Tagged: pippa dacosta
Novella: Wings of Hope by Pippa DaCosta
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
“I am his muse. But not for long…”
When Mammon, the Prince of Greed, ‘acquires’ a half-blood slave known as ‘Muse’ for three nights, and bespells her with tales of a world where people live like kings and queens among towers of steel and glass, the seed of hope takes root in Muse’s soul. But hope, for a half-human half-demon creature like her, is a dangerous thing. Especially when that tentative hope springs from the honeyed words of a Prince of Hell. What is Mammon’s price for freedom?
Meanwhile Da’mean, her ruthless owner, would rather see her dead, than free. She belongs to him. She is his muse. And no beast will take her from him.
The world of the elemental demons is harsh and violent. Muse’s kin are merciless, blood-hungry beasts, but little do they know, Muse has something far more dangerous coiled inside her, desperate for a taste of freedom.
Her humanity.
After reading the first book in The Veil series, I found out I could get a free copy of this prequel novella, Wings of Hope, through signing up for DaCosta’s newsletter. Obviously I did and got this novella for free. I devoured it in less than half an hour.
Muse here is a very different character. She’s terrified of her master, who heaps every sort of abuse possible on her young body. At the same time, she’s very stubborn and refuses to unleash her demon side when Da’mean provokes her to anger. She doesn’t always win when it comes to controlling her demon side but she desperately tries. That’s when Mammon strides in and changes everything.
Let’s get one thing straight: Mammon isn’t doing this out of the good of his heart and Muse knows this. She’s constantly looking for an angle with him as he tells her of Earth and humanity, painting a happier picture than she could have ever imagined on her own. Mammon is, first and foremost, a demon and when Muse gets into trouble, he’ll do some things to protect her but he’s not going to go out of his way to be the hero. That makes for an interesting dynamic in their relationship in the beginning and you can sort of see that dynamic later in the first full length book of the series, Beyond the Veil.
The pace is quite fast as this is a novella but it does have quite a bit of character development packed into those few pages. Muse goes from terrified, abused creature to a human being that longs for so much more out of life, even if it costs her everything. She’s not the Muse that readers will recognize from the rest of the series but her characterization here explains a lot of her trust issues in the main series. Despite that, you don’t even need to read the series first. This can be read as a standalone novella to give you a taste of Pippa DaCosta’s writing style and I’d highly recommend it for The Veil series fans and people who have never read her work before. Wings of Hope gives us a great feel for how much Muse has really come, what sort of a man (demon?) Mammon is and a bit of a clearer picture of the netherworld, something Muse mentions only in passing.
Basically, whether or not you’ve read the main series before reading this prequel novella, you’re going to love it. There’s great world-building, character development and pacing jammed into these 58 pages. I highly recommend giving it a try.
I give this novella 5/5 stars.
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Beyond the Veil by Pippa DaCosta
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
“They say I’m half a demon, but I like to think of myself as half human, especially as the demons want me dead.”
Charlie Henderson is living a lie. Her real name is Muse and her attempt at a normal life is about to go up in smoke.
When a half-demon assassin walks into her life, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Muse must return to the one man she hoped never to see again and ask for help. The Prince of Greed isn’t known for his charity. The price is high and the cost could tear her apart.
Trapped between the malevolent intentions of a Prince of Hell, an assassin with ulterior motives and her bloodthirsty demon-kin, Muse must embrace the lure of chaos at her core; the demon inside her, in order to survive.
If your ex is the Prince of Greed, you’d better be ready to raise hell.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I’d only read one of Pippa DaCosta’s other books, City of Fae, before trying out Beyond the Veil. City of Fae was a book I absolutely loved in part because of the many, many plot twists and surprises. Beyond the Veil is very similar in that regard: I had no idea what to expect next. In urban fantasy, that’s kind of a rare luxury and I absolutely treasured it in this book.
Muse is a half-demon that was born in the netherworld and sold into slavery, as is the normal treatment for ‘half-breeds’ if their demon parent does not have them killed. She spent years being abused before Akil, one of the seven princes of Hell, rescued her for his own reasons and began a relationship of sorts with her. Then, five years ago she left him to try to live life as a human. Fast forwardto the present day and things aren’t necessarily working out the best in that regard, especially when the half-demon Stefan walks into her life. Poor Muse is then forced back into a world where she really can’t trust anyone—particularly anyone who says they’re trying to save her. And yet she learns and grows despite the hidden motivations of those around her. She finally becomes stronger and learns to deal with the demon side she has been so afraid of for years.
Muse is of course a fascinating character in her own right but even the secondary charcters in Beyond the Veil are well developed. Akil certainly is a compelling character; he’s a more terrifying, smarter version of your stereotypical bad boy. Stefan seems to be a rather horrible character before Muse really gets to know him and learns about his horrific past. And Nica, Akil’s secretary, has motivations and secrets all of her own despite being completely human and working for a powerful demon who has a penchant for killing liars. I’m oversimplifying here but I can’t go into detail without spoiling some of the great surprises DaCosta worked into the narrative. Needless to say, you’ll appreciate the character development that went into all of the characters, not just Muse.
As I said, the plot is incredibly fast paced but it’s also very unpredictable. There are lots of twists that I didn’t see coming, despite being quite familiar with the urban fantasy genre. Thankfully Pippa DaCosta once again departs from the expected formula and that makes the story all the more enjoyable. Trust me when I say that things are almost never what they seem when it comes to her writing. She’s also created such a rich, well-developed fantasy world that even if the plot were boring, Beyond the Veil would still be a very enjoyable book. It’s nice to see someone depart from the typical Heaven and Hell version of demons and make them more terrifying than they usually are because of it.
If you love great characters, so many plot twists you’ll be guessing until the end and some incredible world-building, you’ll love Beyond the Veil as much as I did. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
City of Fae by Pippa DaCosta
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
From the moment Alina touches London’s hottest fae superstar, breaking one of the laws founded to protect all of her kind, her fate – and the fae – close in.
Below ground, the fae High Queen plots to claim the city as her own and places her pawns, ready for the battle to come. A battle she cannot lose, but for one small problem – Alina. There are four ancient keepers powerful enough to keep the queen in her prison. Three are dead. One remains … And to fight back, Alina risks sacrificing everything she has come to love.
This New Adult urban fantasy is packed with action and suspense and will have you yearning for more forbidden fae romance.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I’m not really sure what I was expecting when I picked up City of Fae but Pippa DaCosta blew any expectations that existed away.
First we meet Alina, a reporter who has just lost her job. She’s living in the present day but things are very, very different from what we would expect: the fae have come out to the world. In fact, they did this a couple of decades ago and they’re basically just a fact of life now. Everyone knows not to let a fae touch them because they can bespell you but there are always exceptions because some people live to be spelled. The rule is three touches and you’d better get to therapy to wean yourself off because you’re pretty much guaranteed to be under their control. So the fae are both dangerous and attractive? Well, you can guess what many of them do for a living: they go into show business.
And that’s how Alina, a rather ordinary reporter, comes into contact with Sovereign, London’s hottest fae superstar. Why on earth does she touch him? Working in the entertainment industry, you’d think she would know better. She does know better and she does it anyway because Alina is the sort of person that wants to help everyone, no matter how dangerous it might be. Alina doesn’t have a sort of annoying martyr syndrome but she is a good person and that leads her into an entirely new world of trouble. That’s in part why her character carries the story so well: she really is an average person in the beginning. She wants to get a new job, focus on moving on with her life but events don’t seem to let her. Throughout the story you can really feel her frustration with Sovereign for dragging her into this whole mess but also her undeniable attraction to the man. He’s handsome and infuriating and can be a jerk but he’s not really that typical YA/NA hot jerk. The main difference here is that Pippa DaCosta actually does give him depth and we do actually get to see why he’s sort of justified in being such a jerk. I don’t like many of the romances in NA because they come off as feeling slightly abusive (mentally or physically) but this is one sizzling attraction between two people that evolved into something a little more.
As I’ve hinted at in my opening summary, the world-building here is fantastic. It’s interesting to see how humans react to the fae since most of them are superstars. Therefore you have the normal idiotic celebrity worship combined with the really compelling attraction humans have to the fae; it’s not really a good combination for a lot of people. Pippa DaCosta’s fae are not cuddly, friendly nearly-humans. They’re vicious and will use humans unashamedly for their own ends. These are magical creatures hundreds of years old with very little in the way of consciences or morals and DaCosta really does this portrayal well. You get that odd feeling of awe around the fae but also that sense they’re dangerous throughout the novel. It’s hard to describe but as a reader you’ll be fairly attracted to them (particularly Sovereign) while at the same time pleading inwardly for Alina to get away from them. This dual nature of the fae is done incredibly well and my description here really doesn’t do it justice.
The plot was surprising and that’s definitely in a good way. There was a huge twist about Alina that I definitely did not see coming but does make sense when you consider the whole plot. Sovereign himself is not everything as he seems but the difference there is that he actively hides his secrets while Alina doesn’t necessarily do that as well. In addition to the character twists I really did love the antagonist in the story, the High Queen. She’s fascinating, at the same time gorgeous and hideous and she’s a woman on a mission. What that mission is, I’ll leave you to find out when you read the book but let’s just say it isn’t to solve world hunger or poverty or anything as nice as that.
Even if you’re not a person who’s really into the New Adult genre, I think if you’re into fairies or fae as they’re called here, you’ll enjoy City of Fae. It’s got a sizzling romance, some plot twists that will totally blindside you at first and some excellent world-building. Will there be a sequel? I’m not sure because DaCosta resolves the main conflict but leaves some other questions like what Alina will do next open. So there could be a sequel but the book doesn’t really need one to satisfy you. Go on and pre-order this book, though! It releases on May 7.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
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