Molly Ringle

"With this engrossing urban fantasy, Ringle delivers a queer fairy tale as electrifying as it is tender"—Publishers Weekly &“Lush and imaginative—an epic fantasy for a new generation, full of love, vengeance, redemption, and forgiveness.&”—Pam Stucky, author of The Universes Inside the Lighthouse 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. "Lovely and evocative, Lava Red Feather Blue is sure to delight lovers of fae, fairytales, and fantasy.&”—Allie Therin, author of Spellbound

Lava Red Feather Blue

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.

Michaela Hudson

While I appreciate the author's effort to bring cultural diversity into this book as well as its interesting concept, I found the writing lacking flexibility and creativity. So as I was trying to dwell myself in this faerie-inspired island that she has created, it's hard to thoroughly enjoy it. I had been informed before reading that I might find some typing errors, but I doubt that even such an incident would be a sufficient explanation for the anti-climatic feeling I got from her conduction of penmanship. 

The main couple itself and the whole cast overall didn't leave me any remarkable impressions either. As I have mentioned above, the author tried to fill this book with a wide range of characters from many ethnics (especially the Hawaiian cultural references) and sexualities being normalized of which I always want to see more in this particular genre, I can't help but find them tokenized and didn't receive much representation in this story. If Ms. Ringle had to dump down clarifications for that in the acknowledgment, I'd say, her effort was not satisfactory, and it could have been done so much better. 

As for the concept of this book, it was really enticing to me, since we don't normally see the supernatural factorials being blended into daily life in urban fantasy, but usually seen as some secret society unknown to humans. But this idea was so poorly handled it lacks consistency. Many details went unexplained, many others were unnecessary, and some didn't make any sense. 

Overalls, great concept, and well-intended. But with bad writing and terrible execution.

Suzanne

I give this book 3.5 stars.
Parts of it I thoroughly enjoyed, parts of it needed a lot more editing. 

Merrick accidentally wakes a Prince who has been sleeping for over 200 years, as well as the ultimate nemesis.
Together the prince and Merrick take on the challenge of containing her again.
The building of the world was good, the adventures that take them through three challenges was at times too detailed or just odd. Some of the romance bits felt forced.
I enjoyed parts of the fantasy world, the idea that there are witches with different kinds of powers was thrilling.
I loved the LGBTQ tones in the book, especially in a fantasy setting. 
It was a fun book to read.

Provided as an ARC by NetGalley

Bored. Bored. Bored.

Seriously. I found it exhausting to read, because everything felt kinda… like there was no spark. Which is especially sad if it’s a story about magic and the Fae. But aside from boredom the first 19% didn’t make me feel anything so I decided to dnf this one and stop wasting my precious reading time on it.

It might be a small pet peeve but the way magic works (in terms of types) in this story was explained again and again – the only thing I am filing under interesting is how magic and modern technology is put together. That was a great part of wordlbuilding but sadly the only one.

Overall it was a very generic and not thought through book to me. If I can’t care about the characters because they don’t feel three dimensional and the story itself drons on without painting a lively picture… I’m outta there.

Dislcaimer
I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

Eleanor Luhar

I love a faerie tale. But this is so much more than just that - yes, it's an adventurous story that takes us into the heart of the mystical fae realm, but it's also a modern story, a love story, a story of finding one's place in the world. It also regularly mentions homosexuality, bisexuality and non-binary very casually; as in, it's part of the story, but it's not the main story. It's just a piece of people's identity and lives, but it doesn't define them. I really like this way of including LGBTQ+ themes.
The book begins with a scene from 1799, where Prince Larkin is unwillingly put to sleep by a powerful witch. It's done in an attempt to bring peace to an island under attack from a vicious fire faery, Ula Kana. Skip to 2020, and we meet Merrick. He's a witch, but use of magic is strongly controlled in modern society. But, of course, Merrick still manages to get himself into a heck of a lot of trouble. And so he ends up hiding the Prince - awake, after over two centuries - and wreaking more than a little havoc. Thus the story begins, taking them to the palace and then through the realm of the fae, where they meet an array of characters, and come face to face with loss, death, and love.
This was a really enjoyable read. It's a little steamy at times, and while the romance in this book isn't forced, I wasn't 100% sold on it, to be honest. Still, it was a good book, and I'm glad I read it. 4 stars!

Jennifer

I think it has been 84 years since I've last read a fae-inspired fantasy novel of this calibre, so when I finished this I was grinning like a devil. 

I discovered Lava Red Feather Blue, thanks to a friend of mine who read the ARC sometime last year. So I decided to look up the book page and lo and behold, the aesthetic cover and the premise caught my attention - so that prompted me to pre-order a copy. I'm still waiting for my pre-ordered copy to arrive but I quit waiting and decided to read the whole thing on my iPad because this is amongst the half a dozen highly anticipated releases that I just want to get around reading ASAP. I want to say that I still prefer reading fantasy novels physically, but somehow my iPad experience with Lava Red Feather Blue was a highly positive one.

Lava Red Feather Blue is an enchanting fae & witch novel with a very cool concept and a diverse cast of characters. This is a character-driven tale revolving around Merrick (a witch) and Larkin (a fae woken up from more than 2 hundred years of sleep), but the story isn't only centred on the superb & slow-burning LGBT+ relationship. This is also a tale about sacrifice, belongings, and fighting for the greater cause. From Merrick's unlikely alliance with Larkin, Ringle splendidly illustrated both characters' internal struggles. The well fleshed out pair also made me feel their losses more acutely. I rarely get emotional over reading books so you know it's a good sign when the characters resonate with me so much. Similarly, I found the supporting characters quite eccentric and yet likable. Therefore, I found the character development to be one of the greatest assets in the book. 

Conceptually, Lava Red Feather Blue goes big and bold. I feel like I'm transported into a magical and colourful world of Eidolonia while reading this (also kudos to the diverse source of inspiration of the worldbuilding, I found the magic system so fascinating). It's an immersive experience, thanks to Ringle's solid worldbuilding and unique concept. I love the diversity of the supernatural characters in the novel. I was not bored in any single minute of reading the novel.

Thematically, Molly Ringle also managed to pack plenty of political tension between the humans & fairies, making this a very hard to put down read. I'm still processing over the central themes of the novel, but this political tension & Ula Kana's uprise felt surprisingly reminiscent to the current political atmosphere as of lately. It sheds some insights on how partisanships are based on manipulations & sentiments, instead of fairness and transparency. The implication of Ula Kana's role in the novel created plenty of opportunity for Ringle to explore various big themes through the character developments.

While there are a lot of good things to say about Lava Red Feather Blue, there are a few minor drawbacks to address. Personally, the pacing of the book was on the slow side in the beginning which means the first 50 or so pages required a bit of pushing through. This isn't a major issue because Ringle managed to use a good portion of the beginning to establish the expansive worldbuilding and the magic system. So regarding the writing style, there are quite some details & a bit of info-dumping (this is overall quite a dense read), but they do make a lot of sense as the novel progresses. It's just something to be aware of if you are used to reading books where things happen straight from the beginning. And I think this is just my personal take, but I would love to see more of the support characters because of the intricate worldbuilding and concept.

Overall, I love reading Lava Red Feather Blue and I had a satisfying experience with it after years of not coming across a decent fae-inspired read. I'm now eagerly waiting for my hardcopy to arrive because I'm obsessed with the cover and I need a good fairy book to represent my physical bookshelf!

N.B. this book contains following triggers: weapons, violence, kidnapping, and death

Kirsten Maliepaard

What can I say? I absolutely fell in love with this book. Normally waking up a prince would be the perfect ending to a fairytale, but this time it is actually the beginning of the story. Merrick wakes up Prince Larkin by accident from a 200-year sleep. This is not necessarily the problem, but by waking up Larkin he also has awoken Ula Kana. Ula Kana is a faery with only the goal to make the humans leave the fae's island. She and Larkin were both put to sleep as a truce between humans and fae.

This book was just amazing. I love how there are a lot of LGBTQ characters included, and by a lot, I really mean a LOT. It was there but it did not become the central focus of the book. It was just a fantasy book with a gay relationship and a non-binary sibling.

The buildup to the story's plot was perfect. It was timed good and did not move too fast or slow. The world-building was amazing and I love how the author made up the fae territory.

The relationship between Larkin and Merrick needed time to grow and that was exactly what this story needed. It probably would have been a cliche if the two of them would have fallen in love within the first hundred pages of the book.

This story really kept me in a reading mood, and I wanted to keep reading it. But at the same time I did not want the story to be over. Which is the perfect balance for me. I would definitely advise this book to fellow fantasy readers.

Elodia

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book.

Lava Red Feather Blue is a fun fae fantasy set in the modern world, which is nice to see. It has a diverse cast of characters who were all very well written and I loved reading about them. The only character I didn't really like was the villain, I felt she had no real depth.

I would have rated this book higher if I had connected more to the writing, but I just could not get into it, it felt too formal. There was a lot of info-dumping in the beginning, and I wish we could have learned about the world another way. The beginning dragged on and I had to keep putting it down, I don't think it was paced well overall.

Even though this book wasn't really for me, I know that it is something many will enjoy, so I recommend it if you like fae fantasies with diverse characters.

Dearna Mulvaney

4.5*

For full review: https://wordsoftheroses.com/2021/01/2...

“That doesn’t mean you weren’t a hero. Heroes can be unwilling.” 

I will start by saying that I was given an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank so much the team over at Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for sending a copy my way!

Lava Red Feather Blue follows Merrick Highvalley, a half-fae, who’s trying to find the away to heal his father from the strange fae sickness that’s rapidly ageing him. His search leads him to a hidden portal where Prince Larkin has been in an enchanted sleep since 1799. Merrick accidentally wakes up the prince that also breaks the enchanted sleep of Ula Kana, a powerful faery, who’s determined to eradicate humans from Eidolonia.

This was a magical quest across an island filled with just about every fae creature imaginable. I adored it! It also had the sweetest MM romance. I also enjoyed the twist on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.

⁠At the start, I was a little confused about the setting. But once I got my head around it I adored the idea of a hidden island in the pacific where humans and fae live alongside each other. The island feels as like a part of the pacific. I love the addition of Hawaiian and Maori words for names of people and places.

Kinga 

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with the e-arc 

The concept of an adult take on a queer Fae story set around a quest into the dangerous magical land seemed to me more than thrilling.

The passionate and a little careless Merrick has mostly good intentions when he accidently wakes up Larkin, a prince who was lay to enchanted sleep two hundred years before, in order to secure a truce between people and Fae living on Eidolonia. But the prince isn't the only one that awakens. Ula Kana, a powerful Fae who's set to destroy the humans that she believes are a threat to the magical inhabitans of the island, comes back as well, full of rage and ready to set everything in her path on fire. As it turns out, the only way to save the island might be a dangerous journey to the heart of the Fae realm. 

Both Merrick and Larkin were really enjoyable leads, and it didn't take long for me to grow fond of them. They're motivated and lost, adorable and stubborn, humanly flawed - which we know should be obvious, but let's be honest - authors happen to fail at that sometimes. Rooting for the protagonists definitely helped me enjoy the story, and I like how there was no chosen ones or super extraordinary abilities they would posess. The chemistry between characters appeared quickly, but without cliche insta-lovey scenes - their interactions had a realistic edge of awkwardness to them, as well as maturity, and, for the most time, lacked overly dramatic parts. A truly lovely romance to follow and cheer for.

The fae world was creatively set up - I particularly appreciate the fae taking differing forms for a change (aka not only ubergorgeous human-like creatures that are so popular right now). I wished their realm was painted more vividly though - supposedly it was such a beautiful image, but I had difficulty conjuring it in my mind.

The writing style was far too simple. You're very much aware of every instance the author is Introducing Information™, because it either appears in a form of awkward descriptions or artificial dialogue. It wouldn't make much difference if there had been a "We're doing the worldbuliding now" sign there.
To be fair the entire story dragged at times - it could do with a bunch of edits. Some parts were redundant, and there was so much telling instead of showing. I mean like, truly. It was so long-winded it often completely killed the suspense, focusing instead on characters explaining their actions or feelings in great detail. Or telling the reader what and why EXACTLY is happening - which led me to skim several times, as I just wanted to go on with the plot.
The entire ending was but a summary of recent events, boring and forced, as if the author really wanted us to now how each storyline ended, but didn't feel like actually writing it. 

Despite the high stakes the story failed to keep me concerned - at some point it became rather obvious that whatever obstacle the characters came across, some magical help or solution would soon appear. (view spoiler)[ cmon they BOTH died and were brought back, and by nothing else but a sacrifice... please no. truth to be told, I would have preferred if Merrick miraculously escaped Ula Kana on his own, or if he was really left in Vowri land. You could make a second book about bringing him back, and, most importantly, the story could gain some depth and seriousness. And that's coming from a person who loves happy endings - but I love them EARNED.  (hide spoiler)] The entire quest felt structured like a children's movie or game.

"Go to point A, villain appears, they barely manage to escape (likely with some deus ex machina help or other equally bizarre thing), they reach A and they have to do X. "
Repeat.

And, you see - I am sentimental, childish at times. I love hope and appealing to higher values and light-hearted stories. But the power of love and a speeches defending the dark forces is not something I can take seriously in an adult fantasy. And that's probably my biggest issue with the book - I could ignore the lacking worldbuilding, and the writing style, and simply have fun with the plot. But adventure needs to keep you on the edge of your seat, and not make you roll your eyes. 
Honestly, of it wasn't for the sex, this would have felt like a MG. Which in itself wouldn't be bad, but you do except more than helpful magical animals appearing just in time for rescue from an adult novel. Instead it feels like an "epic" Hollywood fantasy movie.

Oh, the villain! I would have forgot. Which, honestly, is rather telling. Ula Kana was straight up a cardboard character - a Disney villain, one could say, except they have cool songs and actual motif, so pick some worse kind of children movies instead. I think I just accepted that at some point, and started treating her like a inanimate obstacle rather than antagonist. She's just Evil™, if you know what I mean.

Overall, the truly well rounded characters, the banter, and an engaging plot held potential for a far better final effect. It wasn't a bad story, rather an unpolished one - with some work on the writing style and perhaps the design of the plot the author could create a book that's really awesome. I hope her future stories will live up to the potential.
I felt like I should have lowered the rating more, and yet I don't really want to - I did have fun, and I'm genuinely curious for how the author develops in the future.

(Also beware that it's a romance, after all. So traditionally - the world is falling apart, but a make out session won't hurt anyone, huh? ^^ 
i didn't mind, but it's something you should be aware of going into it )

(view spoiler)[ Larkin really cared more about whether Merrick meant that "I love you" than the whole Ula Kana situation huh. please stop acting like a teenager.  (hide spoiler)]

Lava Red Feather Blue

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