First of all, I want to thank Erin Young for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book.
There are four territories in the book: The Seelie Court, The Unseelie Court, Elfin Territory and the human realm. The main character, Aislinn, is working as a slave for the Elfin king. She's able to summon fire, but is forced to wear an iron manacle around her throat to suppress her powers.
The story begins very promising. When Aislinn is asked to go for an errand outside the palace, she helps another slave flee Elfin Territory to the human realm. It is revealed that she's the leader of a secret organization that frees human slaves. I thought: "Yes, finally a heroine who undertakes action!"
Later, I started noticing some things that bothered me. Aislinn apparently turned into an incredible swordsman after only a little bit of practice. Later in the book, she kept asking for her knives and couldn't do without them.
I also noticed several inconsistencies. An example is the quote "The thing about castles is once you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. None of them are truly unique.", only to be followed by the quote "They walked through the ornately decorated castle. This castle was nothing like the castle King Conal inhabited. This one was warm and inviting with beautiful marble colored stone pillars atop intricately detailed bases. There were royal blue velvet drapes that hung from the ceiling. The windows had beautiful pictures etched into them with gorgeous glass.". What??? Aislinn what are you thinking???
Another thing that bothered me, was that the author often seemed to fix small inconsistencies with a small explanation. It was as if the author had the tone "Crap that doesn't work." *writes small explanation* "Now it should be fixed"
The final thing that made me want to throw away my phone (especially because of the last sentence of the book) was the main character's love interest. I don't mind unhealthy relationships in the fantasy books I read. I read books to escape reality and enjoy relationships that I would never approve of in reality. But Aislinn just KEPT RUNNING BACK to her love interest, even though he kept treating her poorly. It just frustrated me.
It's a quick, fun and easy read if you just want to enjoy something without too much effort, but I wouldn't call it a good book. I loved the concept, I just believe that the execution was poorly done.
3.5 stars
Next read: Finale, by Stephanie Garber