Emily Blackwood: House of Lies and Sorrow

 Fae of Rewyth book 1

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60816947

Jade Farrow is used to struggles in her life she has been forced to grow up quickly after her mother passed away and her father turned to drinking instead of focusing on taking care of his family she has been responsible for protecting her younger sister, she hunts and forages in the forests surrounding their cottage and she takes the brunt of their father's anger so that her younger sister won't have to deal with him... only time is running out for her in a moment of weakness to save his own life her father made a deal with the Fae King that he will give his daughter's hand in marriage to one of the King's sons.

While in many stories it would be a dream come true to be married to a handsome prince it is not the case in Jade's story, while the prince (Malachi) is handsome he is also the most dangerous Fae in the land and if rumor has it correct his previous 3 human wives died on their wedding day... rumor has it he is the one responsible for their demise.  

Only when Jade goes to the Fae Kingdom expecting this to be her last day alive Malachi surprises her... while he is still just as dangerous as all the rumors make him out to be, he's not a danger to her he is just as upset about the outcome of his previous marriages he has had enough... no one is going to touch what now belongs to him and that includes his new bride Jade. 

Without knowing who she can trust Jade meets many shady characters in her new home including his 4 ruthless (but slightly less powerful) brothers, his father the king who has been using him as a weapon of mass destruction for an unknown period of time to take out his enemies... even Malachi's ex situationship has her on guard.  His sister seems trustworthy even if she does keep talking her into doing things that lead them into a bit of trouble... but someone in this place wants her gone just who could it be?  Will she even get a chance to eat her wedding meal or will she be gone before the end of the day as she originally expected?  

If she does make it past the day will she ever be able to see her sister again?  

*Fae  *Romantasy  *arranged marriage  *age gap (😁)  *fierce FMC  *Shadow Daddy MMC  

*Touch her and 💀 *enemies to more  *no spice just kisses  *magic  *magical realm  *young adult

*Slow burn  *ends on a cliffhanger  *need to read in order

Thoughts:

*My husband saw the title and he sang in a Meatloaf voice "In the House of Lies and Sorrow, Girl there is no tomorrow, no, no, no" he has asked me to put this into my review*  

From reading a few other reviews if you are a super big Romantasy fan and have read a bunch of them this one might not be for you, I haven't read many and haven't read the popular ones but a lot of the reviews compare it to being ACOTAR fan fiction.  I thought it was an interesting enough start to a story to continue with the series and finished this book in a few days.  

I thought it was a quick read, I wouldn't really consider this as much of a romance story at this point as they kissed a few times and might have felt some "heat" of some sort but neither character makes much effort to get to know the other one and our MMC spends a lot of time away from the FMC doing Princely business.  Also seems his protectiveness in book one stems not as much from actually having "feelings" for her as it does that he's had enough of losing his human wives and wants to put an end to that... however he has to do it... You can see towards the end that maybe his feelings are starting to change so looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book.  

Our FMC is fierce and stubborn and sometimes gets herself in trouble by doing things that are obvious to us as the reader as a bad idea... like going by herself to meet try to meet a shady character at night, or venturing out into the forest when she was told to stay in the room with the guard outside.  She really doesn't have much control over her life before or after going to the Fae world.  

The book is fairly repetitive, it is hard to determine the timeline of events or how much time has truly passed between any event.  The dialogue is sometimes awkward at points it is more modern (like we speak) and other times it tries to sound more romantasy worldish "Saints."  The book also goes from not much happening to things happening quickly at the end feeling more rushed, so maybe some of the pacing will work itself out in the rest of the series.  Hoping to learn more about the world and about how any of the Fae's magic works there are vague hints but nothing concrete.