Curse of the Fae Queen by Delia Castel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
** Update : This book has been rewritten and revamped into [b: Curse of Fae King|52257028|Curse of the Fae King (Dark Faerie Court, #1)|Delia E. Castel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1583836755l/52257028._SY75_.jpg|77360702]
Below are my original thoughts and review from when I first read this early (2019) edition:
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If you like fae, then you definitely try this. Period mama.
Beginning is kinda basic formula: heroine with secret. Parental figure who only divulges *the bare fucking min information*. Heroine breaks one of the rules to help people. Boom !!
Father? CAPTURED
Heroine? TRAPPED IN A MAGICAL LAND
LEGENDARY fae qUeStS
ADVERSARIES FORCED TO BE ALLIES
EVIL QUEEN
Neara is blessed with Sight to see Fae. She uses that sight to protect her village. But one day… the fae figure out that she can see them and the book spirals off into a whole adventure
One thing that I really loved about her … is how she wasn’t a fucking idiot
She knew the fae were tricky and decided to play their game even better than them. She wasn’t allowed to hurt them? Well she don’t gotta save em. Fae couldn’t lie? Well she fucking can.
“No need to ration it.” Amusement laced his voice. “These water skins provide an endless supply.”
I tilted the canteen, making sure to drench his jacket. An annoyed snarl reverberated in his throat, but I ignored it”
Each of the task test her, and Neara begins to realize that she as more abilities than just seeing fae
The world building:
We got an evilll queen yalll *snaps*
“Every one of the gentry who opposed her now lives a cursed existence. Queen Melusina turned the Winter Court to ice, transformed the Autumn Court into beasts, cursed the Summer Court to an eternal sleep, and cast the Spring Court under water.”
The different courts have been PUNISHED and the queen has turned them all into their worst selves. Essentially, this book is one BIG FAE TRICK, and I adored all of it!
I love how this first book really set up the heroine to first be introduced to the fae world, work on immediate issue, to build up to the MAJOR plot that the series going to be focused on. That’s just some good goddamn writing. The heroine was my kind of sassy and capable. Each task pushed her, forced her to confront her weaknesses then she REFUSED to let that weakness stop her
The writing was BEAUTIFUL *chef’s kiss*
“Wind, like mighty fists, hammered on my limbs.
Wind, like vicious fingers, pulled at my hair.
Wind, like frantic claws, scratched at my skin.”
It was a perfect blend of world building, without being excessively descriptive. Comedy, without taking away from adventure. Romance *without instalove. The trifecta !!!
One of FAVORITE scenes was the one with the fuuuucking Riddler, it killllled me
“He must have seen the decision in my eyes because he said, “What is your answer?”
I widened my stance, hand between the openings of my cloak, ready to pull out my dagger in case he struck.
Spoiler
“Freedom.”
The Keeper’s jaw dropped. “Fre—” He massaged his temples. “This is most embarrassing.”
“Did I get it right?”
“Yes and no,” he replied.
“What does that mean?”
“I had another answer in mind, but it seems stupid now. Yours fits much better, doesn’t it?”
I fucking dieddddd, the Riddler thought her answer was better than his original, and he was all embarrassed *iconicccccc*
Now… My Main critique… the love interests
Bitch.
If you say this a reverse harem… then give me a goddamn reverse harem
In this book, there was only one main love interest for our heroine. Sure it impliedddddd we getting more in the series. But you couldn’t even start us with two??
Overall, I can’t believe this isn’t on more people’s radar. For the first of the series, it set up the world beautifully that I cannot WAIT to see where it’s going, and how the author might add some more twists and turns. The love interest was flawed, driven, and I wanted to slap then kiss him at the same time. The harem I guess is TBD which was lameeeee but I excited as FUCK to travel around to the different courts and meet the rest of the squad *hopefully in the next book pretty please??*
I really hope the author carefully works to differentiate the cultures and buildup of each court so that they aren’t all basically the same with just a different color scheme *cough pathetic don’t do it pls* While beginning had some YA vibes with the setup, I hope the second brings the adult with more sexy, more intriguing, more bitching characters. For real tho, anyone who read this book pleaseee message me so I have someone to rave about it with!!
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