Young Adult Fiction
Simon and Schuster
September 26, 2017
Hardcover
304
A skilled painter must stand up to the ancient power of the faerie courts—even as she falls in love with a faerie prince—in this gorgeous debut novel. Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life. Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.
WrensReads Review:
This book absolutely dazzled me
Yes, my friends, it is yet another fae book. I don’t even care. I am here for this book and I will shout it from the sky on the back of my fae lover.
The writing in this book is so lyrical. She weaves her words together just as seamlessly as if they were never two different pieces of fabric. I will be rereading this and taking notes for my own writing because it was inspiring.
Not to mention the folklore in this! I remember reading things when I was little about fairies who couldn’t craft because it would kill them. Then I read so many books that are just about how powerful and beautiful the Faes are with like no restrictions really. Then you get to this book and they can’t craft (make art, sing, write, bake, etc), iron can kill them… all the original things about fairies. Because you can’t be that powerful without weaknesses in my opinion.
Side Note: I do wish we could have touched more on the things that come from human bones. There are these like disgusting creatures that come to life that are literally-basically zombies that come along with the Fae existing I guess? I don’t know but I want more creep and gore please (whoops, there’s my weird creepin’ out again).
So are protagonist is Isobel and she can paint portraits. So can paint them so well that Faes will come to her for their portraits to be painted in exchange for a charm. She has to be careful with what she says she wants to the charms to be though, because Faes, being the truth-only tellers they are, love to twist the truth and are no strangers to trickery.
So when the Autumn Prince who-changes-into-a-raven-and-sometimes-a-prince comes a’ trollopin’ and wants his portrait painted… and that one thing that Isobel can’t seem to get painted just right… when that one thing ruins his reputation, he takes her to the land of the Faes to stand trial for the wrong she has done him.
There are so many characters I absolutely love! The Spring Prince is snarky and adorably full of himself and I LOVE HIM. His cousin is the girl version of him but ditsy and made me laugh so often. Then there’s the Autumn Prince who is arrogant and broody and makes you feel all the feels. There’s just so much to love about this book.
This is so important: A lot of these Fae books, no matter how much I love them because yes I love them a lot, have the girl having to form and mold to what the male needs or wants. In order for their happily ever after they have to change and become a different them. That’s not this way in this book and that is one of the main things I absolutely loved about this book. No one had to give up anything that they loved. No one had to change drastically in order to be deemed fit for the other. It was an absolute marvel to read for that in itself.
I know this book is compared to A Court of Thorns and Roses, but really the only similarities is a human girl gets dragged to the Fae world for some “wrong” that she did. It’s written different, the Faes are a different type of Fae and… I don’t know. I love both books but differently.
It’s worth the read!
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