Review: Faebound

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ridiculously predictable, but I really loved the setting and the lore.

The story focuses mostly on Yeeran, an elf who finds herself exiled. Along for the ride are her sister, Lettle, and friend Rayan. They soon find themselves captive amongst fae - a species that was supposed to have died out long ago.

Now that's pretty much the blurb, but it takes a good 100 or so pages for that to happen, which is a decent chunk of a story that's only 370-odd pages long. It sets up a lot of lore and mythology and secrets and that's part of what contributes to it being so predictable. The story goes out of it's way to tell us about these mysterious things and emphasise behaviours that will clearly affect the story later.

There's also instant love and attraction and you can see where things are going miles in advance. I wasn't here for the romance so could easily have done without it.

Still, when they find themselves in the fae land, I was equally captive. I loved the way the place was described, and how big a role nature had to play. The setting is beautiful, wonderous and exotic and even though it was easy to see where the story planned to go, I was happy reading along and letting it play out.

The ending felt a little heavy, with reveal after reveal and not a lot of sense to some of it. There were some secrets I hadn't caught, but those were a little ridiculous, too. I liked that there were still things that surprised me but it seems to have set things up a little strangely for the sequel.

That being said, I do feel rather invested, now. I would have preferred less of the hot and heavy sex scenes, but aside from that it was an intriguing story and I'm curious about the history of this world. I'll keep an eye out for the sequel.

With thanks to Harper Collins for an ARC

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