Urban Faery
Written by Angela Savidge

Wow, that was nothing short of amazing! From the start, my eyes were drawn into an artist's impression of a god amidst the mother of the sea Gwenhwyfar (ya, that's just the Welsh spelling for Guinevere) but of some guy coming up out of the ocean, riding the waves on his surfboard in the middle of the night. He appears on Earth yet was from another world. A Night Owl was watching over him that had to do with some fairy tale about the Elders waiting for the right time to intervene in the world and make humans aware of the Fae creation, again. That surfer dude Luc was going to be the bridge. It was so good.

Just as it was apparent that Luc was harmless, guileless and good. His grandfather Madoc was a Dark Fae, not so good. His grandfather hates humankind for destroying the Earth. Anyway, I'm not going to go into detail of how Luc meets Cate but she was sort of on the path and destined for the encounter and again paranormal romances are still the ones I love. It's a love story.

Anyone who has ever lived in California and is from there would probably be thrilled for this book. Numerous places and areas are surrounding California that is referred to and to the Trump administration and the Malibu fires. Heck, Urban Faery A Modern Fantasy is the bee's knees, although the bees are gone and dying :P Ravens are a bad omen in this fantasy yet a Raven is Luc's spirit animal. It's complicated but exciting. The story is well-written with beautiful prose like a garden of flowers in bloom with rhododendrons :)

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

TITLE:  Faery Moon

AUTHOR:  C. J. Cherryh

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DESCRIPTION:

"A curse, a sin, and a dark bargain with the Sidhe had condemned Caith mac Sliabhan to wander the wild woods, outcast from all humankind. Only Dubhain—a pooka, a Sidhe sprite—was his companion. Caith now was bound to do the will of the Sidhe, always fearing that his own taint would somehow make him cause pain and sorrow to others.

But even an outcast like Caith could not resist taking refuge in a forest cabin, where two mysterious golden youths, a boy and girl, dwelled. "Husband and wife, we are," said the boy, but Caith could have sworn they were twins.

The mysterious couple were under a spell themselves—and despite his curse, Caith felt compelled to aid them. Caith soon fell into a dark adventure that led him and the Sidhe into the evil hands of the notorious witch of Dun Glas. "

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REVIEW:

Faery Moon is an expanded and heavily revised edition of "Faery in Shadow", also including the short story "Brothers".  This novel is set in the pre-Christian Schottish Highlands and makes use of Celtic mythology.  The faeries in this novel aren't the light, fluffy and helpful fairies of Tolkien or any children's tale.  I found the main characters to be well-written, three dimensional beings with their fair share of flaws.  The relationship between the stubborn, hot-tempered Caith and the wicked and feckless, but loyal Pooka is at times amusing.  This novel is rather dark, but it is delightfully written with vivid landscaping.  Besides, who doesn't like Pooka tales?

Faery in Shadow is a beautifully written novel, despite the issues Cherryh had with editors and publishing it.  However, Faery Moon is even better and with more Caith and Dubhain.

Starting off in 1911 Ireland, Professor Emmet Brehon is on the hunt for fairies. He believes they are more than simple bits of folklore. He finds a secluded place that is rumored to be visited by fairies and surprisingly, he sees two young fairy like girls and a mysterious light. He snaps a photo, intending to use it as proof of the existence of fairies. Alas, one misfortune after another falls upon Emmet and those close to him. He starts to suspect the photo may be more than a simple picture.

The story took a little while for me to get into. Things start off quaint and cozy. Once horrible things start happening, the pace picks up and things are much more interesting. First, there’s this mysterious photo and Emmet is the only one who seems to be able to see the fairies and the ghostly light in it. Then he notices that when he sees nothing but the background vegetation in the photo, bad things happen. First, there’s a car accident and the mother of his fiance is killed. At the funeral, there is an awful storm and the open grave fills with water and the coffin floats off, perusing Emmet and Katherine (his fiance). It goes on from there – the spooky and misfortunate and disfiguring and sometimes deadly events pile up.

Emmet eventually learns that he can’t destroy or bury or pass off the photo to be free of the troublesome spirits that inhabit it. Unfortunately, he also can no longer get stinking drunk and forget about the photo. Poor dude. Emmet tries to the flee Ireland, hoping to leave the magic that powers the spirits behind. However, this proves very difficult. I really enjoyed that it was not easy or simple for Emmet to be free of these spirits. It becomes the thing that drives him but also the thing that gets him in trouble with friends and authorities alike.

The story spans 4 years and the author threw in some references to famous people or events of the time, like Houdini and the Titanic. I like that he did this,  giving me reference points to other things happening in the world at the same time that Emmet is struggling with his spirits….. or a mental illness? Indeed, as the story moved forward, I had to start wondering if Emmet was all there, as some characters in the story wonder. The author doesn’t push the reader one way or the other and it’s up to you to decide.

Over all, it was a fun tale of classic horror. There’s not much gore, as the story relies mostly on the psychological terror of the events Emmet is party to, or at least a witness to. I really enjoyed this aspect of the story and I’m glad I stuck with it.

I received this book free of charge from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: This was a tough book to get through because of the narration. The volume keeps changing. The narration in general sounds either muffled or like at the end of a long metal tube. David Ocean tries to spruce it up a bit with a few sound effects but these are roughly pasted into the performance, like the sound of two girls giggling. Also, sometimes when he does a different character voice, like Katherine’s, that also sounds pasted in – not always, just sometimes. With that said, he does do an Irish accent for Emmet and Katherine all the way through the book. His female voices are believable.