Lava Red Feather Blue | ARC Review

 Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

Book: Lava Red Feather Blue by Molly Ringle
Release Date: January 5th 2021
Tags: Adult | Urban Fantasy | Fantasy | Sleeping Beauty Retelling | Fae | War | Kingdom | Royal Family | LGBTQ+ | Gay MC | Non-Binary Character
Other books by this author I reviewed
The Goblins of Bellwater

Awakening the handsome prince is supposed to end the fairy tale, not begin it. But the Highvalley witches have rarely done things the way they’re supposed to. On the north Pacific island of Eidolonia, hidden from the world by enchantments, Prince Larkin has lain in a magical sleep since 1799 as one side of a truce between humans and fae. That is, until Merrick Highvalley, a modern-day witch, discovers an old box of magic charms and cryptic notes hidden inside a garden statue.

Experimenting with the charms, Merrick finds himself inside the bower where Larkin lies, and accidentally awakens him. Worse still, releasing Larkin from the spell also releases Ula Kana, a faery bent on eradicating humans from the island. With the truce collapsing and hostilities escalating throughout the country, Merrick and Larkin form an unlikely alliance and become even unlikelier heroes as they flee into the perilous fae realm on a quest to stop Ula Kana and restore harmony to their island.

I read an earlier book by author Molly Ringle and while the story couldn’t charm me I did like some of her ideas and writing. So when I saw Lava Red Feather Blue I knew I had to give it another chance. I have some mixed feelings.

The start to Lava Red Feather Blue was a strong one. We go back in time first to learn a common knowledge to the island set in our world (but shrouded in mist to hide it from the rest of the world). Prince Larkin sacrificed himself to a magical sleep to keep a truce between the humans and fae on the island. But was this really a sacrifice?

We meet Merrick in modern day who has seen the effects of the truce. The good and the bad. As a half-fae, he isn’t always accepted for who he is. He manages to awaken Larkin and with him, disrupts the peace on the island. Because with Larkin, an evil fairy rises, bent on eradicating the humans from the island. And you know, I partially feel for this fae because it struck me right of the bat as a twisted white european settlers background. The humans who come to the island basically take a good portion of the land from the fae. I wonder what that sounds like? I don’t really know if the author meant to make this link but it is too similar to really discard since this happened during that period. It feels a bit ill thought out.

However I did enjoy the first half of this book. Merrick has a bit of an innocence about him while Larkin is our stuck-up prince. Their interactions with Merricks family and each other is what made the first half of this book for me. They were growing a bond between them despite their differences and prejudices.

The second half has the pair heading into fairy land and that is where I feel very mixed about the story. Of course fairy will mess with your head. But it messed with their dynamic. They argued. Had dumb drama. And then they fall in love. And I didn’t quite feel it at that point anymore. Because the bond they had at the start of the story wasn’t quite there anymore and I didn’t feel they were coming out of it any stronger. The plot also didn’t quite hold my attention anymore. The quest in fairy felt incredibly long-winded.

All in all I feel that Lava Red Feather Blue had great potential with the set up of the story and characters, but didn’t quite finish it off.