Synopsis:
She’ll do anything to save her family—even marry a fae and face the dead.
Years ago, Elle Blackford’s parents made a desperate deal with the fae kingdom of Ashwood. While her mother and sisters reconciled themselves to a future among dangerous immortals, Elle and her father studied forbidden magic, hoping to find a loophole.
Until Elle’s father dies, forcing Elle’s sister to marry Prince Fitz, heir of Ashwood.
But Elle has a plan to change their fate. For she knows that ghosts wander Ashwood Forest until the royal family sends them into the afterlife. Ghosts that can be returned to life. And she’s determined to save her father from his premature death.
All she needs is powerful magic—magic Prince Fitz possesses.
Taking her sister’s place, Elle marries Prince Fitz to steal his power. But in a world of bloodthirsty fae and vengeful ghosts, being a mortal comes with constant risks. As Elle navigates a kingdom of monsters and tragic secrets, she realizes she might not survive to save her family.
And the key to her salvation might be her arrogant, cold husband—the one she’d planned to rob and abandon. If only she can trust him.
Pride and Prejudice meets Gothic fae fantasy in this loose retelling, full of plenty of romantic tension (not spice).
Review:
When you make bold claims that your novel is similar to Pride and Prejudice you better have the ability to back that up. Unfortunately, this book has a plot that loosely resembles some of Pride and Prejudice, but the order is wrong. While enemies to lovers is a great trope, Elle, despite being intelligent, spends so much time hating her husband, then learning about him, but is easily swayed to believe the worst despite knowing Fitz better than what she’s led to believe. In the counterpart, when Lizzy believes Darcy to be capable of horrible things via what she’s been told by Wickham, she didn’t know Darcy at all.
The storybuilding of fae magic is great, as is the idea of someone having to let ghosts pass on and having a glade of souls. The mystery was interesting, with enough hints given along the way for a reasonable person to have an inkling what is going on, just to have that idea dashed by clashing information, despite your heart KNOWING you weren’t wrong the first time. The characters were mostly well developed and had you rooting for their happily ever after. While there is some spice, it isn’t over the top; nothing above kissing.
Overall, a cute, quick read, but The House Witch was a tough act to follow.
Star rating: ✯✯✯✯
Amy S. Brown 