Hello everyone!
I totally wanted to read more of the series before I started the blog posts but alas!
I needed a book for tonight. This was it.
If you enjoy books like the ones written by Sarah J Maas (who, coincidentally, I still need to finish one series from) then I am pretty sure you're going to LOVE this one.
It has unique world-building, likeable characters, and a pretty spread out array of them to start with.
And the character numbers just keep on growing as time goes by, too.
There are currently four books in the series, with at least one or two more planned based on all that I've read and heard, so you have PLENTY of time to hop on the bandwagon and join the rest of us!
C.C Peñaranda came up with something pretty unique in An Heir Comes to Rise. Why don't you go ahead and keep on reading?
Given this is a series starter and I plan on continuing with it, I won't be linking anything else down below BUT you can freely have a look at my Sarah J Maas collection here on the blog for something relatively similar, with twists and tricks that you may not see coming.
Our story right now, however, begins with Faythe, a nineteen-year-old human living in the Fae world where three kingdoms are fighting against three others that have been consumed into one mighty empire. Their only hope is an island that's supposedly neutral, but as we'll see at the end there that may or may not be the case, depending.
Anyway, Faythe works as errand girl for the local bakery in the outer town of the Fae castle when she learns one of her friends is in trouble for spying for the invaders - see the problem with the Fae is they have some special tricks and abilities, the deadliest one being Nightwalking where they can literally enter your mind overnight and roam in there.
Faythe and Jakon, her best friend, help the fool who tried to be a spy escape by stowing him on a ship to the free island, but she gets in even MORE trouble that night when SHE Nightwalks into the dreams of a Fae guard she spotted earlier.
Initially thinking it's a dream, the guard seeks her out and tells her to keep her head down because she's got something rather unique - humans don't get abilities, after all, so he's going to be keeping an eye on her. Also, his name's Nik.
Faythe's circle of friends is also expanding when the blacksmith Marlowe joins the fold after forging Faythe's sword, Lumarias - as Faythe trains in the town square every evening, much to the amusement of the Fae guards apparently, since how can a human ever hope to beat them? Marlowe is also a welcome addition because Jakon is clearly head over heels for her, which helps when Faythe needs a distraction later on, or distractions rather.
Because from the get-go, Nik gets her a tonic to prevent the Nightwalking, then takes her into the forests surrounding their town to teach her how to control her abilities instead, at which point the forests exacts a price: it gets Faythe to admit she's training and becoming a fighter because she's convinced her mother died in that same forest because of her.
Nik manages to teach her how NOT to launch herself into Nightwalking every single time (because if you do it continuously then you literally burn out since your mind isn't getting much rest), but he also explains the deadly consequences they can enact as Nightwalkers - prompting Faythe to admit she may have killed someone without knowing it, a butcher who was abusing his wife a while ago.
So she's living with a couple of her own sins, at that, most notably on the human side when she's invited to participate in a gladiatorial setting under the local inn called The Cave, which she initially turns down, but eventually accepts simply for the easy way it is to earn money, even though it means raking up enemies with every man she brings to his knees in the process.
But she's got money for the first time, money to be able to throw Jakon a proper birthday party, and a mystery on her hands because Marlowe finds a hidden message in the watch Faythe's mother left her, conveniently bearing the mark of one of the three Spirits or Gods that govern their world, the one of life, which also happens to be on a temple in the woods that a great stag took her to a couple of times.
The message seems to be a prophecy of some sort, but things don't come to a head until Faythe's "buddies" from the Cave ambush and attack her and her friends, mortally injuring Jakon. The group only escapes because Nik arrives just on time, and Faythe has an idea - she runs into the forest to get the tiny little creatures from the pond there that are supposedly healing, but she has to tie her soul to the place in the process, swearing to bring a piece of the Spirit's back.
Healing Jakon, she promises to quit the Cave, except she can't until she's fought an actual Fae, and she and Nik devise a strategy of how she's going to lose, because she has an interesting other ability that the Fae don't have: she can see into the conscious mind while awake, which means she can predict movements, if trained properly.
She doesn't know what this all means until she and Marlowe return to the temple with the Looking Glass - the stone in the pommel of her sword - to inscribe it with a spell which is warded with a memory charm, causing them to forget it as soon as it's written, and once within, Faythe comes face-to-face with the Spirit herself after using the same stone.
Aurialis explains that she's been waiting a long time, and that Faythe is destined for great things, to help heal the land; she will be joined by several others, of which she's already gathered three to her side. As for her powers?
Well, the Fae who possess the Nightwalking abilities are blood-blessed by the third, missing Spirit, Marvellas - the HUMANS who have the same powers are her direct descendants, making their powers greater. The usual sign of this stuff are golden eyes, or at least that seems to be what the prophecy keeps harping about.
Now armed with more knowledge - Marlow is an Oracle, yo! - the girls return to town and explain this all to Jakon (which has GOT to be one of the funniest things ever) and Faythe ends up facing the cruel and vicious Captain of the King's Guard in the Cave who's had it in for her since forever just because he can.
And he would have killed her, too, if she hadn't seen it and forestalled him. Marking herself for death.
Seeing as she prevents him from walking into her head, he takes Marlowe instead, prompting Jakon and Faythe to try and infiltrate the castle, only for them to be caught, but Faythe takes the King's Ward as hostage to gain an audience, and during the show-down with everyone in the Great Hall, as Marlowe and her friends are about to be executed, she takes control of her abilities, freezes the Captain in place, and shows the King he's got a BIG problem on his hands.
But I mean, so does she.
Because Nik? Her little dalliance, since their feelings have kind of spilled over?
He's the King's son and heir, natch.
He "betrays" her, though he later reveals he only did so to protect her, her friends, and himself, all in one go, not that it helps their relationship which is irrevocably shattered at that point.
But Faythe is then taken in by the King, under penalty of death for her friends if she refuses, and given rooms in the castle to occupy as "human emissary". She meets the King's Ward properly, Tauria, who explains that not all Fae are the same monsters humans know them as - in fact, when Nikalias assumes the throne, a lot of them hope things will be better for both their kinds.
And remember the guy Faythe helped escape? Well, he's got no luck. He gets snatched by enemy soldiers even so, which makes you wonder whether or not the island kingdom is actually still free, or whether the empire has taken it, or whether the ship was never destined to go there in the first place.
Either way, a Fae with golden eyes takes control of the poor guy's mind ... and DUN DUN DUN!
Tune in for more as soon as I get through the second book!
Action-packed, with a tight narrative and good character foundations, this book occasionally suffers from the petulance of its heroine who will, it's hoped, grow further into her role as the story progresses more. She's only nineteen after all! But I love the cast of characters as a whole, everyone who's been introduced, and can't wait to read more about their shenanigans.
Not to mention the world, too! We've barely scratched the surface, and the war is still ongoing so chances are we're about to enter into it a bit more solidly with the second installment.
And also ... while she was in her own subconscious, Faythe managed to conjure the touch of someone else, someone I suspect is real because of the startling blue eyes she saw in the process. So I'm thinking there's going to be someone blue-eyed making his way onto the pages VERY soon.
It might remind you of Throne of Glass, but I promise you, this book is different enough to still hook you, and I definitely recommend you try it.
PLUS there's some STUNNING CHARACTER ARTWORK on display on the author's Instagram page. And the author herself is super sweet!
10/10 recommend.
xx
*image not mine
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