Synopsis
I feared that using my magic would bring me closer to the faerie realm I tried so desperately to escape.
I was right.
I made a promise to a faerie, and they’ve come to deliver. A powerful talisman has disappeared, and without it, the faeries in this realm are losing their magic. Getting involved wasn’t on my plan, but if I refuse to help the faeries find the talisman, I’ll die.
To make things more complicated, shifters are being killed by a mysterious masked faerie, and all signs point to a connection with the missing talisman.
To find the killer and help the half-faeries, I must unlock the full extent of the magic I once feared, even if it means leaving the Mage Lord determined to stand at my side. Even if it takes me to Faerie’s most dangerous path…
Review
As you know; I grabbed the 1-3 box set on audio, so I decided to roll right on through them all, and I quite liked Faerie Blood and Faerie Magic! The narration is fantastic, I really feel like it embodies the character and the first person POV so well, so if you’re into audiobooks, my suggestion is to go this route for sure.
Book 3 brings back Ivy, her devilishly handsome Mage Lord, and a slew of side characters that readers both know and love at this point, and some that we may not too. This one sees Ivy recalled to the faerie in the woods, drawn back by the favor she promised to fulfill in book one. The author layers this over a murder mystery, where multiple shifters are being found dead. Both in, and outside of, their own territory. And how is it that every time tensions are on the rise, just when everything was tenuously held together, that it’s Ivy found right there in the mix of things? She’s charged with hunting down a fae talisman. The failure of which will surely kill her. Yet again, she’s also faced with juggling the possibility of war breaking out and the collapsing of the realms.
I will say in this one Ivy began to really grate on me. She’s brusque, sarcastic, plucky, and sometimes downright aggressive. It often lends nothing to the situation she’s in, too. That’s the name of the game with her, as I learned from two previous books, but wow she makes every professional situation way harder than it should be! And I get that it would be hard as hell to be calm and centered while almost everyone is at least against you (or actively trying to harm you), but I did question her hireability a bit in this one … although clearly it works its magic on the Mage Lord.
Fans will be pleased—read: screaming and raving from the stands and rafters—that Ivy and the Mage Lord do finally step fully into the realm of romance … just as I predicted at the end of my review for book 2. They are navigating the whole boss/subordinate thing, the constant battles and danger around them, and then of course the fact that Ivy refuses to listen, always throwing herself into impossibly mad situations with no regards for her own life, but hey, all that seems to be what mage-man is into. There is a hint there of Ivy being attracted to the mysterious, brooding, seemingly dangerous guy, but I think it’s going WAY far in the opposite direction here.
While unconventional, after three novels I think it’s safe to say that this is actually a sleeper “chosen one” story. Ivy is human. She never showed any signs of being a witch or mage or shifter, and she certainly isn’t faerie. I mean, sure, go grab the family tree or whatever (and this may get further addressed in a later book), but so far the stance has been that she is just human or “normal”. Yet through all of her trials and tribulations, she’s continually proven to be worthy, to not be found wanting, to surmount and surpass the odds and expectations. She may not be the classic farm boy, but this isn’t a straightforward fantasy either. I think that this works, especially in the ever changing landscape the author has set out to create.
I don’t know if this was originally set up to be a trilogy, but this one follows a sort of similar arc as one. Book 2 had a lull in stakes, but this one pulls it all back into what feels like a story-arc showdown. Bigger and badder enemies, including a possibly longtime buried dragon god (?!), and more injuries than you can count. And this has been what—a few days or weeks? I know with magic there are healing spells, but woof, they still feel it all! These folks must be capital-T Tired. And who knows as there are series that feature multiple sets, cycles, or even actual trilogies, maybe that is the set up here, as there are 4 more books to tackle currently and also a prequel short. If you’re looking for solid action and characters surrounded by an urban fantasy setting that’s magically charged, this is a series that can last you. You’ve got my stamp of approval to check it out.
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