pins, snatch the heat from a steaming bath the moment she sets foot in it, and never grow tired of laughing at and mocking her. There’s no “be our guest,” sung or stated, in An Enchantment of Thorns.

Aster is an interesting character who makes a great vehicle for the reader; she falls in love slowly and unexpectedly enough that it never feels forced. What makes her interesting is never forced, either: Aster is a young woman with many responsibilities and very few choices. She’s found her calling with plants, but her days aren’t exactly her own.

Aster is young, and lacks the respect Sage had though she must do the same work. Even supportive big sister Laurel, a fighter working for their smuggler father, doesn’t realize just how much there is to Aster. “The Beast should beware if he chooses you at the Tithe this week, what with your arsenal of plants,” she quips. (But also note: at least half of my highlights in this book were Laurel’s lines.)

It’s wonderful to see Astrid gradually become empowered. Best of all, she becomes empowered before she’s swept away by her heart. In this retelling, it isn’t all about falling in love to break a curse.

Dark fairytales

The dullahan makes a chilling appearance in An Enchantment of Thorns, along with barghests and too many pixies, brownies and goblins to count.

There’s so much depth to Thorne’s “beast” character, too, from his sarcasm, goading and irritatingly (for Aster) indirect encouragement, to the despair driving his weather-changing bad moods. He’s neither beastly nor overly handsome, like in some romantic fantasies. Says Aster, “His wild beauty was like a knife to the gut.”

Interestingly, Thorne also takes on the role of mentor. Unlike the selfish beast most of us know from Disney, Throne never appears truly uncaring. He doesn’t appear at her door the first night to try to force her to dinner; he only expects it as a courtesy to a seriously down-on-his-luck Court Fae, and because the other Tithe girls always managed it. He doesn’t forbid her food if she doesn’t eat with him, either. Moody, complicated, humane and ultimately lovable, he’s a beast any smart gal could fall in love with.

Fans of dark fantasy will feel at home reading An Enchantment of Thorns, thanks to the nightmarish curse and the monstrous fae in the Folkwood; there are some truly chilling settings and scenes thanks to both. Fantastical ones, too. But romantics will also love it. And if you’re like me, you will deeply regret not having the next book to read immediately after finishing it.

An Enchantment of Thorns is currently available for pre-order, and will be released on May 6, 2021. To learn more about these indie authors, visit their websites at helenarookwood.com and elmvince.com.

C.K. Beggan

Tag: fae