A Feather So Black

Author: Lyra Selene

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Feather So Black is inspired by Celtic mythology and the stories of Swan Lake and The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It follows Fia, a changeling who was left as a child in place of a princess, Eala, by the fair folk. Eala’s mother, the queen, raises Fia and eventually sends her on a mission with her childhood friend, Prince Rogan, who is Eala’s betrothed, to retrieve the princess. While in Tír na nÓg, the realm of the fae, Fia has to figure out how to free Eala, which is complicated by her feelings for and unexpected attraction to Irian, the dark fae lord who is holding Eala captive.

This book was beautifully-written, and the fae in this reminded me of those in An Enchantment of Ravens and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries where the fair folk are deadly tricksters. I found myself connecting with Fia’s struggles to reckon her identity as a ward of the queen with the general contempt humans regard her with due to her fae heritage. She’s a product of both worlds and fits into neither, and we see her torn between the two, and trying to reconcile everything she was taught about the fae realm with everything she observes there.

I enjoyed the reading experience, the characters, the plot, and the world the author created, and I’m looking forward to the second book, A Crown So Silver, which is currently planned to release in 2025.