Hello everyone!
I have some really fantastical books to talk about this month - and for the next few months, actually, because I just looked at my list and I'm pretty much all squared for this little space for the next who knows how many days.
Life just happens while you're having fun reading, is all I'll say!
But tonight's book is a very lovely choice, and, conveniently, it JUST released out into the world.
Happy release, Magdalena Gavlasova! You really outdid yourself with this book.
I do know she has at least two more that you can read either concurrently or as prequels before this one, because they happen in the same expanded world, but tonight's choice was my entry into the universe she's crating, and that's what we'll be talking about.
So hold onto your butts, grab a comb, and make sure you look presentable, because we're headed into a world where beauty is everything and cheating isn't an option, in Heart of Faelithia!
Since this is the first book I've read from Ms Gavlasova, there aren't any other links down at the bottom of the page to refer to, but hopefully that changes with time!
For now, allons-y.
Our story begins when Luna's transported to Faelithia by the Fae who was tasked with bringing her home. See, Luna is a long lost oldest daughter and princess of the realm, heir to the throne, who disappeared seventeen years ago and hasn't been seen since.
Turns out, she was taken to the human world and raised by a single father who owned a bar, so she knows bartending but not really ruling, which is an immediate strike against her in her younger sister Elva's eyes, but hey, they have time, right?
Time to teach Luna what she needs to know, acquaint her with everything and everyone she'll need as a rough start to her rule, so that she can adapt better, and time to get her acclimated.
Right?
Haha, wrong.
Because apparently, the Fae of Faelithia have never actually heard of these things, as they don't really prep her for anything, other than giving her a tea that makes her hair grow super fast (until she stops drinking it) since it's offending that she wears it cropped short. Or that she has muscles because she works out. She's not beautiful like their women are beautiful, you see.
God, I felt so SEEN in Luna's anger towards that mindset that I wanted to reach into the pages and rip someone's head right off. Which I would have done, too, but then again I'm in my 30s and Luna's in her early 20s, which means she's still at the stage where conforming means hoping they'll accept you easier.
Spoiler alert: they don't, not really.
Anyway, she meets two brothers, Rowen and Zephyrion, of whom the second is charged with her security and the first one's been around the royal family since forever because he and Elva grew up together, and obviously he's trying to flirt his way in with Luna. The marriages in Faelithia follow a strict pattern because there are five branches of elemental magic: Fire, Earth, Water, Air and Mind, and to keep things peaceful there can never be a succession of couples from the same elements, but you have to mix it up.
Luna's really not all into this as she gets to explore on her own to learn things she isn't being told and can't read out of dusty history books, while no one bothers to ACTUALLY introduce her to councilors, advisors, lawmakers, the usual. She only hears whispers that there's 'unrest' because she looks the way she does, and apparently a person's ability to rule in Faelithia is directly connected to the length of their hair.
What are we, Dothraki?!
She at least finds her own foothold when she has the Fae who initially brought her to the realm take her to the morning rituals they all practice in greeting of the sun, and she gets to dance there, which shows her new friend an interesting thing: she can dance very well in greeting of Fire and Water both, but she has yet to manifest any actual magic, which the palace is keeping under wraps.
Then the king - her father, of course - who nearly had a heart attack seeing her the first time, dies, and Luna has to hastily be crowned.
Only to get kidnapped, then rescued by Rowen, and then engaged to him without having a word because ancient laws demand that from the person who was rescued.
Hesitant, Luna agrees to the courtship at least, falling for Rowen's promises that they'll take it on their own time, and capitulating at every single turn when he and Elva keep telling her 'oh but the people might riot', 'oh I thought your sister had it right', 'oh but that's the perfect time'.
You can see how this is going to go. The decisions are taken out of Luna's hands, and she gets stuck with the ancient matrimonial neck tattoo proclaiming to all and sundry she's off limits.
Because while the rest of Faelithia may practice polygamy and everyone can get married willy-nilly so long as their partners consent, the royals can't. It'd breed confusion, or something.
Anyway, Rowen apparently doesn't get this memo because, not only does he never touch Luna, but she finds out he's secretly cheating on her with his lover - male lover, by the way, which in this case IS significant when it usually wouldn't be, because he should have committed himself solely to Luna.
Doesn't help Luna's been having feelings for his older brother, Zeph, who's teaching her how to fight so she won't be defenseless anymore. Then again, after learning THAT about your husband, even a wardrobe door would be a more welcoming choice, honestly.
Things go from bad to worse when Luna clocks into the fact Rowen conveniently isn't telling her things that she SHOULD know as Queen, and she strongarms him into having Elva at a council meeting, where everyone wants to test how well she knows her history, but no one's willing to actually do anything about present problems, like how they treat Fae who control two elements, not just one.
And then Luna and Zeph find out someone's conducting unholy experiments within the palace, as in, they learn they're trying to craft a soul for Baal, aka a demon who wants to ascend and become a god and basically destroy everything.
Some Fae are actively helping him. Because - check this - he promised them immunity, but Zeph is like, snort, beings like THAT will promise anything to get what they want, and never hold their word.
The conspiracy goes even higher than you'd think, however, because Rowen tries to kill Luna, though she stabs him for his efforts and flees. Zeph gets her out of the palace, heals her, and they have sex because holding back is no longer an option - and oh also, he sends her on a quest to find the dragons, which the Fae used to ride until the beasts disappeared, since that's the only way she'll actually convince everyone she's the rightful ruler. He, meanwhile, will figure out a way to save Elva, who's been accused of this whole crime, and since Rowen's the king, they can't do much without said dragon.
So Luna goes. She loses on of the Fae when they finally reach their destination, however, to a mist wraith that literally sucks out her soul, and the cranky dragon who comes roaring into the picture afterwards explains that the mist is Fae-made, so MORE of the experiments have gone further than was initially thought. He does, however, decide not to roast Luna and to have her ride him, and he also, interestingly enough, calls her the same word she's insisted they use for half-elementals: two-elemental.
She has control over two elements, but she uses her emotions to channel magic which, he says, will kill her if she doesn't learn otherwise. Also, her parents actually sent her away, had her "kidnapped", and blamed a young Zeph who was her guard at the time, because she wasn't perfect the way Faelithia wants their royals to be. Second also, the House of Mind has apparently got a lot to answer for, because the dragon says they've committed atrocities beyond words, and there's a reckoning coming.
So they return to the palace, the dragon makes sure everyone knows who's boss now, and then tells Luna not to be too happy about seeing Zephyrion again - because he married her sister in her absence.
DUN DUN DUN!
What to say, what to say?
I stumbled over the chance of reading an ARC for this book quite randomly, over Instagram - or, Bookstagram I should say, at least at this point LOL. I didn't really believe I had much hope, and yet here I am! Thank you so much to the author for trusting me with this very deeply emotional book. I'm still recovering from it, but I promise all my thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
It is, quite simply put, a character and emotion-driven book, not so much plot and world. And even then, it seems rather zeroed in on our heroine, Luna, who is our window into Faelithia. I don't say this to make it sound bad - as this is only the first of what I hope will at least be one more, if not many more, it makes sense that we get to know our FMC well before we dive into the rest.
Even so, however, I feel like we only briefly skim the surface over supporting characters that feel like they should be a lot more important. Namely, Elva, Rowen, and Zephyrion to start with, though I could probably name a few more. But considering Elva and Luna are sisters, and Rowen and Zeph brothers, and how it all gets tangled up so messily in the end ... well.
We NEEDED to see more of what this childhood was like. Elva and Rowen, we know, grew up together, so they're of the same age-ish. Zeph stands above them all as he's seventeen years older even than Luna, who is older than Elva. But to truly understand the depth of what's all happened, I think we really needed to know MORE of the whole Rowen-Zeph-Elva dynamic, yet just as Luna accusses Elva: they call her 'sister' or 'queen' or 'wife' when it suits them, but don't spend any significant amount of time with her so that she might get to know them and not feel like an outsider.
That's a little bit like how the reader - or at least, THIS reader - feels. ESPECIALLY with that end twist, that broke my heart as much as Luna's, especially because of everything we learn leading up to that point. Adultery is basically the capital offense in Faelithia, so things just got WAY more complicated, because nobody ever mentioned divorce or it even being possible, particularly for royals.
I am expecting - fully expecting - there to be a face-to-face between Luna and Zeph, and Luna and Elva, either separate, together, or all of the above. Because I don't care what brilliant idea went through anyone's head, there had to have been a better way somewhere than literally taking a wrecking ball to everything and bulldozing through.
Also, for everyone's information, I loathed Rowen from the second he showed up. He was always too convenient, too sugary sweet, too syrupy, too charming, DARVO-ing the hell out of Luna until she believed everything he was gaslighting her with. The fact that no one else could see it, in this world where Fae literally sense emotions, is mind-boggling to me.
But the writing, though? Impeccable. It drew me in and had me reading through this in two sittings, one Sunday. It's the type of fantasy with slow burn that I like, though these casual dramatics that I don't necessarily see the depth of reason for and feel like they only serve drama rather than plot don't sit well with me.
However, as I said, the emotions are what drive this book. And I hope, SINCERELY HOPE, that after everything she's been through, Luna stops trying to please everybody, tunes into herself, and kicks some serious ass in book two!
Absolutely recommend.
I stumbled over the chance of reading an ARC for this book quite randomly, over Instagram - or, Bookstagram I should say, at least at this point LOL. I didn't really believe I had much hope, and yet here I am! Thank you so much to the author for trusting me with this very deeply emotional book. I'm still recovering from it, but I promise all my thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
It is, quite simply put, a character and emotion-driven book, not so much plot and world. And even then, it seems rather zeroed in on our heroine, Luna, who is our window into Faelithia. I don't say this to make it sound bad - as this is only the first of what I hope will at least be one more, if not many more, it makes sense that we get to know our FMC well before we dive into the rest.
Even so, however, I feel like we only briefly skim the surface over supporting characters that feel like they should be a lot more important. Namely, Elva, Rowen, and Zephyrion to start with, though I could probably name a few more. But considering Elva and Luna are sisters, and Rowen and Zeph brothers, and how it all gets tangled up so messily in the end ... well.
We NEEDED to see more of what this childhood was like. Elva and Rowen, we know, grew up together, so they're of the same age-ish. Zeph stands above them all as he's seventeen years older even than Luna, who is older than Elva. But to truly understand the depth of what's all happened, I think we really needed to know MORE of the whole Rowen-Zeph-Elva dynamic, yet just as Luna accusses Elva: they call her 'sister' or 'queen' or 'wife' when it suits them, but don't spend any significant amount of time with her so that she might get to know them and not feel like an outsider.
That's a little bit like how the reader - or at least, THIS reader - feels. ESPECIALLY with that end twist, that broke my heart as much as Luna's, especially because of everything we learn leading up to that point. Adultery is basically the capital offense in Faelithia, so things just got WAY more complicated, because nobody ever mentioned divorce or it even being possible, particularly for royals.
I am expecting - fully expecting - there to be a face-to-face between Luna and Zeph, and Luna and Elva, either separate, together, or all of the above. Because I don't care what brilliant idea went through anyone's head, there had to have been a better way somewhere than literally taking a wrecking ball to everything and bulldozing through.
Also, for everyone's information, I loathed Rowen from the second he showed up. He was always too convenient, too sugary sweet, too syrupy, too charming, DARVO-ing the hell out of Luna until she believed everything he was gaslighting her with. The fact that no one else could see it, in this world where Fae literally sense emotions, is mind-boggling to me.
But the writing, though? Impeccable. It drew me in and had me reading through this in two sittings, one Sunday. It's the type of fantasy with slow burn that I like, though these casual dramatics that I don't necessarily see the depth of reason for and feel like they only serve drama rather than plot don't sit well with me.
However, as I said, the emotions are what drive this book. And I hope, SINCERELY HOPE, that after everything she's been through, Luna stops trying to please everybody, tunes into herself, and kicks some serious ass in book two!
Absolutely recommend.
xx
*image not mine
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