I’ve mixed feelings on A Feather So Black. There are aspects of this book that I really loved, and I think the overall idea is just magical. BUT, it all fell a bit flat for me as I just had to suspend my disbelief far too much to be able to really sink into this.

I don’t mind some good old tropes but when there’s so many that everything just becomes painfully predictable I’m out. I feel like I called every ‘twist’ and ‘reveal’ as everything was just so overdone. Plot holes are in abundance here and while I can usually overlook these if the story is engaging enough, I just couldn’t get past them. Some of the prose was a bit corny too - again this wasn’t a major dealbreaker but when you add this into my other issues it was just the nail in the coffin.

I think my biggest complaint is the timeline and how unbelievable it makes everything. They can only go to the land of the fae one night a month?? And in between that we see very little. It felt hard to buy into this knowing there was basically a years worth of events happening and we got to see basically none of it??

I found myself rolling my eyes at things conveniently falling into place to allow the plot to continue unencumbered (e.g. a magic castle that just delivers all they need to survive so they can stay there in luxury yet alone. And the queen just allowing someone so important to just disappear off for a year with barely any updates? Or security? It was just all too unbelievable and I know we’re talking fantasy but the world has to at least make some sort of sense). It's definitely one I can’t think too much about as the more I actually engage my brain the more errors and issues I find with it which is a shame as I did really enjoy it while I was reading it.

Despite all that I did enjoy this, but I definitely won’t be reading the next installment.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC

Thankyou to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit for a free e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

I loved this whole heartedly. It was everything i wanted it to be and more. Going in a didn't have many expectations, i hadn't heard much about it but it intrigued me non the less.

Things i loved:
-Swan lake retelling
-Fae world in the traditional way
-Everyone is a villain
-Love triangle/square
-Sentient dwellings
-Heartbreaking growth of our FMC
-Lyrical metaphorical writing
-Vividly descriptive
-Magical
-Betrayal

I honestly cannot wait for the next instalment of this!
One of the easiest 5 stars for me.

4 stars

Enjoyable for the most part. I would have preferred more focus on the plot compared to the romance, but the story we did get was engaging, involving curses and magic and even a bit of intrigue and betrayal.

The writing style was good but kind of corny? The MC loves to describe herself as "made of x and y and z", so many times. Here's a small sample:

I was made of rocks and bones and stinging things.


I was made of dusk and leaves and hidden places.


I was made of weeds and dark water and unbreakable ice.



I just find it a bit cringe when it's in first person (sometimes she even says it out loud). No one thinks of themselves in that way.

This book feels like a melting pot of elements from popular fae series. You've got the intrigue and power grabbing from fota (not as well done), the shadow daddy and endlessy horny characters of acotar, and probably others I don't recognise. But it mostly works, so that's fine. There is also a lot of Irish mythology in the book which was great.

I loved Corra, the sentient talking house spirit. Rogan and Irian, the two love interests, were just okay. Same for the main character.

There were some pacing issues. The nature of the story resulted in somewhat repetitive scenes, but the writing style is easy and smooth to read so it didn't drag. The ending was a little too rushed for my liking but it left me very interested in the next book.

If you dont like romantasy or SJM books you probably wont enjoy A Feather So Black, but those who do will find it a comfortable read with familiar tropes handled competently.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I honestly loved this book, I was a little disappointed that the fmc took so long to realise certain things but I still very eagerly await the 2nd book!

It was definitely difficult to know who to trust in this dark, fae read. With everyone seemingly out for themselves, and Fia in the middle of things, trying to save her people without causing any more damage. I really felt for Fia’s character, and all the prejudice she’s faced growing up, even from those closest to her, who haven’t accepted her for who she is and instead try to change her or shy away from her fae magic. She has secrets to keep, and parts of herself she’s had to bury deep to please everyone else and seeing her able to rediscover those pieces of herself and her passions throughout the story was great. Her strange relationship with Rogan didn’t sit right with me and I found it a bit uncomfortable, mostly because at the heart of it, he seems to be using her and playing with her emotions, whilst claiming to be in love. Despite how strong and fierce Fia is, she’s also emotionally vulnerable, desperately searching for any kind of love in a world that hates her.

There weren’t many characters to like in this book, though a few certainly were better than others, but this book is full of manipulation, danger and mystery. I didn’t always understand what was going on, as the storyline was pretty complex, and I found it incredibly slow paced. Fia and Rogan entered the fae world once a month and that time passed quickly, and they were back in the human world, skipping through those weeks as well, and it made it hard to engage with the story when so much time it felt like waiting and the plot wasn’t progressing much at all for such a big chunk of the book.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. This was a decent read, there were certainly aspects I liked, including the writing style, character development and world building. However in all of those things I would have liked more depth overall, particular in some of the side characters. The pacing was also a little inconsistent, the ending in particular felt very rushed. Nonetheless I would recommend this to Romantasy fans and I will read the next installment!

I loved this dark fantasy. I loved the main character and how damaged she was. And yet through all of it, realising she’s been manipulated by her adoptive mother & the Druid, she still carved her own path. I mean, I have questions about how dim the prince is, the one sent to accompany her. He’s just really there to be pretty & not much else, I think. I loved the world overall & think it will really do well on booktok. I’ll be hand selling this to a handful of our customers in the shop.

Give me book two now! I devoured this book I loved irian and fia so much, their chemistry, his sweet words, so swoonworthy.. the ending was satisfying and made me want to continue their adventure,this time together. Fia's character development was amazingly handled,I felt for her so much throughout, and irian is just a sweet soul behind it all. I can't say I liked rogan, I feel like I'm in the majority when I say any time he appeared would roll my eyes. I'm very much looking forward to the second installment in this series and what waits for our protaganists, I do hope to learn more about irian and to get more of his point of view.

I absolutely loved this book I literally fell into this world and didn't want to leave.
The world building and character development was just amazing I highly recommend and can not wait for the second book in the series xxx

A Feather So Black is a fantasy/romance re telling featuring Celtic mythology, fae, and the dreaded love triangle, but... to put it bluntly... you know a book wasn't a winner who you empathise more with the 'villain' than the MC.

Right guys! This is going to be a 'bear with me' kinda review because I enjoyed this story, I did, but I do feel it could have been SO much better. I think my main nit pick would be the pacing, it felt all over the place, certain parts of the story seemed to take an age, whilst others moved at a break neck pace. I also felt like there were too many elements to the story and, because of us only getting one POV we miss out on big pieces that seem pretty important to the overall plot. Now I think this is sold more as a romance than fantasy, which would make sense because the romance does play the biggest role, but the fantasy elements just seemed all over the place, and I do think this could have been miles better as a multiple POV.

The world building and magical elements were so well done, I enjoyed learning about the different kinds of fae and their magic, as well as the bits that had seeped into the human world. In fact these were probably my favourite parts of the book as a whole. I do think that some things needed expanding on, the author tends to just drop names of creatures etc without any kind of description or giving us any idea of what we're reading about. But you all know I'm a sucker for anything mythology based, so I enjoyed getting to delve into Celtic mythology a little more with this one.

The characters were a bit of a mixed bag, and some came across as overly tropey. I liked Fia, she has been raised to be a weapon by a mother who claimed to love her, but simply wanted to use her. She starts off easy to empathise with, but what I hated was how much time the author spent letting us know she loves Rogan, the boy betrothed to her sister. Give us tortured romance, I'm here for it, but I swear she spends more time internally reminiscing on their romance than actually doing anything to look for her sister and try to break her out of the Fae realm. Rogan, thanks to a lack of POV that I think this story was screaming for, kind of becomes a shadowy figure that pops up whenever the author decides to give Fia a little torture or pleasure, depending on her mood. He's pretty one dimensional and I never really took a liking to him.

Now, this is where the lack of a secondary POV ruined this book for me. When Fia and Rogan enter Tir na Gog, the Fae realm, they each go in with the main plan of saving Eala, but Fia has also been given a secondary task that leads her to the dark Fae who controls this section of the magical world. And this is where the rest of the plot just falls away and the story simply becomes about Fia falling in love with Irian, the person keeping her sister hostage. The author tries to save it by having Fia's sister become this villainous kind of figure who we're never sure we can trust, and having the story be about Fia accepting the 'other' part of herself, but I honestly started to empathise with Eala more than Fia towards the end and thought her actions, though definitely morally grey, we're a valid reaction to her life.

The romance was almost two love triangles merged into one... I really can't describe it any other way. We have Fia and Rogan, childhood sweethearts whose romance is doomed to never be. Then we have Eala and Rogan, betrothed since childhood and lastly, Fia and Irian, the Fae who has kept Eala hostage. I liked Fia and Irian, I enjoyed how he accepted her for what she was, in fact he might just have been my favourite character out of the lot... yes I have a thing for murdery fae... so what. I really disliked Fia and Rogan though, and felt Rogan took advantage of her, knowing and admitting they could never marry, but wanting to keep her for himself all the same.

I so wanted to love this book, and I did enjoy it, but it had so much wasted potential! If you're going to give it a go beware that it is lengthy, whilst still missing out on so much plot, focuses heavily on the romance (love triangle's) and is heavy on the tropified characters. That being said, if romantasy is your jam and you don't mind a good slow burn that lacks a little on the fantasy element, then this might be the book for you

A Feather So Black is the first book in the Fair Folk series and my new romantasy obsession! This adult debut is a magical and deeply atmospheric fairytale retelling. The magic system is very unique and I really liked the botanical magic. I was absolutely captivated by the beautiful and lyrical prose; Lyra Selene has an absolutely incredible writing style.

Historically I'm not a big fan of love triangles, however, I found myself really enjoying the one in this book. I found that the romance as a whole was incredibly well written and completely swoonworthy.

There are so many books these days that are based or inspired by mythology, however, this is the first one I have read that has used Celtic mythology, which I loved!

Fans of all things Fae will absolutely devour this romantic fantasy!

Romantasy: a definition.
Selene has crafted a tale of intrigue, magic and lore that leaves a sweet taste and longing to find where we belong page after page. Our female MC- a changeling left in place of a seemingly-idolised princess- has been raised with a notion of being different and unloveable by all but her adoptive mother, the Queen. She is lucky to live the life she has, until fate (also known as the plot) revives hopes in the princesses return. You start this book with a set of characters moulded to their storybook trope characteristics, a prince just out of reach and a seemingly harsh Queen. Oh how the tables turn… I adored the character growth we see within the characters of this book, and enjoyed the morally grey/ beastly figurine that enters our FMC’s tale. A perfect adult fantasy book for anyone who enjoyed The Cruel Prince, the Bridge Kingdom series or the tales of Swan Lake or the Twelve Dancing Princesses. A beautifully told, magically infused pirouette along the swords edge of fantasy and romance.

Fia is a changeling brought up by a mortal high queen, left there when her real daughter Eala was taken and bound to Tír na nÓg (the fae realm). Fia and her childhood friend Rogan - Eala's betrothed - are tasked by the queen to return her to the human realms. Whilst on her mission she meets Irian, Eala's captive, who understands Fia more than anyone else has.

The love triangle is between Irian and Rogan. from the beginning (or rather the blurb) it is insanely obvious who she will end up with. The triangle doesn't add much to the story in terms of drama but you do get to read 'velvet length' three times to describe the dicks of both love interests, so there is that. It was also incredibly frustrating how Fia was constantly going between the two of them, unable to make her mind up.

It was a lot spicier than i thought it would be, especially since it was compared to the cruel prince - a YA - which begs the question: is fae smut just trending right now?

If you couldn't already tell, this is not a YA.

I didn't feel any tension between either of the love interests, nor was I rooting for either of them. I honestly just felt like the third wheel. At one point, one of the guys (or both of them, who's to say?) talks about his and Fia's 'banter' and I'm one hundred percent certain that no one even knows what banter means anymore. Whatever I read, it was not banter.

I have very mixed feelings towards Fia. on the one hand, she didn't have much depth towards her until the very end (I can't say much about this without spoilers). But on the other hand, I also liked how she wasn't a complete doorknob. Irian was one of the love interests. He wasn't that morally grey, he just had shadows around him. He was just there. Rogan just annoyed me. He was also just there. It also felt very icky to me that he was Eala's betrothed the entire time and I know this is supposed to be a nod to the cruel prince but I don't think it worked as planned.

The side characters were not properly fleshed out. the swan maidens felt like a huge part of the story but we barely got to even know their names. I wish we got more about Corra, who is most definitely my favourite character

The writing, despite being very beautiful at times, was very heavy with Celtic/Gaelic terms and mythology which was incredibly hard to follow along with.

It's also very long at over 500 pages, and the pacing felt very off to me. I still don't really understand Fia's powers. the realms were also not thoroughly explored and it just left me feeling underwhelmed and I felt like there was a lot of somethings missing. However, I do know that I read an arc and this is the first installment in the series so I hope that it picks up by then.

There is nothing beyond the premise. That's it. That's what happens throughout the entire book, and any and all 'plot twists' don't impact the story in the way they should. Fia and Rogan spend so long doing nothing, and the descriptions of plants was better than the description of their world.

It feels like the romance was constructed as the primary plot, and the fantasy was just built up around it. It left a lot of gaps and I feel like Fia's character and her friendship with the swan princesses/maidens(?) should have been included. This could have really helped with the ending.

I think this book tried to do a lot of things, but the execution wasn't delivered well. although it could still be enjoyed if you're not expecting too much and you lean more to romance rather than fantasy. The cover is really pretty but I probably won't be continuing this series.



Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

A Feather So Black is one of my favourite reads of 2024 so far. Beautiful, lyrical writing. A strong heroine. Solid plot. Good wordbuilding. What more could I ask for?

Although I really liked the romance, to me it felt secondary to Fia's journey to loving herself. When we meet her at the beginning of the novel, she is so full of self hatred and throughout the novel she comes to accept herself and her fae blood.

I will definitely be reading the sequel.

Thank you so so so much to NetGalley and the publisher for accepting my request to read and review this book early!

Honestly when I first heard about this book I KNEW it would be a stunner and by golly I was NOT wrong,

I freaking adored this book, I loved the romance, I loved the setting/s, I loved the Celtic fantastical mythological elements, and I loved the characters.

The writing was so beautiful, I felt like I was being transported into this world, and I found myself reading without even feeling like I was reading.

The enemies to lovers? Excuse me? Hello? I need to BREATHE

And don’t even start with shadow daddy

I enjoyed the spice, I would even go as far as to say I could do with MORE spice, it that’s just a me FLAW lol.

Anyway, read this book y’all. You won’t regret it.

There were elements of this that I loved, I thought that the world building was done really well.
I did find the first 200-or-so pages to be a very slow start. Not an awful lot seemed to happen after they found the folk-world. The characters just seemed to ‘come and go’ a lot with little payoff.

The characters are reasonably well developed, and the ‘slow burn’ with the ‘shadow daddy’ worked well.

I felt that the pacing was a little inconsistent, there were parts of this that I felt bored reading, and others that I couldn’t get enough of. The ending felt a little rushed, and became super action packed about 80% in.

This wasn’t a bad story by any means, I loved the characters, but for me, I think some of the ‘fluff’ could have been removed to make this a shorter, more action packed read. I was bored reading parts of this, I’ll admit, and I considered DNF’ing it twice.
I’d still enjoyed reading the parts of this book that were decent, but it didn’t 100% ‘hit the mark’ for me!

- DNF at 30%

I wanted to like this. I tried to like this. But it just wasn't for me. This mostly boils down to the fact that, despite some really intriguing elements, some lovely prose and oodles of promise, it inevitably falls into the romantasy soup and becomes 'another fae romance'. There are folk who eat that up and I think they will quite enjoy this, but when it got to the point where the clear love interest is introduced, in language that immediately describes how attracted the FMC is to him, as yet another tattooed black-haired night fae who I'm fairly sure is going to turn out to be a lord of some description, the thin thread of interest that had pulled me thus far just snapped. I felt like I'd read this story a million times.

My general criticisms:

a) Whilst the Gaelic lore and setting is lovely, the early novel is mired by an onslaught of Gaelic terms with a seeming expectation that the reader have prerequisite knowledge. It honestly felt a little overwhelming and I already had a little bit of familiarity with some of these terms, so I can't imagine how confusing it could be to someone with no familiarity at all. I did realise later that there is a glossary at the end - this would have been much better placed at the beginning.

b) Too much telling, not enough showing, and an over-abundance of greenery. From a main character who constantly broods over how she isn't meant to be loved, to thick prose interspersed with references to nature. In moderation this would have been lovely, but it started to get a little irritating.

c) >The early chapters of a story are perhaps the most important of a story but here they were rather clunky. If I hadn't been reading an ARC I'd have DNFed it earlier as there was no real hook pulling me through, just the promise that there would be one. When we finally take off on the main adventure, nothing much seems to happen for a while, with a lot of back-and-forthing. It definitely feels like the first third of the book could have been better paced.

Ultimately, like I said, there was a lot of promise in this and there are a lot of folk who will love it, but it just wasn't working for me. I give this three stars for that - it's not bad, it's just not engaging enough for me.

I do want to say, as an aside, that I really appreciate an author threading Celtic mythology through their work with a degree of care. I am no expert so cannot vouch for the accuracy of it all, but she has gone beyond borrowing a few names and clearly has a passion and respect for folklore and that is so nice to see.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Club/Orbit for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all thankyou to the author and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.

I can easily say that Fia, strong and beautiful as she is, is a FMC in a book to die for.

The story within this book is captivating and the world building although it takes a while to really get into the nitty gritty of the actual plot, is brilliant.

I found Rogan to be so alluring, especially in some particular scenes within the story. 😳

I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and I’ll definitely be buying a physical copy when it’s fully out. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Charming story of fae, magic and complex nature of love.

Selene takes us on a slightly more traditional folk talk of the fae in A Feather So Black. She fully incorporates the celtic origins of the folk while successfully building her own world that is both immersive and believable.

Strong characters lend themselves well to the narrative, although I believe more information on some would be beneficial ( however that may be for a second book).
The plot is advanced by the telling of stories that are cleverly used to ask questions, act as flashbacks/context as well as to leave us the reader unsure what truths are really being said.

The dramatic conclusion felt a little rushed and left us with many loose ends that I assume will tied together in book two.
I very much enjoyed this story and look forward to more from Fia and Irian.

A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene is an engaging, interesting and atmospheric adult romantic fantasy novel heavily inspired by aspects of Irish folklore and mythology.

"Never apologise for who you are."

Fia is a changeling with an unusual form of magic, left behind in a human world without magic of its own when the Fair Folk stole away the High Queen's real daughter, Eala. When a hidden gate to the Otherworld is discovered, Fia is sent to steal a magical treasure for the Queen as well as to assist her childhood friend and love Rogan - Eala's intended - in breaking Eala's curse/geas and bringing her home. But nothing is simple or as it seems in the wicked world of the Fae and Fia will have her heart and her loyalties tested as she has to decide whether to follow the Queen's orders or follow her heart...

"You are whatever you wish yourself to be. Do not let anyone tell you what you are or what you are not."

The story repeatedly crosses between the human realm and the realm of the Otherworld as Fia and Rogan pass through the hidden gate every full moon, searching for ways to achieve their quests. I generally enjoyed this book and its aspects of Celtic myth and magic although it lagged occasionally and in all was a bit over long. Upon saying that I really appreciated the time spent building Fia's character growth and changing relationships as she matures and learns to trust in herself rather than trying to be what others want or expect her to be. I liked all three of the main characters - Fia, Rogan and Irian - and the way their relationships ebbed and flowed was mature and well handled. Despite being a little over long it was an enjoyable and solid 4 star read and I will definitely continue the series.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an e arc to review.