I bought Faerie Blood by Angela Korra’ti a while back and read the opening chapters, but for some reason, it wasn’t what I was in the mood for at the time. I read a few other books, and then came back to this one. I remembered the story so far (always a good sign!) turned to the last read page in my Nook and started reading.
And I wondered why the heck I stopped.
Several things hooked me about this novel, and it mostly had to do with the cover. I liked the fact that a black girl was the protagonist, and that she also played the violin, and instrument of which I am familiar. And then there’s the tiny pixy.
So I bought it.
Faerie Blood begins when Kendis Thompson is attacked by a troll along a bike trail in Seattle, Washington. A young man comes running to her rescue, but the troll puts up quite a fight, the young man ends up bleeding all over the trail, and Kendis finally stabs the thing with her little pocket knife and …
… to her surprise, the troll turns to stone.
This is only the start. Kendis takes the guy home, he bleeds all over her, and then strange things start to happen. Namely, Kendis’s brown eyes turn golden. Check out the cover to see what I mean.
Kendis is freaked.
And her life turns upside-down.
The young man–who is named Christopher–turns out to be of Warder blood, and by allowing his blood to touch the ground, he has begun to bind himself to the grounds of Seattle. Except it already has a Warder. And Kendis’s natural Faerie blood is asserting itself. And her relatives from Faerie show up.
This book was laugh-out-loud fun along with almost nonstop action. The only thing I could have wished for was more of a sense of the atmosphere in Seattle. Since Christopher is bound to the land, a lot of places are named, but I’m not familiar with Seattle. The book would have benefited from a sort of establishing shot of Seattle to give that sense of atmosphere, describing the spots that would eventually be alluded to. Without that, it was just a list of names, and I didn’t get a sense of the city’s character.
But that’s a very small critique. Both Kendis and Christopher were very likable, even though they both had to make some adjustments in their thinking before the end of the book. I particularly liked Christopher and his struggles. Both had to accept themselves for what they were, and to embrace their destinies. This novel has an urban-fantasyesque voice that keeps the humor and ditches the snark.
I had a great time reading this book, and the pages just flew by. Faerie Blood stands alone, but could easily spawn a sequel. I look forward to more from Angela Korra’ti.
*beam* Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it!
It was my pleasure! Such a fun book! I hope you get an opportunity to write a sequel.
Book 2 is in fact in progress; I’m about eleven chapters in. It’s my next priority after finishing up my revise & resubmit for Carina!
I’ll be looking forward to hearing what happens with your R&R! I have a R&R from them, myself that I hope to work on before the end of the year.
Thanks! I have ten chapters left to edit, most of which should be fairly tiny chapters, but I have some new content I have to write. Then I’ll need to put out a beta reader call for one last sanity pass before I fling it back at Carina. We’ll see what happens after all my shiny new Internet stabilizes at my house. 🙂
The book sounds great! Is it available in print? (I know you’re reading a lot of eBooks these days.)
Thanks Deborah! FB is not currently available in print; however, the possibility has been raised to me of a print release possibly later this year. Drollerie being the very tiny publisher it is, it has only so much budget at a time for releasing to print, and my turn hasn’t arrived yet. 🙂
Please feel free to follow up with me later this year though; I’ll be sure to post a status report to my site when I hear anything more specific.
Oh, that would be exciting!
Yeah! You’d still have to order the print book–Drollerie’s not a big enough fish to get into actual bookstores. And it’d be a trade size paperback, Drollerie doesn’t do mass market size yet.
But it’d be awesome to have a print copy in my hands. 🙂
I suppose I SHOULD mention the availability in my reviews. Headslap.
I remember seeing the cover here when the book first came out.