When you steal from faerie queens, the consequences are painful and sometimes deadly.
Were-jaguar
and TV personality, Riley O’Rourke, has been looking over her
shoulder ever since she stole from the Dark Queen of the Unseelie
faeries. When Riley is contacted by an informant with knowledge that
can blow the lid off the story of the year, she can’t pass up the
opportunity to investigate. What she finds instead is something that
puts her at the mercy of the Dark Queen, who is not known for her
compassion.
When
Riley’s boyfriend, David, realizes she’s missing, he’ll do
whatever it takes to get her back, including starting a war with the
Unseelie. The balance of power among the Fae courts is shifting, and
if David makes one wrong move, Riley could end up crushed in the
struggle. But after being the subject of the Queens’s legendary
cruelty, will there even be anything left of Riley to save?
The
second book in the Revelations Trilogy continues the story of Riley
O'Rourke, David Lo, and Neve MacAlpin. Buy it here.
Taming
Shadows is the first book in the Revelations Trilogy and introduces
us to Riley, David, and Neve. Buy it here.
Disclosure: Fiona has been the editor of choice I have had since using an editor. I have written a short story in the Night of Revelations Universe. I have also written a previous very favorable review of her Novella.
Second Disclosure: I am in a very toxic place right now. I had hoped to move this review but apparently could not. So mote it be.
Take both as you will....
Spoiler Free: I recommend reading this book. There are problems early on in some idiot decisions made by the characters but the wait is worth the payoff.
Spoilers: Every author has an author avatar character, or one who seems the most likely in the work. Often authors deny this but if you have been a writer then you can spot it a mile away. Period. But in Urban Fantasy there is a tendency to make the protagonist special, and 'suffer' but not really. Pain is hard. Pain hurt.
Pain is the crucible through which characters are transformed. Personally, if I ever meet the person writing my story I will kill them. Painfully. Any writer of any skill knows you have to make your character suffer or the reader won't give a crap. Don't become too attached to your characters. Kill your darlings.
Everyone hates George R.R. Martin for killing his characters, but they keep reading him. (Well, we'll leave out episode 8 of season 5 but that's another topic.) They do because the suffering of his characters is real. The outcome of any story is never guaranteed. It is ENTIRELY possible that the bad guys will win.
Fiona does in the first novel what Jim Butcher does in Storm Front...make a compact potentially stand alone novel with a tangible victory, with open ended questions and a million ways to go. In Silver Shackles she does what Jim Butcher did in Grave Peril by not just having an interesting stand alone conflict, but also setting up the ground rules for everything nasty that is to come.
Fiona has done her homework in terms of mythology. Her fairies feel like fairies. Her vampires have echoes of Dracula upon them. She has studied the physiology of the animals that bond with critters. And the golem acts like a golem, hidebound and lacking in creative thinking at first to his own peril. He is easily tricked, too easily tricked, but when you realize he might look human, but isn't, it is more acceptable that he forgets all of the things the thing murdering children could be besides a Critter.
There is no clean resolution here. Riley does the kinds of things that a true victim of the Fey would do. She is fucked up. She is put through the ringer and David, being almost human, handles with attempted sensitivity and a sledge hammer. I want to hit Riley in the back of the head with a clue by four. I want to do the same with David.
That's a good thing. They do not make these decisions because they are stupid, they make them because they are not human, and Riley finally comes to terms with this. Fiona is making hard choices in her signature series and it shows. These hard choices will not leave you with a trite feeling of satisfaction at the end of victory with shallow cost, but this is so often what I read in so many urban fantasy novels. Popcorn is great, life is suffering, and by the time Fiona is done the characters feel more alive than they ever did in Night of Revelations.
Revelations is going places. You should go with it.
ABOUT FIONA SKYE
Fiona’s
passion for story telling began early in life. She loved playing
make-believe and inventing elaborate fantasy worlds for her friends
and her to play in. At age twelve, she wrote her first short story,
which was based on a song by a 1980s hair band. After giving it to
her English teacher for editing and rewrites, she learned to love the
entire writing process, and has dedicated her life since then to
writing, only to be occasionally distracted by her insatiable love of
yarn and crochet, and the dogged pursuit of the perfect plate of
cheese enchiladas.
She
counts Diana Gabaldon and Jim Butcher as her favorite authors and
biggest influences. Joining these two on the list of people she would
wait in queue for a week to have a coffee with are Neil Peart, Kevin
Hearne, and Brandon Sanderson.
Fiona
is online -
Website
& Blog: http://fiona-skye.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fionaskyewriter
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/FionaSkyeWriter/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/fiona_skye
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