oyceter. Wells, Martha - The Element of Fire

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The country of Ile-Rien is largely run by Dowager Queen Ravenna, as her son Roland hasn't been particularly good at the whole exercise of power thing. Thomas, captain of the Queen's guard, soon finds himself (more) entangled in court politics after the rescue of an imprisoned wizard, and when Roland's half-Fayre half sister Kade shows up, things get even more complicated.

I wanted to like this more than I did, particularly since it has court intrigue, which I love, and a dowager queen, which I also love. Ravenna is awesome, but I found myself somewhat bored by Kade, who feels like a fairly standard heroine. She's introduced as this great threat to the throne and as a trickster, but what we see of her tends to be some verbal trickery and very little surprise. She feels a lot like a McKinley heroine, albeit with less insecurity about her looks.

I'm also sick of the Fayre/Fay/Faerie/Fairy/Sidhe/Seelie/etc. I didn't feel like there was much new about them in the book, and that plus the faux Europe environment really didn't do it for me. I don't think it's the book's fault, but after reading books specifically not set in Europe, a return to faux Europe felt like a step backwards. Also, the intrigue stops near the middle of the book, and a lot of explosions start happening, which I find much less interesting.

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Yeah... and there was the whole mention of the Fayre deal with Hell, and it was entirely too lifted from everything else about the Fae. I was all, "What hell? What religious system do you have? A literal hell of damnation? What what?"

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