My first thought when getting to the words, “The End,” was what? It can’t be over. 155 pages knocked out in an instant because this is a story that will carry you straight on until the end. Okay, I confess, I did eat lunch but I read as I ate.
It’s a kick ass cover, isn’t it?
To the particulars.
This book is a companion to Lady of the Veils. In the other book, the main character is Karen. She and Beri are separated when Karen is wounded in the woods and for the rest of Lady of the Veils, you go on a journey with the lovely MC. You see Beri return from his captivity at the hands of the Summer Queen from Karen’s perspective. What you don’t see is what happened to Beri.
In this book, you experience the stifling nature of court, the elegant finery that doubles as chains, and the back-stabbing, double-dealing of royalty. You also experience a fantastic story that allows you deeper into the mind of Beri as he navigates the shark-infested waters of the Summer Queen’s court.
Imagine, if you will, a place where humans are considered pets at best, or filthy abominations at worse and any fae who dare to enjoy a human’s company beyond using them is a traitor and deserves to be exiled. This is Beri’s reality. He fell in love with Karen and now he’s the queen’s captive–a queen who disliked Beri’s father for his sympathies toward humans. In order to survive, Beri has to pretend Karen meant nothing to him–when of course, she meant the world.
I will quibble about the last few chapters. I don’t know if I got the truest sense of how Beri had been manipulated and deluded by the queen into thinking the things he did. (I will not get into specifics so I don’t spoil anything.) I think it almost ended too soon (see above) or there wasn’t quite enough in depth story about that.
It did not diminish my love for this story or lesson my understanding or enjoyment of it, which is why I’m giving it a full five stars. It’s a story of loss and despair. It’s a story about family loyalties and personal honor and how those two things sometimes are at odds with one another. It’s about choices and, in the end, about love and how, when we find it, it is the most precious thing and when we lose it, how hard it can be.
Thank you M. L. John for such a fantastic story.
To everyone else. Read this. You’ll be entranced and enraptured. I promise.
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