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4 stars! It was well-deserved. :)
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Lots of people complained that this story failed to excite them and that it didn't pick up the pace but I was happily engaged with this little tale for about three days! This is a pretty big thing since I'm known to pick up books and abandon them without even looking back at them (did this with Frances Cha's If I had Your Face which had a much higher rating than this one).

This book is my first introduction to Faeries (the sexier and scarier sort of fairy with fancy spelling) in YA fantasy! No, I was not initiated by hot fae men in A Court of Thorns and Roses nor was I embroiled in whatever sweet fae crack The Cruel Prince fans are on. I've always wanted to be swept up by a charming human-Fae relationship and this book did not disappoint me! *Pleased to report that in this book, the fae are just as vain, beautiful, terrifying, charming and magical as I expected them to be!* :D

An Enchantment of Ravens follows a girl named Isobel (Not her real name) who is a master of painting which is apparently a sort of Craft which Fair Folk aka Fae covet. The Fae in here are not little Tinker Bell fairies who flit about in wings and wave glittery wands to shower pixie dust over everything. They are vicious and beautiful, able to shape shift into ravens, create entire forests from a drop of their blood and they hide their inhuman, scary true selves under glamour because they are so very vain. It was interesting to see Rogerson write the Fae as empty, shallow and endlessly bored with immortality, thus explaining why they love Craft from humans so much because if a Fair one were to do Craft, they'd die. (So basically, no Faerie can cook or paint or even write a letter. Seems weird but okay....)

Basically, the story just revolves around Isobel, the painter girl falling in love with her first royal client, Rook. Isobel was pretty okay. She wasn't my favourite character but compared to other protagonists, she was tolerable. I can tell she loves her aunt and her Craft. She has her head on straight and she isn't easily charmed or swayed by Fae enchantments. She also impressed me by outrightly refusing to become an immortal faerie from the start and that decision took a lot of guts since it shows her strength of her character. She is too passionate about her artistic talent and living a short, vibrant life as a human to throw it all away forever. Overall, although she could be kind of too smart and annoying to Rook at times, it's just part of her personality. I did not want to burn the book whenever she came around and overall, she suits Rook. She was fine.

OKAY, LET'S BE HONEST HERE. I LOVED ROOK. (0w0)


Rook all exhausted from carrying the entire book on his back (poor baby is so tired):


He is my FAVORITE character in the story. He honestly deserved an entire book of his own.
Reasons why you need to pick this book up because of this dude:

1. I was swooning over him from the first page because he is not only the Faerie prince of Autumn, he also transforms into a RAVEN (my favourite animal).

2. I loved that even though he seems so vain and spoiled and unable to understand human emotions, it's all an act. He's just as clueless and cute as any ordinary guy and in the end, he just falls so HARD for that human painter that it makes me kinda jealous. That guy was willing to die for her, bleed for her and basically be humbled by her if it meant keeping her safe. He shows that he can be kind, vulnerable and protective.

3. He actually respects her boundaries by asking her whether he can touch her or even kiss her. You have to understand he is Fae and has no regards or reasons to obey human convention but he still does it anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!


4. And even though he doesn't fully understand human emotions or decorum, he apologizes to Isobel when he feels he has screwed up. He did it from their very first encounter and continued to do it even up till to the end. That there, sir, is sustained character development in an already amazing character. Lastly, who doesn't want a Fae boyfriend who can transform into a horse and a raven and create magical autumn forests with his blood?

So in short, I loved An Enchantment of Ravens especially because the romance between the two was magical and the relationship (while being kind of insta-love at first) had initial boundaries and respect and eventually blossomed from argument to romance (ah, the enemies to lovers trope never fails)

I thought the pacing of the story was all right but it definitely sagged around the middle since the most exciting parts in the beginning basically fizzled away the second they got to the Spring court. I did not enjoy their time there since it felt so restricted and the two characters had to deal with annoying fairies who wanted to play badminton, dress up and prom night (I'm not making this up). I was pining for the excitement in the beginning but it just disappeared halfway. The exciting parts started to return in the last few chapters with the Alder King confrontation though so I guess all is forgiven...a little.

Here are some glaring weak spots I wish weren't in the novel:
1. So basically the whole premise of Isobel's adventure in the first place was Rook accusing her of painting weakness in his eyes and vowing to punish her since as Faerie King, he can show no weakness. Then he ends up regretting his decision to spirit her away and just fixes the mess that he made in the first place. WTF, he literally dug a hole and filled it in himself in the span of 300 pages. I kind of laughed at this. Why couldn't he have stuck to his decision to bring her to his court to stand trial??? It would have been so much more interesting if we actually got to see Fae politics at work and I would read about that! Instead, we got so little of the autumn court and its people and we got the awful spring court people. Rook just ends up having an epiphany ("It is not your fault. I must save you!") and the whole story just derailed from the main punishment plot since the two were being hunted by some Winter Faerie instead.

2. Gadfly. OH GADFLY. He is Isobel's oldest Fae patron and he could have been a better villain if he was just given more of a backstory. In fact, I am not even sure if he is a villain at all! (THIS STORY DOES A BAD JOB AT MAKING FAE EVIL BECAUSE according to the tale, they are no more evil than wild animals who are savage and tricky by nature). I felt rather shocked that he was suddenly transformed into the "bad" character when there was no indication of this earlier on. His motivation isn't even that evil tbh?? He wanted to bring down a corrupt rule that was threatening to sink the entire land in endless summer draught...that's not a bad thing, isn't it? He apparently also has the gift of seeing the future AND he's the Spring Prince too? Not one of these things was even casually mentioned in the earlier chapters so that frustrated me. If he had a deeper friendship with Isobel, his betrayal could have been more meaningful. IDK if he was even supposed to be the villain since even the Alder King was a lame villain but yeah...these Faeries do not make good villains.

3. The Alder King. His rot, personality, motivations and infestation was a great concept but never fully explained or elaborated on. I would have liked to read more about him and why on earth he created the whole Good Law (aka anti-human-fae romance law) in the first place. Again, great villain but no motivation. In the end, we weren't sure to feel sorry for him and I felt like he should have been a constant presence throughout the book instead of just a distant threat.

4. The book survived because of the banter and chemistry between the main protagonists alone.Rook's injury, Isobel's banter with him, Rook letting down his glamour, Rook protecting her from eating rotting fae food, Isobel comforting him in raven form and Isobel trusting him with her true name...these were all such precious scenes. I just wish there had been higher stakes to achieve these scenes instead of these moments just happening one after another.

5. The Spring Court setting. Anything there is of no consequence and made me roll my eyes. All that happens there is Isobel gets a sparkly dress makeover and she meets a bunch of contemptuous Fae and (GET THIS) she paints portraits of them. Apparently, Fae can't portray human emotions because they are so far removed from humanity (being immortal and all) so seeing themselves laugh, cry, smile, frown or even be in love is somewhat of a life-changing thing to them. This concept was kind of absurd to me but it frustrated me how far the book was derailed because...THINGS JUST MOVED REALLY SLOW IN THAT DARN COURT! Pet peeve: it was never fully explained if Isobel's paintings are magic or something or just Really Talented Art that can make even the coldest of Fae folk feel. The faeries there didn't have much of a personality except for being vain and spiteful. *Sigh*, Rook, you alone are an anomaly in this awful Faerie world.

I wished there were higher stakes and more danger to actually incite in me the tantalizing appeal of reading about forbidden romance. In this book, the main problem was that there was no defined villain and that in the end, the Big Bad was defeated too easily. At one point, Rook even runs away from what could have been an epic battle scene and I nearly threw my phone at the wall.

However, I can't say I hate this book. Not at all! It has beautiful shining moments, especially with the protagonists and the description of the magical creatures. I just loved the lovely, hypnotic prose and the poetic way the author describes autumn scenes and the different courts as well. It's a splendid read for autumn and a worthy addition to Fae novels and might be better than the ones I have seen floating around. I'd buy this novel physically if I had the chance! (reading an ebook btw). :)