Heart of Silk and Shadows, the prequel novel to an all-new fantasy series by Lisette Marshall is now live, and is my newest fantasy obsession!

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Blurb

Stealing from a fae lord is a desperate plan…

As a human servant at the Crimson Court, Allie knows better than to anger the fae. Cunning and politics are her tools of survival. But when an unwanted suitor threatens her younger sister, Allie can think of only one way to protect her family…

Steal from the fae.

Agenor, Lord Protector of the Fae Isles and right hand of the Mother herself, doesn’t expect anything to still surprise him after twelve centuries of life. Finding a taunting note from an anonymous thief in his wardrobe is enough to rouse his curiosity, though. Enough to do the unthinkable – write back.

Then he finds out he’s been exchanging letters with a humble human. Worse, a human challenging him to his face.

A simple bargain is supposed to teach her a lesson. But the harder he tries to put her in her place, the harder she defies him… Soon their game sparks an unexpected romance – but will even love be enough when their loyalties collide?

Heart of Silk and Shadows is a prequel novel to the upcoming Fae Isles series. It can be read as a standalone, but the characters’ journey continues in the main series.

Note: this adult fae romance contains a generous dose of smouldering glances, passionate longing, and midnight meetings of the illicit type. It is recommended for a mature audience.

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Review

“Let me change the world for you.”

5 stars!

Wow. The first book in Lisette Marshall’s Fae Isles series, this is a full-length prequel novel that introduces us to a wonderfully creative fantasy world full of magic, politics and intrigue, and gives us a fantastically feisty, heartfelt, passionate and chemistry-filled forbidden romance that absolutely stole my heart.

Agenor is the Lord Protector of the Fae Isles and right-hand-man to the fae Mother. After 1,200 years of living – most of them at war – he is weary, and though he cherishes the peace he fought so hard for and works to ensure it continues, he is bored with the monotony and predictability of life. Until he receives an anonymous note from somebody who dared sneak into his room and steal one of his shirts. His shock is more amusing than aggravating and, thrilled to actually be feeling something again, he writes back.

Allie is a human servant of the Crimson Court. Taken into captive slavery as a teenager, she has endured a lot, and secretly does what she can to protect her people from the hateful fae. Now she’s on a mission to protect her sister, and the cunning young woman has a plan which involves Agenor. She didn’t expect him to play along, and she certainly didn’t expect to enjoy their secret letter exchanges as she continues her thievery.

It’s a fun back-and-forth until Agenor discovers that the woman (for he has deduced that he is writing to a woman) is a human. He is stunned that one of the ‘lesser’ creatures of his world has such wit and intelligence, and has engaged him so fully. When he confronts her, their feisty banter switches effortlessly from written to verbal, and when Agenor tries to prove his dominance by making a bargain, they are bound together by clever magic that opens his eyes to the realities of Allie’s life and the suffering of the humans under fae control.

“Everything you say – every single thing you say – turns my mind inside out all over again, do you realise that? I thought I’d seen it all, and now you’re telling me the world I thought I knew never even existed … You change everything,” he whispered. “And I can’t stop revelling in it – can’t stop craving it. I can’t bear the thought of going back again.”

The chemistry between Agenor and Allie is absolutely fantastic. You can feel it from the very beginning, and the more they truly open up to each other, their feelings for each other deepen, and the sexual tension and their feelings of longing for each other grow in intensity to a point where I was catching my breath at every almost moment, desperate for something to happen.

“Be honest with me, little thief. Do you really loathe me as much as you’re telling me you do?”

“Let me go.”
“I wish I could.” A hoarse growl, so close to her face, sounding nothing like the sophisticated fae lord of mere minutes ago. “I wish you weren’t ensnaring me the way you do.”

I love these characters! I love Allie’s strength and resilience after all that she has endured and the hopeless situation that she is in, her wit and snark are so entertaining, and her fierce intelligence and determination to do whatever she can to help her people is fantastic. And Agenor (no surprise) stole my heart! He’s a total badass of course, one of the most powerful of his kind, but what I loved most about him was his openness – the way he opened himself up to Allie, heard her truth and his reaction to it, and the way he accepted Allie and all that she came to mean to him. I could feel all that he was feeling, and I loved it!

“Allie,” he said hoarsely, “I’ll save the entire damn world tomorrow if you ask me to. Let me put you first for a few hours. Please.”

The romance builds beautifully. It’s honest, intense, passionate and still playful, and I was completely swept up in the beautiful love story.

“I’m falling in love with you. I’ve been falling in love with you since I found that first bloody letter, and I haven’t stopped plummeting since.”

But their world is a complicated one, with a strong (horribly unfair) political system, and Agenor and Allie are put to the test with their conflicting opinions on how to navigate it all. My mind was racing as I tried to figure out how the story would play out, and in emotional scenes that had me holding my breath and my heart pounding, the pieces are set in place for the rest of the series (though rest assured that this book does have a happy-for-now ending).

“Let me do better for you,” he whispered. “Let me change the world for you.”

I loved everything about this book. The world is well-developed and intriguing, the unjust class system provides a lot of scope for necessary change, and Marshall does a great job of bringing so much emotion to it all. The characters are fantastic, and I’m desperate to know more about some of those side characters! This book sets the scene for what has the potential to become an amazing series, and I cannot wait to continue on with Court of Blood and Bindings.

5 stars!

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.