Review: A Betrayal of Storms by Ben Alderson
Blurb:
With the political intrigue and high heat of A Court of Thorns and Roses and From Blood and Ash, A Betrayal of Storms is perfect for readers who enjoy stories full of magic, romance, and adventure... but with added spice.
Half-fey Robin Vale has grown up amongst humans, but that doesn’t save him from being captured for coin by fey hunters. When he’s rescued by a fey princess, he’s taken to Wychwood, the fey realm – where everyone is focused on preparing for war against the humans who hate, hunt, and kill them for coin.
Robin doesn’t understand how he fits into the fey’s plans... until he’s revealed to be the lost heir to the Icethorn Court. Aided by the unclaimed, destructive power of the Winter Court, which had been thought destroyed with Robin’s mother’s death, the fey ready their numbers for complete domination of the human realm.
But by claiming the throne with the help of his devastatingly handsome personal guard, Erix, Robin’s very presence opposes the long-planned invasion. Along with his allies – including Althea, a stern princess hellbent on stopping the human hunters from killing her kin – Robin is thrust into a world of betrayal, murder, and lies. He must survive long enough to have the choice: listen to fate and claim his family’s power, or let it wreak havoc on a realm that turned its back on him for becoming who he was truly meant to be.
Review:
I devoured this in a matter of days and have thought about it since.
The story starts fast and Robin is captured within a few pages. From that we quickly learn he's quite capable at fighting and handling himself but he is also very much a softy. I'd hesitate to call him a cinnamon roll but it wouldn't be entirely wrong. Sometimes I think that his character was soft to the point of being unrealistic, like the immediate understanding of the people who captured him for money. They sold you, Robin! Be angry! I mean, I guess he kind of was before Althea went absolutely ham.
Oh Althea, I think I have a book crush. She’s just….really, really cool. She’s very capable and she knows it, everyone else does too, but she’s also got a lot more to her character. Basically, I like really well written female characters. Althea ticks that box.
I also absolutely loved Eroan purely on the ‘One for the dramatics, he is.’ As someone also prone to utter dramatics, I get this. I think we’ll see more of him but because of his connection to Robin’s mother he’ll probably have some secrets to share as things progress. Gyah is another super interesting character and I won’t give away why but she added to the fae of this world.
I love a lost heir, bodyguard x guarded romance, and a new trope I'm calling 'More than one bed but they're afraid of the dark' because that is what happened.This worked super well with Erix, who is either an excellent bodyguard or terrible. Maybe that depends on how effective he is/was guarding someone he’s not besotted with. (Side note, besotted is an underrated word.) His overall guard abilities aside, I did message Ben to say “If Erix doesn't call Robin "little bird" before an intense kiss I am going to riot”, and riot I did not. Then some other stuff happened. If you like spice, enjoy that when it happens. If you don’t enjoy spice, well this book is described as “high heat of A Court of Thorns and Roses”, so what did you expect?
There are a lot of little gems hidden for lovers of fae and folklore stories (iron, sneaky wording about things, etc). There are also some unique things I felt really added to the world. The wider fae people don't have magic but the ruling families of the seasons do, and the access to magic is diluted the bigger the family is. Without a family to dilute or control the magic of the season realms then it goes out of control. This is sort of the crux of things when it comes to the conflict because the uncontrolled magic is going to destroy the human realm, which is apparently called Durmain and that info could have been more clear when initially introduced.
The makeup of the realms, human and fae, could have also been aided with a map. I know the story says the fae realm isn't mapped out but even a list would work. As I said, I didn't really catch at first the human realm was Durmain, I thought I'd missed something somewhere, and then the mention of the capital Lockinge didn't really mean anything since I didn't have an idea of where it was in comparison to Wychwood. It is entirely possible the print version (because this was an e-ARC) might have one, in which case this comment did not age well.
The travel between the fae realm and human realm was interesting. The idea of it being accessed only by invitation and how navigating it without an invitation is problematic. This kind of goes back to the comment I had about little gems of things for fae and folklore lovers.
I think this set up for a good follow on book(s) and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the realm, the court we haven't really met yet, Robin's realm and whatever else is going to come from it all. Assuming I’ve not been blocked for my reaction messages, Ben can expect more of those for the next book.
A Betrayal of Storms is available 22 October 2024
