Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.
Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.
-- Goodreads.com description --
I was so excited to read this book: gorgeous cover, (evil) fairies, interesting world, etc. However, this is one of the biggest disappointments of the year for me.
What I liked about this book:
- I liked the atmosphere, Rogerson's descriptions of the world and the seasons is entertaining. I could immediately envision everything.
- I liked that the book was about fairies who you couldn't always trust. They were intriguing and creepy at the same time.
- I liked most of the secondary characters like Lark and Gadfly
What I disliked about An Enchantment of Ravens:
- Isobel is such an annoying protagonist, I almost clawed my eyes out because I got so frustrated with her! You could definitely say, Isobel and I didn't click. Especially her "inner voice", her thoughts and her narrating voice were excruciating for me to read. She was way too naive but sometimes was portrayed as an absolute genius.
- That brings me to Rook, while I initially found him intriguing, I quickly started getting annoyed by him as well.
I feel that both Rook and Isobel could have been further developed. To me, they didn't feel like real characters.
- The romance. I love romantic stories and I picked up An Enchantment of Ravens to read a good romance story. The romance is definitely the main storyline of the book but I felt so underwhelmed by it. Even though, they don't declare their feelings for each for a time, it did feel like insta love to me. At no point did I think that the romance was developing well. Suddenly they declare their love out of nowhere (or at least, that's how I see it).
- I believe this book could have benefited so much from getting a few more drafts in order to develop the characters and the romance better.
All in all, I gave this book two out of five stars. I'm so disappointed, the cover is certainly not worth it to buy this book. I don't recommend this book at all, in fact I'm looking for a way to get rid of my copy (which is something I almost never do).
Have you read this book or are you planning to? Leave your thoughts down below!
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