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A review by krisrid
Wicked Enchantment by Anya Bast
3.0
Anya Bast writes great paranormal genre stories, as long as you can tolerate or skip over the extremely explicit sex scenes she gives the main characters in each book.
Aislinn lives in the Rose Tower of Piefferburg where the Seelie Fae reside. When Gabriel Mac Braire, of the Black or Unseelie tower arrives at the Rose petitioning to switch allegience from the Shadow King to the Summer Queen, everyone's interested since Gabriel, in addition to being an incubus, is gorgeous.
The Summer Queen orders Aislinn to be Gabriel's guide to the Rose Tower while his petition is considered, against Aislinn's wishes, since she's just had a nasty public break-up and wants nothing to do with men, dangerously sexy incubus or not!
As noted previously, the requisite sexual sparks between Aislinn and Gabriel fly. While I have no objections to the addition of romance and even sex into a good story, and since the Fae are almost always depicted in fiction as having aggressive libidios, Bast always seems to take it just a bit too far - too long, too explicit, too kinky - for my personal taste. Luckily, she writes such great stories, you can skip over the excessive sex and just enjoy the plot.
In this first book of her new series, Bast explores - in a very interesting and well-developed way - the political wrangling and history of the Fae. The city of Piefferburg is basically an internment camp - albeit a pretty swanky one! - where the Fae have been locked up for centuries because of the fear of them the humans have. The enemy of all the Fae - the Phaendir - have allied with the humans to simply keep the Fae out of their way through spells that make it impossible for any Fae to leave the walled city, but there are factions within the Phaendir that would like to exterminate the Fae entirely.
Then there is the uneasy truce between the Seelie and Unseelie courts of the light and dark Fae. The Seelie believe themselves to be the only "true" Fae, but their Queen, fearful of being deposed, has decreed her subjects may not use their powers, so they've become selfish and shallow, spending all their time shopping and attending parties.
The Unseelie on the other hand are not only encouraged, but expected, to use and develop their powers and be strong in case battle comes. The King is just as dangerous, but the Unseelie are more aware of the dangers of their situation and behave accordingly.
When Aislinn and Gabriel come together and - this won't be a spoiler if you read any of this type of fiction - fall in love, their worlds collide and both of them have to change and grow to be able to understand each other and decide how to be together.
Aislinn discovers that she isn't who she thought she was and that she faces huge risks to her very life, no matter which court she becomes a part of.
The plot has lots of interesting political scheming, back-room dealings, battles and magical attempts to win, and stay alive against people who want to kill you. It's an well-constructed, nicely detailed story if you're into the Fae. I enjoyed the story minus the overdone sex scenes, so if you don't mind that or can just skip those scenes, then I recommend this as a good read.
Aislinn lives in the Rose Tower of Piefferburg where the Seelie Fae reside. When Gabriel Mac Braire, of the Black or Unseelie tower arrives at the Rose petitioning to switch allegience from the Shadow King to the Summer Queen, everyone's interested since Gabriel, in addition to being an incubus, is gorgeous.
The Summer Queen orders Aislinn to be Gabriel's guide to the Rose Tower while his petition is considered, against Aislinn's wishes, since she's just had a nasty public break-up and wants nothing to do with men, dangerously sexy incubus or not!
As noted previously, the requisite sexual sparks between Aislinn and Gabriel fly. While I have no objections to the addition of romance and even sex into a good story, and since the Fae are almost always depicted in fiction as having aggressive libidios, Bast always seems to take it just a bit too far - too long, too explicit, too kinky - for my personal taste. Luckily, she writes such great stories, you can skip over the excessive sex and just enjoy the plot.
In this first book of her new series, Bast explores - in a very interesting and well-developed way - the political wrangling and history of the Fae. The city of Piefferburg is basically an internment camp - albeit a pretty swanky one! - where the Fae have been locked up for centuries because of the fear of them the humans have. The enemy of all the Fae - the Phaendir - have allied with the humans to simply keep the Fae out of their way through spells that make it impossible for any Fae to leave the walled city, but there are factions within the Phaendir that would like to exterminate the Fae entirely.
Then there is the uneasy truce between the Seelie and Unseelie courts of the light and dark Fae. The Seelie believe themselves to be the only "true" Fae, but their Queen, fearful of being deposed, has decreed her subjects may not use their powers, so they've become selfish and shallow, spending all their time shopping and attending parties.
The Unseelie on the other hand are not only encouraged, but expected, to use and develop their powers and be strong in case battle comes. The King is just as dangerous, but the Unseelie are more aware of the dangers of their situation and behave accordingly.
When Aislinn and Gabriel come together and - this won't be a spoiler if you read any of this type of fiction - fall in love, their worlds collide and both of them have to change and grow to be able to understand each other and decide how to be together.
Aislinn discovers that she isn't who she thought she was and that she faces huge risks to her very life, no matter which court she becomes a part of.
The plot has lots of interesting political scheming, back-room dealings, battles and magical attempts to win, and stay alive against people who want to kill you. It's an well-constructed, nicely detailed story if you're into the Fae. I enjoyed the story minus the overdone sex scenes, so if you don't mind that or can just skip those scenes, then I recommend this as a good read.