A truly charming novel perfect for anyone looking for some whimsy, academia and dark fairy folk.
We follow Cambridge professor Emily Wilde as she arrivA truly charming novel perfect for anyone looking for some whimsy, academia and dark fairy folk.
We follow Cambridge professor Emily Wilde as she arrives in Hrafnsvik, a Scandinavian island that contains its own special kind of faeries no-one has studied before. Emily is undergoing work on her Encyclopedia of Faeries and is one of the best academics in this area though she is often overlooked due to gender and serious personality. Emily is soon joined by her colleague Wendell Bambleby, who may be more than he first appeared.
I loved this. Emily is a brilliant main character -studious and single-minded and most likely a touch neurodivergent too I think - she sometimes struggles with connecting with others (understanding what they want from her or not understanding some social cues) yet still manages to form a lovely type of found family by the end of the novel. We see in many ways how Emily fits into and understands the fairy world in a way she often doesn’t in the human one.
The relationship between Emily and Wendell was brilliant from Emily’s exasperation and hate/love relationship with Wendell to how they just get one another and some of the soft yearning that verges on surprise from both of them.
I really enjoyed the Scandi setting and customs in this book as well as the healthy respect/fear of the fae folk from the locals which I very much understand as an Irish person (never destroy or walk across a fairy fort! Or chop down a fairy tree!).
Very much enjoyed my time reading this and looking forward to the next book....more
I received this book from O'Brien Press in exchange for an honest review.
Cat and her friends are looking forward to an exciting Halloween night - tricI received this book from O'Brien Press in exchange for an honest review.
Cat and her friends are looking forward to an exciting Halloween night - trick-or-treating, and then eating their sweets while watching horror movies. But things take a turn when faeries return to Clonbridge and no-one knows about it except Cat and her gran - and even worse, the little folk end up taking her little brother and exchanging him for a changeling. Now Cat teams up with her former friend Shane to save their siblings before the night is over.
This was a very fun middle grade novel - I think it was really well-paced and had some nice moments in it that you could predict thank to a poem giving to Cat at the start of the book. I liked Cat and loved her relationship with her grandmother, and her relationship with her little brother that while fraught at first, proved to be deep and loyal. Cat had a great friend group at the start of the book and it was also nice to see her make way in her life for Shane again, and understand some of the reasons behind the way he had acted in the past.
I loved the way faeries are portrayed in this book - give me evil faeries over good ones any day of the week.
Would definitely recommend this one to middle-grade readers, especially around Halloween which is the time the book is set....more
It's been eight years since the events of Queen of Nothing, and while Cardan and Jude continue to rule Elfhame, Prince Oak is all grown up, and quite It's been eight years since the events of Queen of Nothing, and while Cardan and Jude continue to rule Elfhame, Prince Oak is all grown up, and quite frequently dealing with attempts on his life. When Oak's father Madoc is taken by the cruel, vicious Lady Nore, Oak has no choice but to seek out Wren - Lady Nore's lost daughter who has been hiding out in the human world - for help. The two young royals, along with companions set out on a quest to help Madoc and defeat Lady Nore but at what price?
Listen, I'm just total trash for anything Holly Black and Elfhame - I eat it all up and then I beg for more and this was no different. I loved being back in the world of Elfhame, and the world of dark, twisty and frightening fairy folk who slay skin, eat dreams and laugh in the face of pain and fear. The Stolen Heir is different to the original trilogy as we are following all fairy folk rather than a mortal in a fairy world. Things were always at such a high stake for Jude in the original trilogy as she tried to defeat fairies at their own game while not having their magic, strength or beauty - but with The Stolen Heir, Wren has blue hair, dark eyes and sharp skin - she is monstrous enough people scream when they see her but she's different because she remembers her early years when she grew up as a changeling in the human world, and the moments in the faerie world when the only kindness she saw was that given to her by a young princeling called Oak.
Oak is so grown up in this book, it's often hard and a little bit nostalgic to remember him as the little horned mischief maker that he was in the original trilogy, and that he was the one Jude sought to protect for those three books. I like seeing him grown up though and with his own quest, and skills and you can see Jude, Cardan and Madoc in him in equal measure at different points. It's sad to think his life was that bit harder than a reader would wish for that despite Jude's success in Queen of Nothing, Oak isn't a stranger to being in mortal danger a lot of the time because of who he is.
I really liked the dynamic between Wren and Oak - they were sweet around one another, and were drawn together as well as having the warm memories of their childhood games and friendship yet at the same time you just know one of them will betray the other, we just have to read on and wait, and see what happens.
While there wasn't a whole load of surprises for me by the end of the book, I still enjoyed all the drama, and I was a bit shocked at the turns Wren makes by the end of the book and the decisions she goes through with. Really can't wait for the next book but I have to wait so long! ...more
I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If Bridgerton meets the The Cruel Prince...
When Dora was youngI received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If Bridgerton meets the The Cruel Prince...
When Dora was young, she was cursed by a faerie who left her to live the rest of her life with only half a soul meaning Dora would never again feel the true feelings of happiness, anger or sadness again. Asa young woman, Dora accompanies her cousin to London for her season and by chance meets the Lord Sorcier who may be the magical solution to Dora's faerie problem.
This was the cosiest, loveliest book that I needed and I'm so glad I finally read it after only hearing great things. This is the kind of book that just had me smiling from start to finish and I felt so invested in the story, I never wanted to stop reading (or the book to end tbh).
I adored all of the scenes between Dora and Elias as their relationship moves from annoyance towards each other to amiability to eventual softness and love. It was so lovely witnessing this slow transition from each chapter to the next. I also loved the scenes in Faerie and I've always enjoyed any book that takes the idea of cruel and evil faeries and this did it so well. The ballroom scene in Faerie was fantastic from comedic levels as well as dramatics. Not to mention all the human balls were also lovely simply because of Elias and Dora's interactions and some of the times Elias showcases his magic in beautiful ways.
Dora is a fantastic character full of courage, intelligence and kindness despite believing herself to only be 'half a person'.
I loved this from start to finish, and highly recommend....more
12-year-old Peadar has lived with his Granny almost all his life, with his best friend - a white goat called Billy Bán. When Peadar has a sp3.5 Stars.
12-year-old Peadar has lived with his Granny almost all his life, with his best friend - a white goat called Billy Bán. When Peadar has a special dream one night, he realises that his parents aren't dead like he thought - but trapped in fairyland by a wicked magician. Now Peadar and Billy Bán must take on a great adventure (which could end up with a showdown against evil magician Duodecimus!) to help save Peadar's parents before it's too late.
This was a really fun, cute children's book that not only was a lovely little adventure full of great characters and wonderful scenery (who doesn't love a fairyland with all sorts of magical roads - it feels like there's a lot more adventures to be had here too with the different roads!) but it also held some wonderful messages that are so important for young readers like the importance of kindness, gentleness and love always triumphing over evil.
Peadar was a great character to follow. He's wicked smart and took on everything he could, while still showing a lot of caring and empathy for others (Billy Bán and Lucy especially). I loved all the different characters Peadar met in Fairyland, and I feel like there was a nod in this book to a lot of other well-loved side characters from other tales like Mr Tumnus and Tom Bombadil and maybe even The Good Witch of Oz in Lady Lavendar.
The story was full of little riddles and puzzles which I think younger readers would really love, though I wonder if some kids might need to get parents to help them understand them, or it could be a but too much for them - but it all depends on the type of reader too. The story had lots of ups and downs and twists and turns and I think it was paced really nicely. There was obviously a lot of thought put into this story and it felt really well-detailed and well-edited (which can sometimes not be the case with self-published books).
The narration of the story felt a little bit formal at times but I didn't mind that too much. Peadar could be a formal little boy sometimes too!
I think this is great for young readers but I also feel like this might be a great book for parents to read to kids aged 9/10 until they really want to grab the book and read for themselves. I feel like we met lots of great characters who deserve their own stories in this world (Lucy and Fionn for example) and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next for everyone.
ACOMAF follows on a few months after the events of ACOTAR as we are following Feyre and Tamlin asSomeone call 911..
I loved everything about this book!
ACOMAF follows on a few months after the events of ACOTAR as we are following Feyre and Tamlin as they recover from the aftermaths of the tunnels. Tamlin is trying to rebuild the Spring Court and Feyre is not only having to deal with a whole new self, but also deal with the extreme PTSD she is suffering after what she went through.
I loved the twists and turns in this book, and I honestly went through so many different emotions for all the different characters from shock, anger, betrayal as well as love, laughter and happiness as the book reveals the truth of who are actually Feyre's true friends and who are her enemies in disguise.
This book was definitely slow in places but I kind of loved that as well. I loved the Night Court so much, that was I was just delighted to spend as much time in it as I could - even for a lot of that time Feyre was moping about and dealing but not really dealing with her trauma. I developed a true appreciation for the beauty inside and out that is Rhysand and his fellow Illyrian warriors. I loved the backstory we got about the Night Court, Rhysand's family and the Illyrian training camps. The world Sarah J Mass has invented in this series is so vast, and I love that within two books we have so much information but we are still only on the tip of the iceberg. It makes me excited for the rest of the books!
I really appreciated how trauma and depression was dealt with in this book. Feyre received no magic fix for her trauma and what she needed was time. Time to really delve through everything she did and saw in the tunnels, as well as what was done to her. And even with that time, and the understanding of her new friends, she would never be truly fixed because that wouldn't be right. She learns slowly how to hold her head up high again and keep on going, which is sometimes all you can do when you have suffered so much. But she doesn't deny her trauma, she still feels it but she learns slowly how to lock it away at times.
There was a little bit more world building in this book for the human part of the world and I enjoyed learning about the human Queens and their relationship with the fae. I was a bit confused that there was never any mention of the Queens in the first book, but it wasn't a big deal.
This book has a LOT of sexual tension, as well as some lewd jokes and painful flirting. I hated and loved it all in equal measure but when the romance scenes came they were extra delicious to read about because we had been waiting for them for long. The sex scenes are definitely a bit over the top in this book but with all of the darkness and murder and evil creature the characters have to deal with, they are allowed over the top sex once in a while (or a lot of the time) I guess.
The new courts, the new characters and the new arcs in this book gave me so much joy and I really was hooked into this story. The only gripe I would really have is I would love to see more diversity within the characters - it's a well-known fact that faeries are queer as hell so where are all our same-sex couples at? And a few more faces that aren't plain old white would do nicely too...more
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