Hello again! That’s right, similarly to Andy Peloquin’s Queen of Thieves and Gerard Way’s The Umbrella Academy, I am back again with another review combining a box set I’ve finished! Adams’ The Changeling Chronicles 1-3 is a masterclass in how to combine the real world with magic and fantasy. A true triumph in melding faerie powers and lands with that which we know, love, and experience daily. I bought the set on Audible, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and suggest going into this with the audio. The narrator is fantastic. And even though I already reviewed Faerie Blood, Magic, and Realm, I wanted to highlight the set again, I’ve thought about it that much.
Synopsis
I’m Ivy Lane, and if I never see another faerie again, it’ll be too soon.
Twenty years after the faeries came and destroyed the world as we knew it, I use my specialist skills to keep rogue faeries in line and ensure humans and their magically gifted neighbours can coexist (relatively) peacefully.
Nobody knows those skills came from the darkest corner of Faerie itself.
When a human child disappears, replaced with a faerie changeling, I have to choose between taking the safe road or exposing my own history with the faeries to the seductively dangerous head of the Mage Lords. He’s the exact kind of distraction I don’t need, but it’s work with him or lose my chance to save the victims. It’ll take all my skills to catch the kidnappers and stop Faerie’s dark denizens overrunning the city—but if the faerie lords find out about the magic I stole last time I went into their realm, running won’t save me this time.
This bundle contains the first three books in the Changeling Chronicles series: Faerie Blood, Faerie Magic, and Faerie Realm.
Review
Faerie Blood
Ivy Lane’s world is built on tenuous peace at best. Since the faerie invasion, there’s been little anyone can do to keep the fighting at bay. And while Ivy may have more reason than others to hate the folks the invasion left behind, she now uses her skills to investigate and stop rogue fae, ensuring their fates are continually intertwined. Her magic, which she loosely tells people is from being a witch (although notably coven-less), is anything but, and despite her best efforts, she’s pulled into the deep end of a world of trouble. Human children kidnapped, a shockingly handsome Mage Lord, and a power struggle she wants nothing to do with but simply can’t let lie.
With notes of Carnival Row, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Nevers, this one also reminded me of Mawce Hanlin’s Under the Dragon Moon, in the sense that when urban fantasy is done well, I quite enjoy it. I am not well-versed in changelings or faerie stories, I admit, but this one does a great job at setting up the world while still leaving mystery. I felt myself consistently wondering about the goings-on in the world at large, while also not feeling as if I was missing something. There’s a particular talent on display when an author can make you wish for more without coming off as purposefully vague or even misleading. Adams smashes toeing that line. Intrigue over mislead
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: I LOVE books that mesh or transcend genres. This proves that statement remains true. Fantasy laid over our natural world, a mystery that follows a typical investigation pattern regardless of magic or creatures, the hints of a romance even though the secrets kept are awfully piled high. I think this one is really great. As I type this, it also brings to mind Benjamin Aeveryn’s Blackcap (another great genre blend). If genres and tropes have been done, and done again, mixing them up is a fantastic way to freshen things up.
The magic system is an interesting one. There are a multitude of magical creatures, so there are no hard rules here. As Ivy is unsure of her own powers as well, it allows for her to progress with them as the story goes on (and I’d imagine into the following books too). The fact that the world sets up witches, mages, necromancers, spirits, faeries (in the more traditional sense), and even hellhounds, I feel the possibilities are endless! Especially with Ivy doing odd-job investigations, there’s no telling where the series can go.
Ivy is a somewhat brusque, witty character. She certainly shines on with that millennial sarcasm. While that’s not really anything new for this kind of lead, it is crafted spectacularly. The author’s choice of a first-person POV really sells it, as her inner monologue is both funny and relevant. Ivy is the exact sort of reluctant hero you can see yourself falling in with for a series of magical books.
Faerie Magic
Ivy officially agrees to employment with the mages, still butting heads with the overly handsome Mage Lord. And while not so much time has gone by, the anger between fae is heating up again. The half-faeries seem to do their level best to piss off just about everyone, and worse, now there’s some kind of potion that sets them all into an unbreakable rage. To find the source, Ivy will have to go undercover, risking life and limb to once again stop an all-out war.
Right off the bat the mystery and magic starts up all over again. This serum that turns the fae-kind into rabid monsters of themselves was an interesting twist to the story. It allowed the author to play into the half-faeries biggest fear, a mortal life. And as the serum promises immortality, it’s understandable how up in arms they were to get their hands on it. To them it’s a matter of life and death—as they literally view living a normal lifespan to be a curse—and unfortunately some of them might just actually die in the process. I will say that as they are almost all shown to be stuck-up, incredibly full of themselves people, it’s a little hard to care. Ivy shows them zero sympathy too, but she can’t just stand by and do nothing!
To get to the bottom of things, Ivy must infiltrate and investigate from within. She hears that the winner of a faerie-only competition is being given the serum as a prize, so what does any intelligent woman with an overprotective boss do? She enters herself as a fighter. The only problem is her appearance. I enjoyed that the author gave readers some different kinds of magic throughout this one, and that included magically altering Ivy’s appearance. Making her seem like a different person kind of reminded me of M. J. Kuhn’s Among Thieves and her character that is a disguise expert, though here it’s Ivy’s witch roommate and best friend. The actual fights themselves kind of brought to mind Spider-man’s cage fight in the first Raimi movie, but it is virtually a magical fight club. And just remember, nothing is as simple as it seems.
Overall this one does feel kind of side-mission like, and although it seems faerie war is always on the line here, the fight club felt like lower stakes. Which, truly, is not necessarily a bad thing, especially as this one is a second novel and not the finale, but it’s just something to keep in mind. Ivy continues to be snarky, combative, and overall a little unpleasant, but the romantic tension with the Mage Lord will have you smacking your head. If enemies (or reluctant professionals?) to lovers is your thing, I’m telling you it’s incoming! Onto book three.
Faerie Realm
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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