Book Review: Longshadow (Regency Faerie Tales, #3) by Olivia Atwater

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Longshadow
Series: Regency Faerie Tales #3
Author: Olivia Atwater
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: August 16, 2022
Length: 263 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Library

Proper Regency ladies are not supposed to become magicians – but Miss Abigail Wilder is far from proper.

The marriageable young ladies of London are dying mysteriously, and Abigail Wilder intends to discover why. Abigail’s father, the Lord Sorcier of England, believes that a dark lord of faerie is involved – but while Abigail is willing to match her magic against Lord Longshadow, neither her father nor high society believe that she is capable of doing so.

Thankfully, Abigail is not the only one investigating the terrible events in London. Mercy, a street rat and self-taught magician, insists on joining Abigail to unravel the mystery. But while Mercy’s own magic is strange and foreboding, she may well post an even greater danger to Abigail’s heart.

From the author of HALF A SOUL comes a queer faerie tale romance full of love and defiant hope. Pick up LONGSHADOW, and return once more to Olivia Atwater’s charming, magical version of Regency England.

Oh dear. I’ll keep this brief: The 3rd book in the Regency Faerie Tales trilogy and I were just not meant to be.

The main character here is Abigail Wilder, the adopted daughter of Lord Elias and Dora Wilder, the central characters from the first book in the series, Half a Soul. In Longshadow, Abigail is now a young adult and a skilled magician. She loves her parents, as well as her Other Mother, Lady Hollowvale — the faerie version of Dora, who has half of Dora’s soul.

Abigail can move in and out of faerie to visit with her other family there, and can also see her brother Hugh, although no one else can — he’s a ghost.

Other than having to put up with the snobby women of the ton, life is mostly pretty good for Abigail, but when other young society women start dying unexpectedly, she’s drawn into investigating the circumstances. As she gets more deeply involved, Abigail encounters a strange woman named Mercy, whose magical gifts are very different than Abigail’s. Mercy encourages Abigail to give her imagination free rein, and together, they explore the unexplained deaths as well the feelings growing between them.

I really did like the first two books in this trilogy, but Longshadow was one long slog for me. The plot just did not come together in a way that made much sense, and frankly, I found the plotline regarding the murders and the involvement of Lord Longshadow and ghosts not wanting to cross over all very confusing — and not in a fun, “can’t wait to figure this out” sort of way.

Mostly, I was just frustrated. Mercy feels unknowable, and the relationship between Mercy and Abigail feels more like checking a box than anything with true feelings involved. Definitely not enough Elias and Dora, and while Euphemia and Jubilee (from book #2) make an appearance, they don’t actually get much to do — it feels more like a cameo for the sake of seeing them than anything more substantive.

I really had to force myself to finish this book. I’m glad I did, since I would have wondered about the wrap-up of the trilogy otherwise, but all in all, I did not have a particularly good time with Longshadow.

13Jun2023

Book Review: Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales, #2) by Olivia Atwater

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Ten Thousand Stitches
Series: Regency Faerie Tales #2
Author: Olivia Atwater
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: July 19, 2022
Length: 250 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Library

Regency housemaid Euphemia Reeves has acquired a faerie godfather. Unfortunately, he has no idea what he’s doing.

Effie has most inconveniently fallen in love with the dashing Mr Benedict Ashbrooke. There’s only one problem; Effie is a housemaid, and a housemaid cannot marry a gentleman. It seems that Effie is out of luck until she stumbles into the faerie realm of Lord Blackthorn, who is only too eager to help Effie win Mr Ashbrooke’s heart. All he asks in return is that Effie sew ten thousand stitches onto his favourite jacket.

Effie has heard rumours about what happens to those who accept help from faeries, but life as a maid at Hartfield is so awful that she is willing to risk even her immortal soul for a chance at something better. Now, she has one hundred days – and ten thousand stitches – to make Mr Ashbrooke fall in love and propose. . . if Lord Blackthorn doesn’t wreck things by accident, that is. For Effie’s greatest obstacle might well prove to be Lord Blackthorn’s overwhelmingly good intentions.

From the author of HALF A SOUL comes a whimsical fantasy romance with a Cinderella twist. Pick up TEN THOUSAND STITCHES, and dive into another enchanting faerie tale set in Olivia Atwater’s charming, magical version of Regency England!

In Ten Thousand Stitches, we meet hardworking housemaid Euphemia Reeves, who toils day and night to do the bidding of the awful Lady Culver. The work is never-ending and exhausting, and whenever a servant leaves (or is fired), the others simply must pick up the slack. Effie is tired, and she’s angry too — she and her friends below stairs are, at best, viewed as part of the furniture. When Lady Culver learns that a rival now has French maids, she decrees that her own maids must be French too, and promptly gives them all new names. Effie is furious — the servants count for so little that even their names are not their own.

But when Effie meets Benedict, the younger brother of Lord Culver, her world shifts sharply. He initially mistakes her for a lady, and wows her with his brief attention and kindness. Of course, later as she’s serving at a fancy ball, he looks right past her and doesn’t recognize her at all. Effie is sure that this is the man she loves, and she feels in her heart that if only she were a lady, he’d love her too.

Enter Lord Blackthorn. The kind-hearted faerie has become enamored with the idea of English virtue, and has been told that the way to attain English virtue is by helping the helpless and punishing the wicked. Who could be more helpless than downtrodden Effie? Lord Blackthorn offers her a glamour by which she’ll look and sound like a lady, and soon she finds herself moving in polite society, gaining the attention of the upper crust and getting closer and closer to Benedict’s heart.

But the more Effie sees, the more she questions her goals and desires. It also turns out that there’s a hint of magic in her fine sewing — when she sews, she imbues her stitches with her emotions… and given how angry she’s been, soon there’s a plague of anger amongst the servants.

In the world of Ten Thousand Stitches, anger is a good thing, because it leads to action. In fact, what we have here is a labor movement! Thanks to the anger Effie inadvertently spreads, the workers of the household reach the boiling point and then some, and ultimately demand action. It’s quite fun to see organized labor in a fantasy story!

The faerie tale elements work well, and while the outcome is expected, it’s quite a lark to see how we get there. Effie is a terrific main character, and I appreciate the author’s spotlight on class divisions in the world of fairy tale romances. As the author points out in her notes at the end, fairy tales with downtrodden main characters often reveal that the heroine is really a princess or lady in hiding — Cinderella herself is high-born, forced into servitude by cruelty and bad luck. But why are low-born servants treated as invisible and deemed unworthy? Why can’t a housemaid deserve her own happily ever after?

I really enjoyed Ten Thousand Stitches. It’s a bit lighter than Half a Soul, but offers some truly satisfying comeuppance for the nasty folks and great endings for the good guys. It was fun to get a glimpse of a couple of characters from Half a Soul — the books are companion pieces set in the same world, rather than connected stories, so it’s not necessary to read them in a particular order.

For anyone looking for some light fantasy entertainment — with a social conscience — the books of the Regency Faerie Tales are great choices!

I also ended up reading The Latch Key, a novella set in the world of the Regency Faerie Tales that takes place after the events of Half a Soul. This novella provides a backstory for Elias, and is worth checking out. (As far as I can see, The Latch Key is only available by signing up for the author’s newsletter, here.)

3Jun2023

Book Review: Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales, #1) by Olivia Atwater

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Half a Soul
Series: Regency Faerie Tales #1
Author: Olivia Atwater
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: March 29, 2020
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased

It’s difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you’re a young lady with only half a soul.

Ever since she was cursed by a faerie, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear or embarrassment – a condition which makes her prone to accidental scandal. Dora hopes to be a quiet, sensible wallflower during the London Season – but when the strange, handsome and utterly uncouth Lord Sorcier discovers her condition, she is instead drawn into dangerous and peculiar faerie affairs.

If Dora’s reputation can survive both her curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world. . . but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.

Bridgerton meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this enchanting historical fantasy, where the only thing more meddlesome than faeries is a marriage-minded mother.

Pick up HALF A SOUL, and be stolen away into Olivia Atwater’s charming, magical version of Regency England!

Half a Soul is a fun, light-hearted romantic caper set in Regency England — and yet, there’s a darker element that’s unusual for this type of book, and it makes it very much worth checking out.

Dora is captured by a Lord of Faerie as a young child, and loses half her soul to him — only saved from losing her entire soul by the intervention of her devoted cousin Vanessa. But from that point onward, Dora experiences all emotions on a very low setting. She’s aware of feeling warmth toward her cousin, aware of things that seem wrong or might bother her, but it’s all very distant.

As a result, Dora has a hard time following society’s rules — she has no in-built filter to make her feel uncomfortable when she steps out of line (which is often).

After the Napoleonic War, England’s head magician, known as the Lord Sorcier, is both a hero and an object of scorn. High society is forced to accept him, but they neither like nor trust him. Still, he may be the only person who has a shot at restoring to Dora what was lost — but as their paths cross, their focus instead turns to the wretched conditions in London’s workhouses and an insidious, seemingly incurable plague that strikes the poorest of children.

The plot of Half a Soul is interesting and offers new twists on tales of enchantment and the dangers of being stolen away to the world of Faerie. Dora and Elias (the Lord Sorcier) have a strong connection, and I enjoyed seeing them work together to solve problems, right wrongs, and reclaim Dora’s missing soul.

The supporting characters are quite enjoyable too, and I appreciated how Dora and Elias are united in their commitment to force their friends and relatives to see the underlying ugliness and imbalances of their world and take action to help.

Half a Soul is a quick, light read, with entertaining plot twists and interesting approaches to the conflict between the human and Faerie worlds. As a bonus, the book also includes a novella, Lord Sorcier, that provides a prequel look at Elias’s backstory — it’s very good and sheds new light on on how Elias became who he is in Half a Soul.

Half a Soul is the first in a loosely-connected trilogy (Regency Faerie Tales), and I’m looking forward to reading more!

12Feb2023

Book Review: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Stolen Heir
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: January 3, 2023
Length: 358 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.

Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.

Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.

Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black returns to the opulent world of Elfhame in the first book in a thrilling new duology, following Jude’s brother Oak, and the changeling queen, Suren.

I was so excited to hear that Holly Black would be returning to the world of her excellent Folk of the Air trilogy! And a book about Oak — how fun did that sound?

Except… surprise! — Oak isn’t the main character! Nope, it’s Suren, last seen as the pitiable child queen of the Court of Teeth, horribly mistreated and abused by her parents, who want to use Suren as a tool to overthrow the High King and Queen of Elfhame.

In The Stolen Heir, years have passed. Suren has been living wild in the mortal world, a creature who haunts the forests, keeping an eye on her one-time mortal family, from whom she was cruelly ripped away as a child, and staying busy by breaking enchantments on humans. But one day, Prince Oak, a boy who treated her with kindness once and now grown into a mesmerizing young adult, tracks her down and asks for her help. Lady Nore, Suren’s cruel mother, is starting trouble in the north again. With Suren’s aid, Oak is sure he can stop her.

And so begins their quest, a journey of miles and kingdoms, in which they encounter trolls, malevolent queens, a storm hag, and animated stick soldiers. As the danger mounts, Suren realizes that Oak himself perhaps cannot be trusted. What’s his true motivation in seeking her out? And is his kindness and warmth just further manipulation, or are there actual feelings there?

After a somewhat slow start, the pace picks up the further along the quest Suren and Oak manage to travel. There are dangers and betrayals, daring rescues and near misses. As the story progresses, Suren also starts to learn more about her own history, including the possible unraveling of everything she once thought she knew.

While I enjoyed The Stolen Heir once I got further along, it doesn’t quite measure up to the Elfhame books. Suren is hard to get to know, and the quest as it’s presented is confusing and a bit muddled. Eventually, the pieces come together more strongly, and the final third is actually quite good, with breathtaking action sequences, a few horrifying developments, and plenty of big reveals.

The Stolen Heir ends mid-story — we’re left hanging at a crucial moment of change. This book is #1 in a duology, with #2 — The Prisoner’s Throne — scheduled for publication in 2024. Obviously, I’ll have to read it! I can’t just be left hanging after that ending forever…

I recommend The Stolen Heir for fans of the Folk of the Air trilogy. Word to the wise — Jude and Cardan are discussed in this book, but they don’t actually appear at all. Here’s hoping they show up in The Prisoner’s Throne!

31Aug2022

Shelf Control #333: Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters, #1) by Juliet Marillier

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters, #1)
Author: Juliet Marillier
Published: 1999
Length: 554 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives: they are determined that she know only contentment.

But Sorcha’s joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift—by staying silent. If she speaks before she completes the quest set to her by the Fair Folk and their queen, the Lady of the Forest, she will lose her brothers forever.

When Sorcha is kidnapped by the enemies of Sevenwaters and taken to a foreign land, she is torn between the desire to save her beloved brothers, and a love that comes only once. Sorcha despairs at ever being able to complete her task, but the magic of the Fair Folk knows no boundaries, and love is the strongest magic of them all…

How and when I got it:

I’ve had an old paperback on my shelves for years — no idea exactly where it came from!

Why I want to read it:

I’m always up for a good faerie kingdom story, and this is a book (and series) that I’ve seen recommended many times over the years. It regularly appears in lists of great fantasy series, and I know I’ve seen readers with tastes that align with my own talk about how much they love this book.

The plot sounds complicated but compelling. Faerie bargains, strange kingdoms, and mystical elements all sound right up my alley — plus, from descriptions on Goodreads and elsewhere, it seems that these books are very much influenced by Celtic folklore, which absolutely appeals to me.

Daughter of the Forest is the first in a six-book series. I tend to be pretty reluctant these days about starting new series… but I do feel tempted to at least give this first book a try.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

Literary Potpourri
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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments or link back from your own post, so I can add you to the participant list.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

30Jan2021

Book Review: Ironside (Modern Faerie Tales, #3) by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Ironside
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: McElderry Books
Publication date: 2007
Length: 323 pages
Genre: Young adult fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben’s coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing — her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can’t see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn’t exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.
Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth — that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother’s shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben’s throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?
Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.

I’m going to keep this post short, because I just don’t find myself having all that much to say about Ironside. But hey, I posted reviews for the first two books in the trilogy (Tithe and Valiant), so I might as well be complete about it!

In Ironside, we go back to the main character from Tithe — Kaye, the pixie raised as a human, who has fallen in love with Lord Roiben, the ruler of the Unseelie Court. He sets her on what seems to be an impossible quest, and meanwhile, is on the brink of war with the Seelie court, which his outnumbered people seem destined to lose.

Alongside her best friend, the mortal Corny, and their new friend Luis (who was introduced in Valiant), Kaye has to try to solve the riddle of her quest and find a way to prevent the war that’s likely to end with Roiben’s death, while also keeping Corny from the endless disasters that seem to pop up wherever he goes.

As in the other books in the trilogy, Ironside is set in New York, where faeries need magical powders of protection to live amidst all the poisonous iron of the human world. This book is not as bleak and grim as the 2nd book. There’s still danger, but the focus is mostly on events involving the faerie courts, and it doesn’t have quite the same sense of urban grittiness.

I’m not mad that I finished the trilogy, but I didn’t love the overarching story as a whole. Some characters are endearing, but the plot didn’t grab me, and key moments felt kind of brief and lacking in substance.

My edition of the trilogy (a three-in-one volume) includes The Lament of Lutie-Loo, a short story (written in 2019) about Kaye’s sprite companion and the visit she makes to Elfhame. I liked this a lot — it’s light and fun, and I think I particularly liked it for the glimpses of beloved characters from the Folk of the Air trilogy.

I’d been curious about these books, and they were on my list of series I wanted to read this year, so I’m glad to have accomplished what I set out to do. This trilogy as a whole didn’t thrill me, but I do love Holly Black’s writing and imagination, and look forward to reading a few more of her books.

29Jan2021

Book Review: Valiant (Modern Faerie Tales, #2) by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Valiant
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: McElderry Books
Publication date: 2002
Length: 256 pages
Genre: Young adult fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Return to New York Times bestselling author Holly Black’s enthralling realm of faerie in the second Modern Faerie Tales novel, where danger and magic come hand-in-hand in the dark underground of New York City.
When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York, she’s trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city’s labyrinthine subway system. But there’s something eerily beguiling about Val’s new friends that sets her on edge.
When Val is talked into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature, she must strike a bargain to make it out with her life intact. Now drawn into a world she never knew existed, Val finds herself torn between her affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

While Valiant is the 2nd book in Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tales trilogy, don’t pick it up expecting to continue where Tithe left off. In Valiant, we meet a completely new cast of characters in a mostly new setting, and it’s only toward the end that there’s some cross-over with the previous book’s characters.

Val is 17 years old when she discovers a major betrayal by the people she trusted the most. Distraught, she takes a train into Manhattan to get away for a few hours — but then can’t bring herself to go back home. She shaves her head and takes to the street, fortunately meeting up with a few other teen runaways who welcome her into their circle. She soon finds herself squatting with them at an abandoned subway platform, where they can be relatively safe, keep warm, and have a regular place to sleep.

Val’s new friends — Lolli, Dave, Luis — have secrets. It turns out that they do odd jobs for the faerie underground in the city, making deliveries of a special potion that helps the Fae stay healthy in a world full of poisonous iron. What Val’s friends have discovered is that when a human uses this potion, especially by injecting it, it gives them all sorts of delicious borrowed power. It’s also highly addictive, and none of them seem able to resist it for long.

Meanwhile, someone is murdering solitary fae, and suspicion falls on Ravus, the bridge toll who creates and distributes the magical potion. Val has grown closer to Ravus, but being in his circle becomes more and more dangerous. There’s adventure and chaos, friendship and betrayal, growing up and going home. There’s a LOT going on this book.

*Val & Ravus fan art via https://hollyblack.tumblr.com/*

In some ways, Valiant could be seen as a metaphor for the dangers of being a runaway. Remember how people used to talk a lot about how Buffy is really a metaphor for the teen years (high school is hell!)? You could look at Valiant in a similar fashion. There’s a point to be made here: The experiences of Val and her friends are dark and grim and in no way glamorous or magical. The book shows their daily struggle to get enough to eat, find a bathroom to clean up in, sleep where they won’t be robbed or assaulted, and figure out who to trust. Several characters fall quickly into addiction, and the fact that it’s a magical drug doesn’t change the fact that it’s destroying them more and more each day. Through the constant threats and uncertainties, this book makes clear that running away shouldn’t be seen as the answer. Home may be hard, but being on the streets isn’t the “magical” solution either.

At the same time, this is a faerie tale, although a very dark one. It’s bleak and hard, the fae the characters meet are mostly cruel, and the stakes are high — if they survive their lives on the streets, they can still be killed by creatures that want to hurt them just for fun.

This isn’t a pleasant read, but it did keep me interested. I liked Val and Ravus as characters, and I’m interested in seeing how the 3rd book, Ironside, wraps up the plots of Tithe and Valiant. As I mentioned in my review of Tithe, I don’t feel these books are anywhere near the greatness of the Folk of the Air trilogy — but considering that the Modern Faerie Tales books were written about 20 years earlier, it’s nice to be able to compare and see the author’s development of her craft and the worlds she creates.

Onward to #3!

23Jan2021

Book Review: Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1) by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Tithe
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: McElderry Books
Publication date: 2002
Length: 272 pages
Genre: Young adult fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!
Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms – a struggle that could very well mean her death.

I have been wanting to read the Modern Faerie Tale trilogy ever since reading the author’s more recent Folk of the Air series, which I love to pieces. Tithe, the first book in the trilogy, was first published in 2002, and is Holly Black’s first novel.

Kaye is a 16-year-old girl who lives wherever her mother happens to land, raising herself while her mother focuses on her band. She stopped going to school a couple of years earlier, rather than continuing to go through the process of starting over every time they pick up move somewhere new for the sake of a new gig.

When they need a sudden escape from a dangerous situation, they move back to Kaye’s hometown in New Jersey to live in her grandmother’s house. Kaye is happy to reconnect with her elementary school bestie, Janet, and also hopes to see her imaginary friends again. But are they really imaginary? In her early years, Kaye would tell anyone who would listen about her magical fairy friends, which no one ever believed, earning herself the reputation of being a weird kid.

Some strange things start to recur, and after a bad night out, Kaye runs into a beautiful, otherworldly man in the forest who’s been injured. As she tries to help him, a bond is forged, and she starts to learn more about her own true nature. It turns out that Kaye is a pixie changeling, placed under heavy glamours to appear human and exchanged for the real baby Kaye, who’s been raised in Faerie in Kaye’s place.

Things escalate quickly, and Kaye finds herself pulled into a power struggle between the different Fae courts. She’d like to trust Roiben, but he’s clearly dangerous as well, and Kaye is still learning about her own magic and abilities, as well as worrying about her mortal friends who have inadvertently gotten mixed up with the world of Faerie.

Kaye is a great character, a little jaded and world-weary, but also in awe of the new world that opens before her. She hates the power games and brutality shown by some of the Fae, but she sees beauty in this world as well. The dynamic between Kaye and Roiben is quite fun. (Side note: Kaye and Roiben make brief appearances in the Folk of the Air trilogy, and once I realized that they were the main characters in Tithe, I knew I needed to read it.)

There are some tragic turns and dramatic encounters, and the pacing of the story is quick and engaging. That said, this book was written almost 20 years ago and is a first novel, and both of those elements show. I can’t fault a book for depicting the time in which it was written, but it’s still jarring, here in 2021, to have teens not glued to their cell phones, see them using pay phones, or mention the noise their modem makes while connecting to the internet.

In terms of this being a first novel, it’s well-written and engaging, but having read the Folk of the Air trilogy, Tithe suffers by comparison. Which may just be a round-about way of saying how amazing the Folk of the Air books are — sophisticated plotting and world-building, powerfully depicted characters, intricate relationships… I could go on and on. Reading Tithe after those books, it’s clear that Tithe is much simpler writing, and at the same time, doesn’t do as good a job of explaining the various power dynamics of the Fae courts (which we basically get to know about via one massive information dump).

Holly Black is an incredibly gifted writer, and it’s interesting to see where she started. The world of Tithe is related to the world of the Folk of the Air, and reading Tithe is a great chance to experience Faerie as the author first depicted it.

I will definitely read the other two books in the series (Valiant and Ironside), and then have an unrelated trilogy (Curse Workers) and an unrelated novel (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown) by Holly Black on my TBR shelf.

I do recommend Tithe, especially for fans of the author’s later books.

For more of my reviews of Holly Black books:
The Darkest Part of the Forest
The Good Neighbors (graphic novel trilogy)
The Cruel Prince
The Wicked King/The Queen of Nothing
How the King of Elfhame Learned To Hate Stories

25Dec2020

Book Review: How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories
Author: Holly Black
Illustrated by: Rovina Cai
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: November 24, 2020
Length: 173 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

An illustrated addition to the New York Times bestselling Folk of Air trilogy, that started with The Cruel Prince, from award-winning author Holly Black.

An irresistible return to the captivating world of Elfhame.

Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.
Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone. #1 New York Times bestselling author, Holly Black reveals a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan. This tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.
This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.

A beautiful, wonderful book — a must for anyone who loves the Folk of the Air trilogy!

You many have seen my lovefests about Holly Black’s excellent trilogy (which I ended up reading twice in 2020!). I was delighted to treat myself to a hardcover copy of this new book, and so happy to finally have a peaceful day to sit and enjoy it.

In How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, we are treated to ten brief tales about Cardan, the High King of Elfhame. While the first and last stories in this book take place after the events of the trilogy, the other stories follow Cardan from childhood into adulthood, showing how he became the “cruel prince” we first encounter in the trilogy. This book is told entirely from Cardan’s perspective, so we get a different view of some of the incidents we read about in the trilogy, and understand a little better why Cardan acted the way he did.

The book is illustrated by the very talented Rovina Cai, and it’s gorgeous! I especially love her artwork showing Cardan, but every page has special flourishes and treats to make the entire book a delight.

*From https://frolic.media/exclusive-how-the-king-of-elfhame-learned-to-hate-stories-by-holly-black-interiors-reveal/*

I loved, loved, loved this slim but lovely book! Don’t start here if you haven’t read the Folk of the Air books — but why not dive into the trilogy, and save this book for dessert?

29Jan2020

Book Review: The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air, #1)
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: January 2, 2018
Length: 370 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

The Cruel Prince is a book that practically everyone but me had already read. But now…

I’m in! I finally read The Cruel Prince, and I can see what all the fuss is about. Call me late to the party, but guys! This book is good!

The book starts off with a horrifying, sad scene: In a normal suburban home, 7-year-old twin sisters Taryn and Jude and their older sister Vivi are lounging about watching TV, when a strange man enters, murders their parents, and steals them away. The man is Madoc, and he is Vivi’s biological father. The mother of the three girls used to dwell in Faerie with him, but she ran off years earlier with the mortal man who became the twins’ father. Now, years later, Madoc has taken what he considers his.

The girls are brought to Faerie and raised among the fae gentry. Vivi, half-fae herself, fits in pretty well, but the twins are always aware of how other they are. They’re mortal, and have no powers. Even worse, they have no innate ability to fight off the magical compulsions and other torments directed at them by their fae classmates.

As the story kicks in, Jude and Taryn are seventeen, still trying to find a way to belong. Madoc has raised them with riches and privilege, but they can never forget that he murdered their parents. Jude wants strength — she wants to prove she belongs in the fae court by becoming a knight. Taryn, on the other hand, wants to secure her place through marriage. And Vivi? She, the one who should belong, wants no part of it at all, instead preferring to sneak back to the human world whenever she can to see her mortal girlfriend and plan a future with her.

Jude and Taryn are constantly tormented by their classmates, especially Prince Cardan and his cronies. But when the king decides to step down and pass along the crown, the intrigue and the danger escalates.

I’m not going to go further into the plot, but let me just say… I was hooked! I could not put this book down once I started. I loved the depiction of Faerie, its beauty and wonders, and how utterly alien and hostile this world would feel to children who didn’t belong.

The casual cruelty of the ruling class is scary and heartless, and I felt awful for Taryn and Jude for having no defenses and no way to stand up for themselves in any meaningful way. And even when some of the crowd appear to be more inclined to be friendly, it seems obvious that no one can be trusted.

Jude is our hero, and she’s awesome. She’s smart and brave, and refuses to scrape and bow, even when that’s the most obvious way to get the bullies off her back. She’s devoted to protecting her family, and doesn’t take the easy way out. I like how she goes through the book having to figure who to trust, and even when forced into pretty bad situations, how to turn those situations to her advantage and achieve her goals.

I definitely want more! I’m really looking forward to reading book #2, and feel pretty safe in predicting that I’ll want to read straight through to the end of the trilogy!