To Carve A Fae Heart – Book Review

Book Title: To Carve a Fae Heart (The Fair Isle Trilogy #1)
Author: Tessonja Odette
Genre: Fantasy
Target Audience: Young Adult 
Publication date: May 20th 2020
Format: Kindle

What it’s about

Every young woman dreams of marrying a king.
Everyone except for me.
Because the king I am to wed has razor-sharp fangs and a thirst for blood.

All my life I knew I’d come of age during the Hundred Year Reaping. According to the ridiculous treaty, two human girls are sent to the faelands as brides for the fearsome fae king and his devilish younger brother.

Not me. I was supposed to be safe. Two girls were chosen from my village already. But when they are executed for offending the king, my sister and I are sent in their place.

What a mess. Then again, maybe it’s not so bad. The younger brother I’m paired with doesn’t seem as monstrous as I’d expected. He’s delightfully handsome too. But nothing compares to the chilling, dangerous beauty of the fae king. And when my sister flees the castle and her terrifying husband-to-be, I’m left to marry him instead.

If I go through with this, I might not survive my wedding night. If I don’t, no one is safe, neither human nor fae. An ancient war will return, bringing devastation we haven’t seen in a thousand years. Can I sacrifice myself for the good of my people? Or will a dangerous desire be the death of me first?

If I don’t lose my heart, the king will certainly lose his. I’ll carve it out with an iron blade if I have to.

What I thought

I won’t lie I did pick the book based on the cover but in my defence can you blame me? I was drawn to the colours on the cover unfortunately the hairpiece was a bit off-putting but I could see passed that.

We start with Evie a surgeon’s apprentice who believes in logic and believes there is a scientific answer for everything. In other words like me, she is a pessimist. She is the youngest of two daughters and is overly protective of her big sister Amelie after an incident 4 years ago.

Once I got a few chapters into this I felt like I couldn’t put the book down. The writing and world-building were fabulous but I can see where the ACOTAR vibe comes into it.

There is a tope I don’t mind in this book and that is the enemy to lovers trope. Although the hate is not necessarily directed at Aspen it’s more towards the situation Evie is in and she’s trying to keep some sort of semblance of normality which I think Aspen trying to help her shows more about him than it does her.

Aspen is very much what I expect from these stories, having previously read ACOTAR, The Cruel Prince, etc. There is definitely more to his character and I can’t wait to find out what that is.

I also loved the ending and it wasn’t what I was expecting at all after what had happened. So I’m jumping straight into book 2.

Star rating