Book Title: To Kill a Fae
Author’s Name: Jamie A. Waters
Book Series: The Dragon Portal
Spoilers Ahead!
Sabine is a Royal Fae in hiding. Living in a city full of humans, iron and other magical creatures, she has kept her true nature suppressed and cloaked for a decade. That is until one night, she is caught off guard. It only takes a moment, a tiny slip, to open a crack in the careful image she has crafted to guard her secret. And in that moment, she caught the curious attention of a recently arrived ship captain, Malek.
Malek has not come to Akros for smuggling as he claims. He is there for artifacts, old pieces of power that were once used to seal the great portal to other worlds. It was through the dragon portal, Malek’s people first came. It was during their war that much of the world was destroyed. This sent the fae deep into their forests. The fae don’t leave the safety of the trees, at least that is what Malek understood until he met Sabine.
Secrets and prejudices are hard to overcome. The fae hate dragons, but then the fae are also supposed to hate demons and Sabine is tied closely to two powerful demons living in Akros. Hunted and marked for death by her own people, Sabine’s life in Akros has just become dangerously complicated in this fast pace story.
I really enjoyed reading about Sabine. She was just the right mix of physical fighting competence and caring about those around her. She was strong, smart and not clueless. I like that the reader learns more about the world and characters over time. But the protagonist is integrated into the world and knowledgeable about her surroundings – she is not clueless or an amnesiac. Sabine is competent – which makes for a fun read.
She does have that princess power of attracting strong people to her. Her broken family provides the dark past needed to drive her forward into action and adventure. And that is what this story is – the first in a series of object-collecting, world-exploring, ally-making adventures. I enjoyed book one so much that upon its completion I immediately got book two. Which was the same general premise of powering up the magic, Sabine saving some people to create more alliances, and of course collecting the next artifact needed to close the Dragon Portal. From the description of book three, I see this is a trend that will continue through much of the series. Which is not a terrible way of doing things. I just don’t know if I am going to stay interested. I will say, the second book was fun in its further exploration of the world.
There are a number of magical creatures, many, but not all, are humanoid in some capacity. I feel this story does well with the different mythical races. It has shown that not all individuals from one group, like the mermaids, are the same. Some mermaids are good, some are complete asses. That is true of the fae and dragons and … It is also interesting how the author takes stereotypical characteristics and twists them in a new light. Like how the fae work with and manipulate the balance of debt between themselves and others.
What I am struggling with is the presence of active gods. Granted this is more a personal preference, but I don’t love the inclusion of active gods in my fantasy stories. I am happy if they are part of history. But their power level or attitude or something, just doesn’t seem to work so well when active in the story. Perhaps I just don’t like the idea we are moved like puppets by forces beyond our control. It is my least favourite aspect.
This was a great read, so I am giving it 4.5 stars out of 5.