Hello everyone!
It's one that's been a while in the making, in the sense that the author took her time to ensure the book would be written well, consistently, and wrapped up in a neat bow to finish everything off.
We love authors like that!
Overall though, I just love interacting with THIS author in particular, as she's a total sweetheart. I was lucky enough to be sent an ARC directly from her, but I'd highly, HIGHLY recommend you look into purchasing these books to lend your support.
This is a very fun retelling of Sleeping Beauty, in which the "beauty" happens to be reversed, aka it's the prince rather than the girl, and the girl rescues him.
Then they go off on a quest together, discover her long-lost lineage, and then decide hey, maybe they'll take on that magical separating border between one realm and the next!
That's all (and more!) you get when you pick up the last book in the trilogy, Beyond the Veil.
Hypatia Rae is one of those authors you can very quickly miss if you're not reading this particular genre, but I do honestly highly recommend looking her up and giving her Beyond the Veil trilogy a go. There are also two prequels - Curse of the Fae King as well as Rise of the Fae King, and there is still MORE to come from this world she's built, so it's an exciting time to be following along!
But, I digress. Back to the topic at hand.
Everleigh and Silas have learned that she, not he, is the actual daughter of the REAL princess of Amrynn, and that Silas' mother is her best friend, who remained behind taking up her name and her role to fool anyone from their past who might have been following them.
And still, none of them know exactly where she's gone off to ... other than they end up correctly guessing it was across the Veil again in search of a cure for Silas' sleeping curse.
This now means Everleigh will follow after her mother at all cost, so she finds a dragon to bargain with, learning that the huge scaled lizards can speak to people of her family line, and promises his aid. This turns out to be a huge package of dragon scales, freely given, which should protect her - and any chosen companions - when crossing the Veil.
Yes, there are companions. Naturally. This is a quest we're talking about, how did one Hobbit put it once before?
You need people of intelligence for this sort of quest. Thing. Whatever.
So, she gets assigned a team by one Major Stolly, whose sister ends up helping put the dragonscale armour together (the Targaryens would be proud), but they hit a snafu in their planning: the king decides Silas isn't allowed to tag along.
SAY WHAT, Silas rages.
Aaand it turns out that his parents really need to eventually start learning the whole let it go process, because his mother is pathologically incapable of letting him out of her sight for more than a couple of hours.
Anyway, regardless how much he hates it, he and Everleigh eventually decide alright then, we'll obey the rule (this is then rather illogically contradicted by Everleigh getting all resentful that he didn't disobey his father, which, girl, you AGREED with the decision, you can't do a 180 like that all of a sudden! I like you, don't be doing that), and Stolly assembles the team. They train together, prepare, and finally head to the Veil itself.
Turns out that Everleigh's blood keeps the passage of the Veil open, aka she literally has to smear some of the stuff over everyone, which is not a thing I thought I'd ever read in a Sleeping Beauty retelling, but here we are.
The journey through is also rather interesting, because there's no colour or sound in the Veil itself, the thing keeps trying to eat them (or torture them, depending which way it goes), and if it weren't for Everleigh's goat companion, Kiva, they'd all be mince meat inside.
Of course she disappears on the other side as soon as they emerge, but that's beside the point. We'll get to the mystery of her later.
Suffice to say, they make it through, the dragons hold up their end of the bargain, and our motley crew is taken to their king. This is the same king, by the way, who delivered the sleeping curse to Silas, although once he gets chatty about it he reveals he knew all along Silas wasn't the heir, but he delivered his special package to protect the REAL royals from the slightly unhinged uncle who took the throne by force.
Also, no, he can't help them, because said deranged uncle also stole his two immediate heirs, effectively crippling the dragon's decisions for the foreseeable future.
Thus, Everleigh goes to seek out other allies, finding them in a tree-house residence? Kingdom? I can't quite decide what the house is, other than it's amazing, sentient, and I want one. Either way, the master was transformed into a beast to continue the family's task (Beauty and the Beast retelling, anyone???), and he doesn't look kindly on humans whatsoever.
In fact, humans have a VERY dicey and bloody history with the Fae here, considering an uprising they staged a while back.
But Everleigh finds family in this place too, in the form of ... wait for it ... vampires.
That's right, her dad was a vampire, and he's where she gets her signature red hair from. He's also the reason the deranged uncle took out his entire family to get to the throne, by the way, because he was convinced the blood suckers would get them all if he didn't.
Anyway.
It's decided Everleigh will basically go up to the king, announce herself, and put in her claim for the throne, which I can't decide is either the most ridiculous move ever, or the most brilliant, as it's a ruse to cover for members of their team trying to steal the dragon eggs back. She's also doing it with full knowledge Stolly is in love with her, and she can't love him back because she loves Silas ... so that's another complication for you to add into the mix.
I can't wait for a possible Stolly book, though!
Back to the topic at hand, they go to confront the king, one of their would-be egg thieves gets assassinated on the spot, and we get the reunion of the century when Everleigh's mother is revealed to be alive - and, of course, in the king's clutches.
Also, she's been able to avoid him pressuring her into working her magic on the Veil to open passage to Faymere again precisely because Everleigh wasn't there, but okay.
ALSO also, VALERO IS ALIVE, PEOPLE. The bodyguard/lover/my personal favourite ever has been serving the new king, has never fully healed from the iron blade to the shoulder he took during the takeover, and has secretly been concocting schemes to free Kala from the place.
Speaking of freeing, they've got another prisoner on their hands too, when Kala's uncle, Desarin, is revealed to be alive too, but he's been beyond tortured and is just ... ugh, I want to hug him so bad.
With this family gathering complete, the king coerces Kala into changing the makeup of the Veil again, for which she needs copious amounts of her family's blood, freely given, as that's the entire point of blood magic - and also why the Veil is hostile, natch. The blood Kala initially used to place the spell to keep everyone out of Faymere was taken from the person she killed in self-defense during her flight.
But if you think it's going to go smooth, then think again. Of course it's all going to hit the fan before it gets better as the king stabs Kala - of course - Valero yeets himself at the king - also of course - and Silas pops up in Amrynn all of a sudden, takes one look at the crumbling situation at hand (also including dragons who make their move once their eggs are free), and throws his knife straight into the king's back.
See, Silas has been going stir-crazy on the other side, what with time passing differently depending where you're at, and then he found the hidden armour Everleigh made for him, in her cottage. So he trudged on after her, arriving just in time - thanks to Kiva who popped up to guide him through the Veil. And speaking of Kiva, she's a shape-shifting creature from Amrynn who followed Kala and became her companion, eventually guarding Everleigh when Kala returned home.
With the king dead, and Kala saved by Valero's magic, Everleigh can now be crowned rightful queen, seeing as her mother can never rule based on the fact she actually MAKES magic herself, and that would be too much power for one person to have. Oh and also, yes, the Veil is now changed again, Silas' parents are invited across, his mother regains all her lost memories she sacrificed to keep their mission safe, and Everleigh is crowned.
Now they'll either wait for Silas to get a sibling who can rule Faymere after him, or, because of the different passage of time, they can just have two kids of their own, one for Everleigh's throne, and one for Silas'!
I mean, if that isn't a happily ever after, then I don't know what is.
And we did it, fam!
Everleigh and Sylas' story may have started off as sort of enemies-to-lovers, but they've come a very long way and their HEA is everything I could have hoped for.
Writing: is still one of the best I've read in a while. I'll say that the casual use of modern verbiage like OK and yeah and deal do occasionally throw me for a loop, probably because they sound too modern for a medieval fantasy setting. Then again, do we know how they spoke in medieval times? Still, that might be worth looking into a smidge.
Main characters: I love that Silas and Everleigh remain true to themselves and don't change to please others. It's beautiful.
Supporting characters: old favourites return and new ones step beside them, I'm so invested in this cast! Ms Rae uses a brilliant tactic introducing us to characters we'll be looking for more of in future, I approve (except Madoc. I can live without more Madoc).
World: I need an encyclopedia about the fae realm, that's for sure! But I love every single bit of lore drop and can't wait to someday discover even more.
Plot: reaches its epic conclusion and I love love LOVE how Silas FINALLY gets to shine since it's felt like his relegation to the Beauty part of this retelling was going to do him dirty. But be still, my heart, that knife throw!
Overall, this is a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy, closing off a chapter and potentially opening plenty of new ones at the same time. All the important story threads are tied off with a bow, and I am HERE for any new ones that might follow. Especially as my heart is so full right now. Valero 💙
100/10 recommend!
xx
*image not mine
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