#Faebound
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Books and tea forever 📖☕️
#booklr#book photo#book photography#book picture#bookworm#bibliophile#faebound#fiction#fantasy#book community#book aesthetic#book lover#book nerd#my photos#mine
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'Faebound' by Diana Dworak.
Endpaper artwork from the Fairy Loot hardcover special edition of 'Faebound' written by Saara El-Arifi.
#Art Of The Day#Art#AOTD#Diana Dworak#Faebound#Saara El Arifi#Fairy Loot#Fantasy Art#Fantastical Art#Imaginative Realism#Books
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Do you love reading books from authors you've never heard of or do you prefer to read your favourite authors?
#writer#books#bookworm#bookstagram#author#bookdragon#reading#writing#amreading#amwriting#faebound#fantasy#fiction
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Art I did for the announcement of Saara El-Arifi’s new trilogy, Faebound!
(more info from her ig under the cut)
Introducing Yeeran and Lettle, the two main cast of my NEW TRILOGY starting with the first novel #FAEBOUND. Out Feb 2024.
It has all the flavours you’ve come to know in my writing: a diverse cast, queernormativity, threads of arab my and african roots and perhaps a touch more 🌶️.
But most of all FAEBOUND is born of #BlackGirlMagic
Told in the dual point of view of two elven sisters captured here by @layaart (ty i love them so much).
YEERAN is a Colonel of the Waning Army. Or she was before she was exiled. Far from home she comes face to face with a magical beast that might just be her salvation. The skin of the obeah has enough magical potency to created a weapon worthy of her freedom.
LETTLE is a diviner, a reader of the fates. She follows her sister into the wilderness in the hope of bringing her home again. But she’s not alone, Rayan, a captain under Yeeran, has promised his former colonel to keep Lettle out of trouble. But trouble follows them both.
Expect: Drum magic, rivals to lovers, hidden realms and of course…fae!
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Potato has been given a new book…
Potato now must read!
It’s soooo pretty 🥹
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Faebound
Note: my review is as vague as possible because I don't want to spoil anything!
I was completely hooked and enamored with Faebound by Saara El-Arifi pretty much from the very beginning. I found both the world-building and the magic system to be so creative that I could not put it down.
Normally when I'm reading a new fantasy, I struggle with the first hundred or so pages as I learn the new world and characters. I didn't have that problem with Faebound at all. In fact, I read that first hundred pages in one sitting!
This is a really well-paced, exciting, and wonderfully diverse fantasy. The characters are complicated and likeable and every relationship had me hooked. The loyalty of the two sisters is beautiful and I love both of their romantic relationships too.
Faebound a fantastic setup for a new series and I can not wait for book two! This is an early contender for my Best of 2024 list!
Tags for the book: fantasy, romantasy, queer, sapphic, enemies to lovers, magic, fae, elves, slowburn, spicy (both straight & sapphic sex scenes)
Faebound comes out on January 23, 2024!
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Most anticipated 2024 books!
I am anticipating a lot of books. To keep track of them, I made a 2024 tbr shelf. It has 123 books. I certainly won't be reading all 123, but since I can sort the list by release date it helps me keep track of new releases. Unfortunately, 123 is so many that half of them I don't even remember adding them or what they're about, so I decided to boil it down to 10 most anticipated new books and 10 sequels.
New
Faebound - Saara El-Arifi - Jan 18
Voyage of the Damned - Frances White - Jan 18
Fathomfolk - Eliza Chan - Feb 27
A Botanical Daughter - Noah Medlock - Mar 19
Otherwordly - FT Lukens - Apr 2
The Sins on their Bones - Laura R. Samotin - May 7
Not for the Faint of Heart - Lex Croucher - May 7
The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields - May 14
Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland - Jun 11
Swordcrossed - Freya Marske - Oct 10
Sequels
The Cursed Rose - Leslie Vedder (book 3 of the Bone Spindle, final book) - Feb 6
The Eternal Ones - Namina Forna (book 3 of Deathless trilogy) - Feb 13
Merciless Saviors - H.E. Edgmon (sequel to Godly Heathens, final book) - Apr 16
Heavenly Tyrant - Xiran Jay Zhao (sequel to Iron Widow, final book) - Apr 30
Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse (book 3 of Between Earth and Sky trilogy) - Jun 4
Hearts that Cut - Kika Hatzopoulou (sequel to Threads that Bind) - Jun 4
The Unrelenting Earth - Kritika H. Rao (Book 2 in the Rages trilogy) - Jun 18
The Lotus Empire - Tasha Suri (book 3 in the Burning Kingdoms trilogy) - Jul 18
Celestial Monsters - Aiden Thomas (sequel to the Sunbearer Trials, final book) - Sept 3
Alecto the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (book 4 in the Locked Tomb series) - release dat unknown, likely late 2024
#anticipated releases#2024 books#2024 releases#faebound#saara el-arifi#voyage of the damned#frances white#fathomfolk#eliza chan#a botanical daughter#noah medlock#otherwordly#ft lukens#the sins on their bones#laura r samotin#the honey witch#sydney j shields#running close to the wind#alexandra rowland#swordcrossed#freya marske#the cursed rose#the bone spindle#leslie vedder#the eternal ones#namina forna#the gilded ones#merciless saviors#not for the faint of heart#lex croucher
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This week I read “Faebound” by Saara El-Arifi. Let me just start by saying that the cover is absolutely gorgeous. This the the first book I have read by this author and it did not disappoint. A unique take on the fae-elven myths that has been overused way too many times in the romace-fantasy genre, this book manages to bring a lot to the table:
Drum Magic (AAAAAHHHH!!!)
Stunning World building
Diverse cast of characters
Queer representation
Enemies to lovers
need I say more?
Here is the thing. I don’t like enemies to lovers in my books. Usually, its either that they are not really enemies but just don’t like each other for no reason or their relationship somehow transends within one scene without any prior development. But here, it is handled really well. Yeeran’s charecter perhaps goes through the most change. Between choosing to fight in the Forever War that was rigged to begin with and her sister, her rolercoster of emotions bled through the pages. Her relationship with her sister, Lettle, is also a majot heighlight of the book. They stand for different side of solving the same conflict and often fight over the other’s choices. Watching them slowly try and mend their fractured relationship brings another layer of realism to the story.
That being said, there are some this that just turned me off. Some of the chapters felt very clogged. A lot of events would happen in one and in the next one, crickets. It did mess with the pacing for the latter half especially. A problem with some popular fantasy books is that for 80% of the book nothing major would happen and them suddenly at the end, major events would happen left and right and since there is so little time to process it all and moving onto the next plot twist, their impact is seldom felt (yes, I am looking at you SJM). Sadly, this book is no exception. I get the appeal revealing the plot twist at the very end to keep readers on their toes but if it suddenly comes out of nowhere and there is no time to process the events that are unfolding, that is just a bad plot twist.
Speaking of plot twist, it was (kinda) predictable after the halfway point and by the end it felt like characters were making random conjectures to reach their conclusion. And they were right every time.
Okay. Okay. I may have gone overboard on the bad side a little too much. But I like the set up to the trilogy that the first book brings and I am excited to read its sequels and other books by this author. I think I’ll pick up “The Final Strife” in a few day.
Thank you for reading. I hope if you do read the book, you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
Hasta luego, folks!
#faebound#book review#book recommendations#four stars#books#fantasy#high fantasy#new release#bookish#books and reading#bookworm#magical creatures
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64. Worldbuilding: An Aesthetic of Coherence?
In this post:
An Aesthetic of Coherence? Thinking about Vajra Chandrasekera’s “The Lone and Level Sands.”
Reviews at Reactor Magazine (the former Tor.com)
An Aesthetic of Coherence?
I haven’t yet read The Saint of Bright Doors, but I’ve been reading some of Vajra Chandrasekera’s essays with great interest. Chandrasekera is a deft writer and a vivid essayist, and frequently directs a…
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°․✶ FEBRUARY WRAP & MARCH HOPEFULS
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#a fragile enchantment#arc#blog#blue exorcist#book blog#book boxes#book haul#book review#book wrap up#bookish#books#cage of dreams#faebound#fantasy#february wrap up#fiction#gazing at the star next door#good reads#manga#manga collection#manga reader#march hopefuls#march tbr#monthly wrap#netgalley#reading wrap up#review#tbr#the crimson moth#to cage a god
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Faebound - 2024 - Saara El-Arifi
This is a book I picked up weeks ago in an effort to read more SFF out of my comfort zone. (I do this periodically, even though my comfort zone rocks and is better than everyone else’s terrible zones.) I dropped it partway through, but came back to it the other day because it came up on the radio, and now it’s a big success story. So what is there to say?
I came into this hoping for a romance in a fantasy setting, and was disappointed. This is epic fantasy with the romance emphasised (and in that interview El-Arifi is, to her credit, quite upfront about this, that her publisher told her to market it as romantasy because that’s the hot new genre). It is very, very strongly influenced by contemporary YA, but this is heir not to Twilight, but to The Hunger Games with 300% more smouldering glances by volume.
That the book is selling well should perhaps be unsurprising, because it is essentially built around incorporating popular Goodreads tags. (In the interview there’s a lot of reference made to “tropes”, but really only one of these things is an actual trope.) In no particular order we have:
Sapphic: Yep, very much so.
Enemies to Lovers: I guesssss so. I mean, yes, sure, technically there are people who start out hating each other and end up fucking, but there’s just no real process of learning to appreciate each other or forming a connection or anything.
Queernorm: Sigh. In a horrifying, quasi-fascistic society dedicated to a total war prosecuted by enslaved child soldiers – nope, gender and sexuality have no political or social relevance, and nobody ever tries to control or define them.
African and Middle Eastern Magic: Honestly, this did not feel earned. It’s window-dressing, and scanty window-dressing at that. Fundamentally this is a book about elves and fairies, bog-standard stuff out of European folklore. I mean, it’s in the title!
And in the end that’s pretty much all there is to it. Daft plot, sketchy worldbuilding, and the characters are very thin. Which is a really big problem, given all the romance. We just are not given enough to care about these people, and they aren’t given enough to care about each other. El-Arifi’s solution is to have them simply become desperately, inexplicably horny whenever their designated partner comes into view. This is described as “spicy” in the interview, in a self-consciously infantile fashion that I can only assume is derived from TikTok somehow. Oddly, though, the actual sex is perfectly well written. This could have been an erotic novella and much better off for it.
(Oh, last thing. The titular bondage isn’t actually to fairies – you’re bound on the level of your soul to a giant, sentient cat. This feels like it should be a big deal, and the whole thing gets a lot of page space! But the book has no idea what to do with any of it, and the cats end up just sort of... being there. Bizarre.)
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Recent + current reads ✨
#booklr#book photography#book picture#emily wilde's map of the otherlands#the invocations#faebound#bookworm#bibliophile#fiction#fantasy#book community#book aesthetic#bookshelf#my photos#mine
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Rating: 4/5
Book Blurb: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FINAL STRIFE, comes an enchanting new trilogy.
DIVIDED BY BLOOD.
IMPRISONED BY FATE.
BOUND BY DESIRE.
WELCOME TO THE INTOXICATING WORLD OF THE FAE.
Yeeran is a warrior in the elven army and has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future.
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven lands, they are both forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the impossible: the fae court.
The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world – torn between their loyalty to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts. .
Review:
Two sisters, trapped in the fae world, unlikely romances, court politics, and defying destinies. Yeeran is a warrior in the elvan army and has known bloodshed and violence all her life. Lettle is her sisteer, a diviner who wants nothing more than to find a better future within the prophecies. Yet when a mistake from one of Lettle's prophecies leads to Yeeran's exile from the Elan lands they both end up entering into the most impossible place... the fae court. The faes had not been seen for millenniums and now both Yeeran and Lettle are both trapped in their, along with Yeeran's general Rayan who went with Lettle to search for Yeeran when she was exiled. Once all three of them had made it into the fae court, they are told they are no longer allowed to leave. Yeeran will have to test into the fae guards in exchange for Lettle and Rayan to be allowed to live a peaceful life in the fae court... despite the faes being prejudiced and hating the all elves. Yeeran is caught up in the elf court politics, with the elf princess Furi who also is a warrior...meanwhile Lettle is learning how to read prophecies.. except her own prophecy states that she will kill her beloved... who just happens to be Rayan. The closer they get the harder it becomes for Lettle to push him away. Meanwhile something is going on, someone is vying for the throne and Lettle discovers a prophecy that states two elves will be killed.... but when they discover which two elves.. it might be too late for them. This is the first book in a trilogy and it definitely was an interesting read, the pacing is a bit slow and it does feel at times like you are getting info dumped, however the overall journey of the plot was interesting and I am interested in where the next book goes. The romances in the book were good in some aspects, not so much in other. I did enjoy the romance between Lettle and Rayan but couldn't believe the romance between Yeeran and Furi. Then there was the mystery and the way that wrapped up, and it kind of was an obvious one and didn't really feel carefully laid out or surprisingly really. I was interested in the world of the Fae court and how Yeeran and co had to integrate and navigate it but for some moments it just didn't really expand on it all that well. Overall, it's a fun start to a fantasy series and if you enjoy court politics, a bit of romance with prophecies, then give this a go.
*Spoiler: Yeeran and Furi get together, Lettle and Rayan get together, Furi's younger brother poisoned his mothers to give Furi the throne (without her knowing). Rayan turns out to be the long lost son and chosen king (he's essentially Furi's cousin) and is chosen as king. Lettle is the diviner's prophesized apprentice and begins learning how to divine. Yeeran can talk to Pila, her animal familiar essentially.
*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
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Heyhey BookNerds I'm back with my Jan TBR!
What book are you most excited for this month??
#bookblr#lgbt#lgbtq#lgbtq community#lgbtqia#book blog#lgbtq+#book review#bookish#bookworm#book quotes#books and reading#book community#book tumblr#bookblogger#book nerd#faebound#so let them burn#fathomfolk#emily wilde's map of the otherlands#orbitbooks#harpercollins uk#netgalley#fantasy#fantasy books#queer fantasy
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wahoo i got an arc of faebound from work
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Genre: Fiction, Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Content Warning: Animal death, War, Sexual Content, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Grief
Summary:
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FINAL STRIFE, comes an enchanting new trilogy.
DIVIDED BY BLOOD.
IMPRISONED BY FATE.
BOUND BY DESIRE.
WELCOME TO THE INTOXICATING WORLD OF THE FAE.
Yeeran is a warrior in the elven army and has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future.
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven lands, they are both forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the impossible: the fae court.
The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world – torn between their loyalty to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts. . .
*Opinions*
This book has been picking up a good bit of buzz so I wanted to pick it up before my opinion of it could be swayed by everything I saw online. I am also desperately trying to read through all my Fairyloot books as I have a large backlist of ones that I haven’t read and I want to know if it is worth buying special editions of the sequels. The world that El-Arifi created is interesting and filled with its own lore, battles, and magic. While I enjoyed my time in the world and with these characters, I do have some gripes about the story.
This is a very fast-paced story where there is always something new happening, a mystery revealing itself, or the characters attempting to figure something out. The book is told in dual POV between Yeeran and her younger sister Lettle as they navigate a world always at war and then a land that is completely new to them. Yerran is a colonel whose whole life has been taken up fighting the Forever War against the other elven tribes. She uses drum magic to fight and I have to say that the magic system in this novel was one of the highlights for me. Lettle, who hates the war and everything to do with it, is trained in divination magic and hopes to become the lead shaman. A fateful prophecy for her sister and Lettle sends both of them along with a soldier Rayan into the wilderness and a run-in with the thought to be extinct Fae. As the three elves attempt to navigate the fairytale that they walked into, they have to guard their lives and their hearts from the Fae who are as interested as they are antagonistic to the newcomers.
I liked how fast this book started, throwing you right into the action and politics of this world. However, as we got further into the book, I felt as if we were going too quickly and not giving a lot of the scenes the time they needed to delve into the emotions of the characters. I loved the world that El-Arifi created, but I felt as if the characters were not given enough time for me to love them the same way. There were also times in the writing that I felt as if El-Arifi didn’t trust her readers to get what she was attempting to convey. There were conversations or thoughts and then an unneeded sentence after that almost felt like “You got what just happened right?” The fast pace of the narration made it a quick read but didn’t let me connect with the characters as much as I would have liked.
I like Yeeran and Lettle as characters, but they felt a lot younger than they were said to be. Lettle especially with her outbursts and storming off seemed to be actions of a character in her early twenties and not one who had gone through what Lettle had. I understand that some characters had short tempers, but her outbursts and the timing of them seemed more like a little child not getting her way than someone with a short temper. Also, Lettle multiple times couldn’t keep her mouth shut and made the situation worse. Yerevan felt closer to thirty in her writing, but for someone who had done all the things she needed to be the youngest colonel in the army, there were times when she didn’t use her smarts for the situation. At times both were also written as having emotions or doing actions that didn’t make a lot of sense for the situation they were in. It just felt disjointed at times and made me feel as if I was a step away from the characters who were narrating the story.
There are three romances in this novel, but I really wasn’t that invested in any of them. As one was acquaintances to lovers and the other was enemies to lovers, you’d think one of them would catch my interest. Instead, I didn’t believe any of them because none of them were given the time to sit in the emotions of longing, anger, lust, and love. Yereran’s second romance was given more time and space, but I still didn’t understand the love between the two of them by the end of the novel, especially after all the betrayals in the last 100 pages. I would have preferred if both of the romances had been more slow-burn with build-up, instead of having three sexual scenes within 40 pages of one another. I could have gone a whole novel without any of them confessing, but all the build-up between them. In my opinion, the romances just didn’t feel earned.
Overall I enjoyed my time with this novel, but I am not one of the people who are saying that this is going to be on their “best of the year” lists. I’m interested in seeing where the story goes because the plot is very interesting, but as a reader who prefers character-led stories, it was a bit disappointing. This is a 3.5 read rounded down to a 3 star.
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