A Feather So Black

January 1, 2024

Twenty years ago, the Fair Folk started a war against the human kingdoms, and it ended with the capture of 12 young girls. Fia, a changeling left in place of Princess Eala, daughter of the High Queen, was raised to call the Queen her mother but has always felt out of place. Hidden from most people is Fia's gift, or curse, of greenmark magic, and her training to be a weapon at the will of the Queen. Then Fia is sent into T�r na n�g with Prince Rogan, who is betrothed to Princess Eala, on a rescue mission but also to obtain a powerful magic object. Establishing the magic of the Fair Folk and the Gates, access points between T�r na n�g and the human realm, is built into Fia's own learning experiences, creating a shared sense of mystery around what's true and who's lying. Occasionally, however, it feels as if changes in a viewpoint aren't fully explained, and some characters could use more development. VERDICT YA author Selene (Diamond & Dawn) makes her adult debut with this story featuring the fae and a main character torn between two men and the worlds they represent. Recommend to readers looking for a new romantasy series.--Stacey Hayman

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Starred review from January 22, 2024
A queen’s foster daughter becomes the key in a war for magic in this spellbinding romantic fantasy from Selene (Diamond & Dawn). After the Fair Folk kidnap infant human Princess Eala and leave a changeling named Fia in her place, Queen Eithne raises this replacement daughter as a weapon to bring her real daughter home. Fia is fiercely loyal to the queen but her fae blood makes her an outcast among humans. Only one other person finds his way into her heart: Prince Rogan Mòr, Eala’s betrothed since birth. After breaking Fia’s heart four years prior, Rogan returns to help retrieve Eala, reopening old wounds. Before they leave for the fairyland of Tír na nÓg, the queen secretly gives Fia another task: to steal the Sky Sword from the fae lord keeping Eala captive and with it bring magic back to their land. But Fia finds more than she bargained for behind the gates of Tír na nÓg—especially in her target, the deceptive and devastatingly handsome high lord Irian. Selene makes the world of the fae mysterious, sensual, and enthralling, and utilizes a delicious love quadrangle and a complex heroine who’s just beginning to unpack the trauma of her upbringing to keep the pages flying. Readers ready to graduate from Sarah J. Maas will want to snap this up. Agent: Jessica Watterson, Sandra Dijkstra Agency.

February 1, 2024
In Selene's adult debut (after the YA fantasy Diamond & Dawn, 2019), Fia is a changeling, left by the Fair Folk when they kidnapped the High Queen's daughter over a decade ago. Raised by the queen as her daughter and trained by the queen's druid, Cathair, as a warrior and spy, Fia has been taught to hate everything about the Folk including her own magical abilities. Her dearest childhood friend, Rogan, returns after an extended absence; they are sent together to T�r na n�g to rescue Princess Eala, whom Rogan is then expected to marry. Fia is also tasked with retrieving a powerful, mystical Treasure in order to restore magic, long since trapped in the realm, to the High Queen's kingdom. Fia must confront the lingering lies that broke her relationship with Rogan, her growing attraction to the fae-lord Irian, whose spell holds Eala trapped and her handmaidens as swans, and the conflicting ambitions of Eala, the High Queen, and the other Fair Folk. Selene smoothly reinterprets the swan-princess fairy tale with surprising reveals that will delight fantasy readers.

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