An Enchantment of Ravens

I really enjoyed reading An Enchantment of Ravens.
It was a captivating, magical and unique novel. The characters were great! I loved Isobel’s bravery and practicality. Rook was an interesting character as well. I think they were really good together!
The plot was great and awesome. This is definitely a must read!

This book has become one of my all-time favorites. Every time I start reading I couldn’t put it down, touched and overwhelmed by so many emotions and thoughts. It's light-hearted and thought-provoking at the same time, addressing issues like immortal lives, emotions and humanity. I love how this book honors artistic creations, which is not a common theme among YA fantasy. Also, I love how Isobel matures along the way and realizes a crush is not the same as love.

I would recommend this book to those who have creative minds (Attention artists, writers, and bakers out there! You'll be touched!), and fantasy lovers.

I'm not very into reading fantasy (so I might not be the best person to review this). But I was honestly interested in reading this. That cover was really amazing and I really liked it. But the story didn't really land to well in my opinion.

As I was reading this, I thought it had a Cinderella-ish feel in the story. There are no evil step mother and step sisters here. But you might count the fair ones as the evil step-people here. You know, considering how their society is.

There are some stuff that I do like. I do like how they're romance was put together. It's a forbidden romance troupe and I thought it wasn't too bad. Not too swoony but it was more focused on the adventure. I also like the fair ones society. It was quite intriguing and good.

Overall, it was an okay book. this is definitely for the fantasy buffs.


*This book was a giveaway, and in exchange I will give an honest review.

"An Enchantment of Ravens" is a great stand-alone YA fantasy/romance about the "fair folk" (fae/fairy) and their relationships with humans in the town of Whimsy. Humans are valued for their ability to Craft or to create, be it art, music, or clothes. For a fair one to do Craft would mean death. The fair folk enjoy Craft so they "pay" humans to create it for them in exchange for Enchantments. If not carefully worded, the Enchantments can be more of a curse than a blessing. Isobel is valued for her Craft of portraiture. She has been frequented by fair folk, particularly from the spring court, to do their portraits. She finds it somewhat awkward to interact with them, not only because of their deviousness and power, but also their lack of emotions and blank expressions. Their immortality removes them from human emotions.

Things begin to change when the autumn court prince, Rook, comes to Isobel for his portrait. As they spend time together, Isobel begins to fall in love with him. Seeing sadness in his eyes, she paints them as she observes them. However, this is viewed as a weakness which makes him vulnerable among the fair folk. After the portrait was sent, Rook returns to bring Isobel to trial for the crime of painting human sadness in his eyes- the penalty of which is likely death. On their path to his court for trial, they begin to learn more about each other and Rook finds himself unable to bring her to trial. They concoct a ruse and travel to the spring court where Isobel begins to paint the fair folk with human emotions (and this has power to give them some semblance of emotions as mentioned in the synopsis).

The Good Law prevents fair folk and humans from being in love, and as Isobel and Rook come to terms with their emotions, they face the penalty of death. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the pace was great. I felt that their relationship was a little superficial in that we don't see much of the depth to their interactions until later in the book and I would have liked to see their romance building a bit more. The writing was really superb, and it flowed beautifully. The descriptions were really fantastic and brought you into the story. The fair folk really balanced the line between creepy and fascinating (as per design I think). This was a tough book to put down.

I think this will be a huge hit with fans of Maas's Court series! It's a great YA fantasy and forbidden romance that works perfectly as a stand alone.

This is one of the most beautifully written books I've read in a long, long while. I found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs for the sheer pleasure of their worded beauty. The fair ones were disturbing monsters of life and death, a perfect representation of the circle of life -- a nice return to the pagan origins of the fae.

OK ...

So, I continually keep seeing comparisons to ACOTAR which is crazy to me. They are nothing alike. Sarah J. Maas writes neo-pagan high fae "elf" fantasy with contemporary romantic lyrical writing and dialogue. While ACOTAR is fae fiction, it's not necessarily a fairy tale as it lacks myth origins. Rather, it's high fantasy. Margaret Rogerson wrote a fairy tale and kept to the original folklore of the "fair ones" who are made from earth, and embody life and death. While humanoid in glamour, they are actually monsters ... just like the tales of old. And, like a fairy tale, the focus is not on a "changing character" but on the "adventure" and "moral lesson." Think back on fairy tales you've read. Character arcs are not complex, right? Right. Rogerson's writing is classical in nature, too, reminiscent of the Age of Manners with story touches of Alice in Wonderland woven in for an extra layer of disturbia. And, yes, there is insta-love in AEoR, but that is the fairy tale way of romance.

ACOTAR - high fantasy, modern romance language
AEoR - fairy tale, classical romance writing

Now for the similarities: both Feyre and Isobel are painters and curse breakers. While they share this similarity in idea only, it's just that ... in idea only. Isobel's entire livelihood comes from painting portraits for the fair ones. And it's her paintings that both ruin and save her life, as well as ruin and save the lives of the fair ones. Feyre and Isobel both break a curse, but most fantasy and fairy tale stories contain this trope. It doesn't make them the same. The curse Isobel breaks is nothing like Feyre's hero moment.

If you've been hesitant to give this book a try because of the reviews, I encourage you to give it a whirl. Just remember to have "fairy tale" reader expectations, not ACOTAR ones.

LOVED this book. One of my favorites reads in 2017.