(Cover picture courtesy of Barnes & Noble.)

The adventures begun in the Feyland trilogy continue, where a high-tech computer game becomes a gateway to the treacherous Realm of Faerie.

Rich-boy gamer Royal Lassiter lives on easy mode—until everything falls apart. Dark faeries are plotting to invade the mortal world, his controlling mom has turned home into enemy territory, and he can’t deny his irresistible attraction to newcomer Brea, despite the danger lurking in her mysterious eyes.

Forced to undertake a perilous mission for the Dark Queen of Faerie, Brea Cairgead finds living among humans and hiding her true nature as one of the fey folk a fearsome challenge—especially when her emotions prove all too vulnerable to a certain human boy. Torn between impossible loyalties, she must serve her queen… though it may cost her heart.

Can love between mortal and fey ever have a happy ending?

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from Anthea Sharp in exchange for an honest review.]

I’ve never really liked Roy as a character in Anthea Sharp’s novels, both Feyland (the original series) and Feyguard (this new spinoff series) so I’ll admit I was a little reluctant to read things from his point of view for a whole book.  It’s a testament to Anthea Sharp’s writing talent that once I actually got going, I really didn’t mind him so much.

Roy is the kind of person that hides his true self behind a facade, both at school and at home because people would disapprove.  In the case of school there’s the usual peer pressure to stay cool but at home his mum really is more of a ruthless CEO type rather than the type of mum who would approve of Roy’s forays into art.  In a situation like that, it’s easy for him to fall back on the rich playboy facade rather than expose his innermost self.  Into all this, enter Brea Cairgead, a fey girl sent by the Dark Queen to make more humans susceptible to falling into Feyland so that they may live.  She can see beyond his facade even while she creates her own, so when they start falling in love it makes for an interesting relationship dynamic.

At the same time this book isn’t just about Roy as a character.  We see Jennet and Tamlin and some of the other Feyguard as well, but it sort of continues the story of how the fey are desperate to bring unsuspecting humans into their world.  In a way I feel sorry for them since most of the mortal realm doesn’t believe in them and their very survival is in peril because of that.  However, their methods don’t lend much sympathy and in the end the fey are capricious and often quite vicious so I can’t feel too sorry for them.

This is in many ways a character driven novel, but as you can probably guess there’s also a pretty interesting plot as well.  There was nothing all that unexpected in the plot until the end, where there’s a huge twist.  I don’t want to give too much away, but it solves the problem of Roy and Brea’s fey-human attraction in a brilliant if semi-tragic way.  I’m a sucker for some portrayals of star-crossed love and this is definitely one of them.

All in all, Anthea Sharp’s second book in the Feyguard series was even better than I expected.  Roy still gave off rich playboy vibes in the beginning of the novel but by the end he’s actually a pretty nice guy.  So there you have it: magic, character development and a pretty fast-paced plot.  I certainly can’t ask for more than that.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads