When she is seven years old, Jude and her sisters are stolen into the land of fae. Ten years later her older sister is planning to return to the human realm but Jude and her twin Taryn feel anchored to the fairylands – having grown up there, it’s now their home. Both plan to find a way to establish themselves – Taryn by marrying, Jude by fighting.

They both get what they want. But maybe not quite the way they expected.

I loved this book. I really did. The second I turned the last page I went to the library website and put a hold on the next two.

The characters and the conflicts feel genuine. And I really liked the main character Jude – she manages to accomplish what she does without any magical powers. She does have fighting skills because she grew up in an environment where those were taught to her, but she’s uses trickery to give herself an edge. She is smart, but she makes mistakes – and she learns from them. She makes frequent use of the one tool she has that the fae don’t – she lies her ass off.

The fae are also the classic tricksters of myth, and I very much prefer that type of fae in stories – cruel, capricious, and selfish. Especially the gentry.

This is billed as a YA book, so any sex takes place off-screen, although there is plenty of violence. It’s also pretty obvious who the main love interest is going to be, although they don’t get there by the end of the first book. It’s a fantastic setup for an enemies-to-lovers slow-burn so I’m very much looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

And the political machinations have so much potential to go so so so wrong. It doesn’t get much better than that.