english review only
audible audiobook

Summary: He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

My review: This was a pretty good ending to the series!!!

I didn't love everything about this, but that is a whole for the series. It's becoming one of my favorite series, even though I hate so many characters and could do without some of the relationships (I didn't hate how things ended, but I also didn't really like or enjoy it. Cardan grew on me. A little bit. But I know as soon as I go back to book one, I will hate him again with a burning passion.)

But I love this whole book series as a whole. I love the world. This world is so freaking stunning. I just love it. I also love Jude a lot, she makes this book for me, she is one of those main characters that I TRULY love, who ends up becoming my baby that I will protect at all costs (even though she probably doesn't need it and could protect me instead, BUT OH WELL).

That's it. It probably doesn't make much sense but my weird love/hate for these books don't make much sense to me either!!!

english review only

audible audiobook

Summary: While Jude fought for power in the Court of Elfhame against the cruel Prince Cardan, her sister Taryn began to fall in love with the trickster, Locke.

Half-apology and half-explanation, it turns out that Taryn has some secrets of her own to reveal.

My review: This was good!!!

Listen! Do I like Taryn at the end of this? No. Did I understand her a bit better? Yes.
This was a really great way to show her point of view of the whole thing without making her out to be some sad little puppy that didn't have a choice and who now regrets everything she has done. Cause that's not want I wanted.

by Morgan Daimler

This book is about the folklore and fairy tradition of Ireland. It may well be the most down-to-earth book on the subject on the market to date. Rather than the airy-fairy Victorian ideas of pretty little girl fairies that popular culture has spread, this is about the original tales and beliefs that are still prevalent in a mostly Christian Ireland.

The book is well researched. Tales from many places in the British Isles and Europe are cited and the folk beliefs are given context. Actual belief in fairies isn't required to enjoy the relation of the stories, though the author is mostly directing the information at a Pagan readership where some degree of belief is relevant.

There is a lot of repetition. Perhaps it was needed for context but I've seen the same information about fairy behavior in three different chapters and that gives the impression of padding. My only other complaint is that in an early chapter there was a promise to explain the difference between fairies and nature spirits, but only a passing reference to the latter later on. I pretty much understand the difference but would have liked to see it put into words to clarify.

Overall a good reference for anyone new to the subject, although the classic reference books are cited so often that I wonder if someone with more than a passing interest should just reading those works. Mostly well written, though it meanders in the last couple of chapters.

english review only

audible audiobook

spoilerfree

Summary: 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 years old 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.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war 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.

My review: I was prepared to be disappointed but I truly love this.

This is such another one of those well loved books that I finally decided to pick up. And I was worried that my luck would run out and I would end up hating the book instead of loving it. The beginning of the book wasn't that promising, to be completely honest.

I get why there was this big time jump in the beginning, but I would have truly loved to see more of the sisters after everything terrible happened, how they handled the new world. I mean we got glimpses of it, but I would have loved a bit more.

There were also moments that made my skin crawl because I just felt really uncomfortable with some scenes and what some of the characters did to my baby Jude. Ugh.

But. While this book has it's problematic moments, I totally realize and am not denying them. This book got me out of a reading slump.

I loved the writing/the narrator for this book. I loved the story. I just love diving into fae worlds. I loved the characters, most of them. Some of them. FINE, I mostly just loved Jude and Vivi. BUT I LOVE THEM A LOT. For all I care, all the men in the book can go to hell. Except for Oak, duh, he is the most adorable.

I can't wait to start the next book.

I enjoy this, at the same time I'm not sure about it. But damn, it's such a fast listen and exactly what I need right now.