by Holly Black
Return to the opulent world of Elfhame, filled with intrigue, betrayal, and dangerous desires, with this first book of a captivating new duology from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black.
A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.
Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.
Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.
Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He's on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren's help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.
Return to the opulent world of Elfhame, filled with intrigue, betrayal, and dangerous desires, with this first book of a captivating new duology from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black.
A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.
Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.
Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.
Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He's on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren's help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.
Reviews-
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Saskia Maarleveld sublimely narrates this highly anticipated return to the world of Elfhame. Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, fled to the human world to live in the woods, where she helps release humans from their bargains with the fae. Her mother, Lady Nore, has taken over the Ice Needle Citadel, and prince Oak of Elfhame needs Suren's help to stop her. Maarleveld voices Suren in a gravelly voice, echoing her scream-strained vocal cords and feral lifestyle. Maarleveld's opulent performance of Oak, the charming prince, fully embodies his confidence and easy manipulations, which make Suren unsure if she can trust the boy to whom she was once promised in marriage. Maarleveld suffuses her narration with intrigue and romance, pulling listeners along by their heartstrings. A.K.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from June 1, 2023
Gr 9 Up-This spinoff of "The Folk of the Air" series has a ready-made fanbase eager to return to Elfhame. Readers met Suren, the abused child queen of the Court of Teeth, in The Queen of Nothing, and now she gets a novel of her own. Capricious and duplicitous, Oak has grown into a true Prince of Elfhame in the eight years since Jude and Cardan took the throne, but now he needs Suren's help. Suren fled the Court of Teeth years ago and has been on the run ever since. Helping Oak's quest is not in her best interest; she knows she can't trust Oak despite his promises, but there are things Suren wants too-having a prince of Elfhame on her side might be the only way to get them. Black crafts two broken characters readers will long to unite even if they remember fae romances are never that simple. Even Black's most experienced readers are in for a surprise. VERDICT Flawlessly executed. This book belongs in all YA collections.
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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The first in a new duology building directly on Black's The Folk of the Air series. The Folk are often cruel, as Wren knows; raised human until her faerie parents returned for her and enspelled her adoptive human parents to fear her, she endured torment in the Court of Teeth before running away to live wild. When Prince Oak, who's the heir to Elfhame and was once her friend, finds and recruits her to return to the Court of Teeth on a mission seeking resolution and maybe even revenge, Wren reluctantly goes along. A brief journey up the magical Eastern Seaboard, full of small personal moments and brilliantly imagined settings, is underpinned by the exploration of recovery from trauma and the question of what it means to have and be family. Wren finds trusting impossible, while Oak has his own emotional battles; Faerie is full of broken people (however nonhuman) whose pain engenders complex relationships, even as political and personal betrayals abound. This tale is too dependent on the events of The Queen of Nothing (2019) to be accessible to new readers, but returning fans will dive right in. Although this volume mostly focuses on positioning players for the next moves in the endless power struggle, a late-game twist promises higher personal and political stakes to come. The almost entirely nonmortal characters are wildly diverse in appearance. A satisfying journey with a tantalizing finish. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)
