2/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The book started off with the main character going to school. He spotted a girl who was staring at him. The girl mysteriously disappeared. After seeing the strange girl, the main character’s parents sat him and his sister down and explained that they weren’t human. The mom was a half-Seelie fae and the dad was a half-Unseelie fae. After the parents revealed they were half-fae, the family was attacked and they had to flee to the main character’s grandmother’s house.
The two kids were taught how to use their powers. There was a certain fae after JD because he was the “three blood prince” apparently, and she wanted him because a prophecy said that she could get power or something by eating his heart. I was not sure really…
They were traveling and they ran into the fae who was chasing them. They were able to scare her away because they had something called hag stones, but she said she would be back.
The family was hiding out, and the parents had to go to work. They told the kids to not go out of the room. The sister complained she was hungry, and left the room to go get food. She came back, basically said, “It was fine, I had the hag stone. No fae can touch me.” After they ate the food, she said that she was going to throw the bags and stuff in the dumpster so their parents didn’t see that she had gone out of the room. Well, when she went to throw the stuff away, she was grabbed by some men.
JD got a text from an unknown number that said if he wanted to see his sister alive he needed to be captured. So he allowed himself to be captured. After both Megan and JD are captured, someone who was undercover and investigating the antagonist for the fae queen helped them to escape.
They came across a really bad creature that shouldn’t have been in the spot it was, so they went to the fae who supposedly controlled it, who was named Mither, it to see if she sent it. They found out that Mither didn’t send it after them. She was mad, and listened to them when they asked her for help. Mither said that if they lured the evil fae to her, she would deal with her. So JD drew the evil fae’s mark on the beach to summon her, she came, and JD lured her into the water. Mither grabbed the evil fae and dragged her into the ocean to be imprisoned. As thanks for letting her know about the evil fae’s plans, Mither gave JD a seashell and told him to open it only when things were absolutely hopeless. Then she left.
JD and his family went to a football game, and the evil fae came and sat next to them to threaten them, then left. The mom then got a call from the grandmother. She put it on speaker and said hi, but it was the evil fae who was on the other end. She had captured the grandmother and said if they didn’t come the grandmother would be killed. So they hurried to the grandmother’s home. There was a fight, and the family ended up surrounded.
The evil fae tried killing JD. JD used the seashell Mither gave him, and it transported him and the evil fae to Mither’s prison. He then told the evil fae that she was trapped and only he could undo it. She ordered him to, and he told her she would have to agree to several things first. To stop hunting him, to leave his family alone. After the evil fae agreed, JD closed the seashell and the world returned to normal. The prison was just an illusion, and when the evil fae realized that she attacked JD. When she did that, though, she broke her fae vow and disappeared.
Review
This book was okay. It had an interesting premise, and I liked how it started with a mystery. I felt like the author was knowledgeable about the lore surrounding fae (as in, I felt like he referenced actual myths surrounding fae from Celtic and Scottish tales. I don’t know if he did, but it certainly felt like it). I had issues with the character development however. JD and Megan were so childish and selfish and rude. The parents told them to do something, and they deliberately disobeyed them. Even after bad things happened to them, they still disobeyed. I get it; they are dumb teenagers. But even dumb teenagers have the ability to learn. I wish the characters had learned throughout the book. They certainly had enough chances to.
The parents were annoying. I felt like they were not taking the threat to their children seriously most of the time. They were still trying to keep a semblance of normalcy in their lives. They still tried going to work, and they left their children alone a lot of the time. Personally, if my kids had someone after them who had the goal of eating their hearts, I would do everything in my power to protect them.
The villain was even worse though. JD had multiple interactions with her throughout the book, and each interaction made me feel like she was a wimp. She came and threatened JD and his family, and tried to convince them to just hand over JD. And then she left. She didn’t attack. She didn’t even have her minions attack. I was being told she was a large threat, but it felt like the characters were able to defeat her easily with nearly no risk to themselves. The author needed to show how dangerous she was, not just tell us how dangerous she was.
The book didn’t feel like it had stakes. It didn’t feel like there was any threat to JD and Megan. The villain was a wimp; she merely threatened and bullied, but didn’t do anything to the characters. And even when she did things to the characters at the end of the book, it didn’t feel like they were in any danger because the author didn’t build up the danger/tension throughout the book.
A lot of the things that happened in the book felt too convenient. Too easy. JD needed help? Not to worry, he’ll just go to a powerful fae and get protection from her without having to do anything other than ask. The grandmother was supposedly a dangerous, powerful fae, but was captured easily by the villain. Early in the book, the reader was told that the grandmother was a personal family member of the fae queen. Why didn’t the fae queen help protect them? The way the villain was defeated seemed too easy as well. All JD did was trick her into giving her word, and when she broke her word a moment later, she disappeared, pulled away by fae magic because of breaking a promise. JD didn’t really have to do anything to defeat her. I understand that fae can’t lie, but they are also devious with their bargains and promises. They usually leave a way out for themselves. Why didn’t the villain do that?
This book might appeal to younger audiences, but I did not really enjoy it.
Fireheart Books 