A Cruel and Fated Light (The Hollow Star Saga, #2)
Ashley Shuttleworth
Half-fae Arlo becomes entangled in the courtly intrigue at the Seelie Summer palace as danger for ironborns mounts in this gripping sequel to A Dark and Hollow Star that’s The Cruel Prince meets City of Bones.After thwarting the man behind the gruesome ironborn murders—and breaking several fae laws to do so—all Arlo wants is a quiet summer. As the deity of luck’s Hollow Star, capable of bringing about endless possibilities, this shouldn’t be too much to ask, right? But someone is still trying to summon the mythical Seven Deadly Sins. All signs point to immortal meddling, and if this is the gods’ attempt at returning to the Mortal Realm, it’s Arlo they’re going to use to do it. When Queen Riadne offers to host Arlo at the Seelie Summer palace, she jumps at the chance. She’ll get to see more of Vehan and Aurelian and perhaps even work out her complicated feelings for the gorgeous ex-Fury, Nausicaä. But no one trusts the infamous Queen of Light, even as Arlo wonders if she’s just been greatly misunderstood. With the Summer Solstice quickly approaching, everyone expects Riadne to finally challenge the High King for his crown. And as Arlo struggles to get control of her powers and take charge of her destiny, she’ll soon be faced with a choice that won’t only change the fate of the Mortal Realm forever but could condemn it to a cruelty the likes of which the Courts have never known.
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I have a BIG problem with the cover art. Vehan has been described as having GOLDEN skin in the books. You look at this cover and tell me those boys are anything other than white as a ghost. I may be reading into it a little much, but I looked up a lot of the names while reading to see how to pronounce them. During my research, I found out that Vehan is a traditional Muslim name and is found in many Middle Eastern countries, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and Malaysia. I was hopeful that there was actually diversity in these characters, the diversity so many reviewsof book one were searching for. I thought maybe it was there, the description was just a little lacking.
And then we were given two white fae on the cover.
I did actually take a star off of my review for this. Seeing how many reviews complain about the lack of representation in these books, this feels like a very conscious and arrogant decision. This could have been fixed before the book was published. There isn’t an excuse here. Again, Vehan is a name associated with countries in the Middle East and South East Asia? Why am I looking at a white fae on the cover?
Anyway. I didn't learn my lesson after book one.
I was *hopeful* that Vehan and Aurelian being on the cover meant there would be more focus on them during this book. Like heavy focus on them. I know better than this.
With that said: Aurelian is the best part of this story. I love him with every fiber of my being. I will personally end someone if any harm comes to him. I cannot express how much I adore this broody fae. I don't even have constructive reasoning. I just love him, that's all.
We got more Celadon in this book, which I adore. I am glad to see him grow into a main character role, although it doesn't help with the one problem that carries over from A Dark and Hollow Star: too many perspectives. Add him in, we're still at 5. But don't worry, we also get the Queen's perspective this go around, so six!!! At least going into book two, you can expect it, so it isn't as jarring to be bounced back and forth like a ping-pong ball. He has a *big reveal* in this book, and honestly? I will give kudos where kudos are due. I picked it up at the first hint of the Queen's office not being double-locked (the vaguest of spoilers if I ever gave one), but the actual reveal was still so good.
This book has made me like Arlo and Nausicaa both less. I found myself growing more and more irritated with both of them as the book went on. My problems with Nausicaa continue on from book one, I still think her character, a centuries-old immortal woman, is written to be far more childish than the teenagers she is surrounded by. Arlo is too blinded by the fact she's learning alchemy and is being treated like a member of the fae community to realize that she's looking danger straight in the face for the entire book. Spoiler
(The fact she doesn't listen to Celadon when he tries to talk her out of going to Nevada for the summer infuriates me. Celadon is the ONE person in this entire book who has this girl's interests in mind and cares for Arlo at all times but she doesn't want to listen to him. Granted, Arlo is more than likely under Queen Riadne's spell the entire time so it makes sense as to why this all unfolds the way it does but I still hate it.)
Vehan is here. He's having a lot of issues in this book. Issues with his magic. Issues with the array on his chest. Issues with his memory. His mother is evil. He's in love with his best friend but he is kind of almost engaged to another guy but not really. The poor boy is going through it and he thinks he's losing his mind. He's still a cinnamon roll. A moody cinnamon roll this go around, but a cinnamon roll none the less.
I still stand firmly by my stance that Aurelian and Celadon are the bread and butter of these books for me. Their suspicions of the Seelie Queen of Summer is my favorite part of this book and I wish we got more of their detective work. Their chemistry together is so much fun and I wanted more of their friendship to be built. Hell, there was such a cool opportunity for things to change and take an unexpected turn here too and get off the pipeline of Vehan and Aurelian needing to get together by the end of the book. Like many other things, I feel like the idea is there, the execution is at like a 70%. It's like we got a taste of something good but for every paragraph of good, we get two off filler.
Much like book one, Arlo's magic 'lucky' D20 has taken away the risk of most fights. And even then, as she learns more about what she can do with the D20 and what it means to be a vessel for the patron 'Luck' she gets the warning to be very specific with her wording when using the D20. So it's a very obvious forewarning that it will come back to bite her in the ass eventually. And it does. In the biggest way.
I have a lot of thoughts about the plot, but I don't want to throw a ton of spoilers into this review. Overall, it feels half baked. I know I keep saying it, but the ideas are there, they just need to be fleshed out better than they are. The ending is a perfect example of this. It gets sloppy and rushed. I had to reread the last few chapters a couple of times to make sense of what was going on because I just couldn't make heads or tails of if the first time through. It wasn't some big climactic fight like I think it was intended to be. It was just a lot of loose ends... trying to tie themselves up. And creating a very large fire.
I will be reading book three.
I will continue to foolishly hope that the fact Celadon is on the cover means I will get more of him in the book. Will I complain about that cover too? Stay tuned!
0Thank you SO much to Margaret K. McElderry Books and Netgalley for providing an e-arc of this!! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.
I'm 100% obsessed with this series! It has a MASSIVE cast of characters, complex political maneuverings, and the most eclectic mashup of fantasy elements and I love it.
This fantasy is expertly crafted and I just can't get over how much I love this queer cast of characters. They are all so flawed yet so lovable.
I love how Ashely Shuttleworth builds their plots slowly throughout the book only to have the last 100+ pages be a whirlwind of action and reveals. I swear the last 2 hours of this audiobook took 10 years off my life!
If you're considering picking this series up, I highly recommend the audiobook. The full cast audio not only brings the story to life, but it makes the characters easier to distinguish (which is helpful with a cast this size)
I'm already anxiously awaiting the next book. I need it.
0yeah, this series isn't for me so I won't be continuing
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