Tagged: faerie
Cold Hillside by Nancy Baker
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
“With them, there are no happy endings.”
In the remote city of Lushan, they know that the Fey are not fireside tales but a dangerous reality.
Generations ago, the last remnants of a dying empire bargained with the Faerie Queen for a place of safety in the mountains and each year the ruler of Lushan must travel to the high plateau to pay the city’s tribute. When an unexpected misfortune means that the traditional price is not met, the Queen demands the services of Teresine, once a refugee slave and now advisor to the Sidiana. Teresine must navigate the treacherous politics of the Faerie Court, where the Queen’s will determines reality and mortals are merely pawns in an eternal struggle for power.
Years later, another young woman faces an unexpected decision that forces her to discover the truth of what happened to Teresine in the Faerie Court, a truth that could threaten everything she loves.
From the acclaimed author of The Night Inside and A Terrible Beauty comes a new novel about the price of safety and the cost of power.
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback copy from the publisher at Book Expo America 2015 with no expectation of a review.]
It was not immediately apparent to me that Cold Hillside was going to be a great book. Why? Because the first few chapters are quite disorienting as you get used to the incredible world Nancy Baker brings to life. It’s so similar to our own that it could be an alternate Earth and yet there are so many cultural differences that it’s very jarring. While you may be confused by all of the proper nouns thrown at you in the beginning like I was, if you stick with the novel it is absolutely worth it.
Basically, Cold Hillside follows Lilit and Teresine, Lilit’s great-aunt. In the beginning we focus on Lilit and her desperate attempt to go to the mysterious fair where the other apprentices go to sell the wares of their houses (which are essentially guilds). She manages to wheedle her way into going despite her mother Amaris’ firm objections because while she belongs to the house of Kerias, she is apprenticed to House Auster, a jewelry-making house. When she gets to the fair, she realizes that maybe it’s not all that it was cracked up to be. In between Lilit’s chapters in the beginning we slowly start to learn of her great-aunt Teresine’s journey from Jayasita to her current home in Lushan. As the novel progresses, Teresine’s story takes over the narrative (as it should and this transition happens quite naturally) as we learn some of the amazing and horrific events in her past. We learn of how she came into the service of the Sidiana of Lushan (the Queen) and how she ended up at the Faerie Court for a full year because of one tiny mistake.
Teresine’s story really is the main story of the novel and it is absolutely fascinating. It shows the fey in a way that Lilit doesn’t get to see because Teresine was so intimately involved with them. Nancy Baker does such a great job of balancing the beauty of the Faerie Court and the fey with their viciousness and cunning. They’re very capricious, just like in the older myths. And while Teresine finds love of a sort, as the book’s tagline suggests there are no happy endings when it comes to the fey. Since Teresine really captures your heart as a three dimensional character who goes through so much, you’ll be hooked from the start until the finish. She really has an incredible life and her life leaves a very notable mark on the life of her grand-niece Lilit, who has to struggle with some important decisions of her own at the end of the novel. I can’t really say much more without giving things away, but let’s just say that the man Teresine meets at the court, Daen, is not at all what he seems. And it’s Daen that really lends the book its mysterious title, Cold Hillside.
Despite my confusion in the beginning, Nancy Baker’s writing style sucks you into the world of Lushan and the Faerie Court. You feel the characters’ struggles along with them and want them to get the happy endings they deserve (even if you know that they’re probably not going to get those happy endings since the fey are involved). She does such a great job of portraying the dark and light sides of the fey and that’s echoed in the writing itself. Baker writes scenes of extreme beauty and extreme horror and I can’t tell you how well the cover captures the feeling of the novel. It may not make much sense when you first see it, but by the end you’ll appreciate just how accurately it captures the feeling of Cold Hillside.
If you love unique fantasy with amazing characters and more than a few plot twists, I can’t recommend this book enough. I almost passed over it at Book Expo America but something made me take it anyway and I’m very glad for that. Teresine and Lilit will capture your heart and Nancy Baker’s unique writing style will make you enjoy their personal journeys even more. If you love fantasy, you should really pick up Cold Hillside.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Summer Marked by Rebekah Purdy
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The sequel to the chilling Winter People returns to the world of Faerie, and is a romantic and enchanting follow-up.
Salome left humankind behind to be with her boyfriend, Gareth, in the Kingdom of Summer. But now forces of darkness are rising. Her happily-ever-after is coming apart, and the Kingdom is on the brink of war.
Newly-single Kadie Byers is on her way home for Thanksgiving, imagining a visit filled with hot chocolate, a hot guy for a little rebound action, and some girl time with her bestie, Salome. Except she receives a message from Salome with two important words: PLEASE HURRY.
When Kadie rushes to help Salome, she’s ripped from the human world and pulled into the kingdoms of Faerie, where she’s shocked to learn that Salome’s monsters are real, and that she’s now at the mercy of one extremely vengeful Winter Queen…
Now both Salome and Kadie must find a way to survive the deadly chaos…or lose themselves to Winter’s deadly, icy grasp.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
While I had been initially skeptical about The Winter People, the first book in this series, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end. So when I got the chance to read The Summer Marked, I had absolutely no hesitation in getting started. I couldn’t wait to find out the next chapter in Salome’s life after the supposedly completely happy fairytale ending of the first book. Of course, not all is well in paradise.
Salome and Gareth have moved in together but Nevin (the Summer king Salome kissed in order to free him from his curse) seems to be skulking around trying to break his promise that Salome and Gareth could be together. He seems increasingly controlling and also seems to be trying to separate the two, bringing them to court only to have Gareth sent away on mission after mission. While all this sounds so stereotypical, I can assure you that as always, Rebekah Purdy has some tricks up her sleeve, including a massive plot twist that totally blindsided me. It was a pleasant surprise and explained a lot in hindsight but I can’t talk much more about it without giving away massive spoilers. Needless to say, Salome and Gareth are finally together and everyone at court including Nevin want to tear them apart. And events throughout the novel definitely conspire to do just that.
Meanwhile, Salome’s friend Kadie is left wandering on her own. She got dumped and wants to live closer to home so she dropped out of university to come home for Thanksgiving and re-assess her life choices. When she gets there, of course Salome is gone and her mother and grandmother aren’t really being clear on where she is. So when she gets a text from Salome asking her to come right away, she gets sucked into a vicious trap set up by the Winter Court and has to endure unimaginable things in the land of Faerie. All while Salome lives an ideal life on the outside while she’s secretly barely holding things together.
While I didn’t like Kadie’s point of view at first because it sounded so much like the stereotypical ditzy best friend, she really came through as a character. At the Winter Court she learns to keep her mouth shut and scheme in order to survive and sometimes does the unthinkable to do so. She gains a real strength of character that is absolutely remarkable when you compare it to how she was in the beginning of The Winter People. That’s not to say she wasn’t a strong or three dimensional character then, but she really comes into her own and controls her own story (or thinks she does) a lot more than she used to. I really did like Kadie in this second book, despite some of the things she does.
Salome, having conquered a lot of her fears in the first book, learns that she has a long way to go if she’s going to survive alongside Gareth in Faerie now that the Winter Court is on a warpath. She learns to play the vicious games that are characteristic of faerie politics while adding in some human compassion that the fey seem to lack. And when faced with two horrible choices that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the novel, her choice shows just how much she has really grown. Essentially, Salome really comes into her own in The Summer Marked so if you loved her in the first book, you will love her even more in this one.
I found the plot was a lot faster in this book compared to the first. There was of course plenty of character development and a lot of interpersonal/intrapersonal conflict but the plot moved along quite nicely. There’s quite a bit more action since the threat of the Winter Court is ramped up and the whole of Summer is at stake. And, as with the first book, Purdy throws in so many plot twists that you can’t help but read on to find out what happens next. The Summer Marked was definitely a one-sitting book for me because of that. Even if the plot wasn’t fast-paced, it would have still been a one-sitting book because Rebekah Purdy has a magnificent writing style. It’s beautifully descriptive and she does both the darker Winter Court and the gorgeous Summer Court incrdibly well. It was her writing that initially sucked me into the first book and it’s part of why I enjoy this series so much. While The Summer Marked was far darker than The Winter People, it was still very enjoyable on many different levels.
You really can’t go wrong with The Winter People series. If you haven’t read the first book, you absolutely should right now. If you read the first book and loved it, then you definitely need to read this second book. It will blow you away.
I give this book 5/5 stars.