Like no…? Rook was also not a flushed out character. The author tried to make us like her by bringing in her family, but honestly I thought the whole idea of her two sisters (May and March) being goats who were enchanted into girls was freaking weird. Isobel isn’t all that great of a character. We were just told they were in love with one another and are supposed to accept that. It would’ve been great if we had some cute moments between them to show how they fell in love. I thought the reasons they WANTED to be together were not valid. I thought the reasons they couldn’t be together were valid.

That’s why I was devastated when the romance, characters, and plot didn’t live up to the environment they were set in.Īnytime you have a human-fairy romance, there are going to be complications.

I thought the world building and setting were super cool and compelling. It was so enthralling to read about the fairy world and lore surrounding it. They covet real emotions and hide their rotting bodies and possessions behind glamours. I adored the idea of Craft and how the immortal fae are jealous of the mortal humans’ abilities to create. Margaret Rogerson created a truly lovely world. I went back and forth and back and forth on 2 and 3 stars, but I just couldn’t get over the nonsensical plot and vomit inducing romance going on. These fae books always pull me in with the great writing and setting and then punch me in the face with terrible plot and romance. 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. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love-and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. 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. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes-a weakness that could cost him his life.įurious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. But when she receives her first royal patron-Rook, the autumn prince-she makes a terrible mistake. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. 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. 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.

An enchantment of ravens