Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
modern-typewriter says: This is a popular fairly recent release, so you may have heard of it. If you have heard it and are debating whether or not you want to read, or haven’t heard of it but like stories about fey/faeries – read it! I loved this book. I think it balanced the danger and the beauty of faeries well, and every character felt like they had their solid motivations. The antagonists were good. I admit, I am skeptical of magical bad boy set ups, but this one actually worked for me. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series to see how everything develops! May always seems like a fairy time of year for me, so have at as the weather warms!
If you liked this try/you might like this if you liked: “The Darkest Part of The Forest” also by Holly Black, The Shades of Magic series by V.E Schwab, numerous other fairy tale feeling stories.
This sounds really good!
Ellora’s Cave, anyone?
Hey, does anyone here remember Ellora’s Cave? It was an online publisher of erotica geared towards women. Most of their books had a sci-fi or fantasy setting and featured all kinds of monsters, aliens and otherworldly beings. There were a couple of similar online publishers but I think Ellora’s Cave was the biggest.
Anyway, they went out of business. If you want to investigate why you can start here:
Back in the day I sometimes purchased books there and and the reason why I remembered them now was because Ellora’s Cave made it so easy to find something specific. They had search functions similar to what you can do on Ao3.
For example if you were looking for some BDSM three-way action involving an alien, a werewolf and human in outer space, you just checked the boxes (MMF, sci-fi, BDSM,…) and Ellora’s Cave delivered. Or it showed the next best thing. A little browsing to discover new kinks you might be into never hurt…
It was glorious. I just wish Amazon or Goodreads had a tagging system, that was just half as effective as the search function I remember from Ellora’s Cave.
Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined.
THE NOBLEWOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn’t just a foreign aristocrat but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she’s known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light.
Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart.
If Draven doesn’t write an additional book for Anhuset and Serovek and makes them finally kill each other during sex or something, I will riot. The plot of Kirgipa and Necos was also interesting and I would love to see how their stories developed.
Monsters and Villains 