A skilled painter must stand up to the ancient power of the faerie courts—even as she falls in love with a faerie prince—in this gorgeous debut novel.
Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.
Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.
I picked this book up for two reasons, one, the stunning beautiful cover and all the hyper surrounding this book. It is wildly compared to ACOTAR so I figured having loved those books I would love this just as much. And I really wanted to. But sadly it was just not as great as I thought it was or maybe I just hyped myself up way too much for this book. Either way it was not my favorite book. I defiantly did not hate it but I also did not love it. It was just okay in my opinion.
It had some similarities to A court of Thorns and Roses but really not that many. We have the human world that knows about fairy land , and we have the human girl that does a fae wrong and now must live with them in their land. We have all the different courts but that is also pretty common fae lore.
I enjoyed the characters for the most part, there were only a few times where I got a little annoyed with Isobel, like when she kind of flip- flops back and forth with Rook. She loves him, she loves him not, she loves him kinda game. But overall she as enjoyable and resourceful and actually kind of funny at times. Rook was hard to pin down at first but that was the intention I think. I also enjoyed him and he made me laugh a lot more with his not understanding humans as much. I also liked Gadfly a lot.
The story had a good pace and kept me wanting more, I also enjoyed the ending.
Overall I liked the book just not as much as I thought given the hype.
I rate it 3 ★
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