Kyrie
Evangeline is a prequel to Ever Shade. The short story does an...okay job of setting up the main plot of the series, I suppose? It's less a coherent story, and more hand-picked scenes that led up to the events in the first book.
The two sisters, Evie and Jade, are set up well enough as characters. They're both fire elemental users, and their mother recently died, leaving Jade to take care of Evie, who is her younger, half-Fae half-sister.
I liked the initial world building, where Evie had trouble living in the modern world because of practically everything containing iron. I liked the descriptions of the Fae vs the small fairies. The race had a very folklore friendly feel to it, which I always appreciate. I hate it when Fae are relegated to the miniature, winged creatures that most people picture when you say the word “fairy”.
Small fairies can be cute, don't get me wrong - but that imagining doesn't even begin to do justice to what the term “Fae” truly encompasses. So when I see stories like this that do it right, it makes me happy.
Despite the nice depiction of Fae, though, the second half of the story kind of dissolves into a mess of those hand-picked scenes I mentioned before. Where the first half established at least a sort of narrative, the second half jumps from one moment in time to another - cutting out a few months here and there, along with a handful of context.
Evie and Jade both meet Fae guys when they go into the woods at the beginning. Then, the story jumps to where they've been meeting their guys for a few months. Then, it jumps to Jade's memories being wiped, and Evie being forced to leave her sister behind. It's incredibly jarring, and kind of undermines Jade's memory wipe.
The revelation is written as though we should be as devastated as Evie is that Jade will never remember her, but the two have had so little interaction since the opening chapter and a half of the book that it's hard to feel emotionally connected enough to care.
The series shows promise, at least, and I might check it out. Maybe.
Evangeline is a prequel to Ever Shade. The short story does an...okay job of setting up the main plot of the series, I suppose? It's less a coherent story, and more hand-picked scenes that led up to the events in the first book.
The two sisters, Evie and Jade, are set up well enough as characters. They're both fire elemental users, and their mother recently died, leaving Jade to take care of Evie, who is her younger, half-Fae half-sister.
I liked the initial world building, where Evie had trouble living in the modern world because of practically everything containing iron. I liked the descriptions of the Fae vs the small fairies. The race had a very folklore friendly feel to it, which I always appreciate. I hate it when Fae are relegated to the miniature, winged creatures that most people picture when you say the word “fairy”.
Small fairies can be cute, don't get me wrong - but that imagining doesn't even begin to do justice to what the term “Fae” truly encompasses. So when I see stories like this that do it right, it makes me happy.
Despite the nice depiction of Fae, though, the second half of the story kind of dissolves into a mess of those hand-picked scenes I mentioned before. Where the first half established at least a sort of narrative, the second half jumps from one moment in time to another - cutting out a few months here and there, along with a handful of context.
Evie and Jade both meet Fae guys when they go into the woods at the beginning. Then, the story jumps to where they've been meeting their guys for a few months. Then, it jumps to Jade's memories being wiped, and Evie being forced to leave her sister behind. It's incredibly jarring, and kind of undermines Jade's memory wipe.
The revelation is written as though we should be as devastated as Evie is that Jade will never remember her, but the two have had so little interaction since the opening chapter and a half of the book that it's hard to feel emotionally connected enough to care.
The series shows promise, at least, and I might check it out. Maybe.