Ironside by Holly Black (62/81)

"In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben’s coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure only of one thing--her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to him, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can’t see or speak with Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn’t exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth—that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother’s shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben’s throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

This is the second part of the Holly Black Series 'A Modern Faerie Tale' .......... There is way less language in this book than in the first which is good ........ But be warned there is some quite graphic violence scenes ....

I have to say I enjoyed this book better than the first ... Kaye has figured out that she is a Pixie and is trying to figure out her place in Fairyland ... And her boyfriend is now getting crowned King of Unseelie Court ....... Things seem to be looking up ....... But not for long ........

The Queen of the Seelie Court is out for blood and Kaye seems to find herself stuck in the middle again .....

Again like the first novel Tithe I would say this book is for the older Teen as a few parts of it is quite Dark .......

If you are looking for a more edgy Faeire Tale with lots of gore and where the Faeires are more likely to kill you then grand you wishes then this series is for you !!!

I rate this book 3 1/2 ***

P.S .... Valient is the also part of this series but is set before this book ........... He tells the story of the brothers Luis and Dave who are introduced in this novel .... My advise read Tithe, Ironside then Valiant ..

Tithe by Holly Black (61/81)

Do you believe in faeries? Not the soft, gentle kind, but the sinister, feral kind - the ones that wreak havoc on everything in their path... As a small child Kaye used to talk to faeries. Now at sixteen she is fierce and independent, travelling from city to city with her mother's rock band, until an ominous attack forces them to return to her childhood home and friends. Once there, Kaye discovers that her childhood memories were real and she is drawn into a secret faerie world by an attraction that she is unable to fight. Finding herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient and violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms, Kaye agrees to go along with a plan to disrupt the human sacrifice that binds her faerie friends to their unkind masters. But not everyone has been telling her the truth and she is soon in grave danger...

I think this cover that I have is the UK version which is pretty ........ I have had this series sitting on my book shelf for a while now and finally getting around to reading them ... Holly Black is better known for writing the Spiderwick Chroncles but this is her 3 part series on Faeries ..

OK let me start by saying the beginning of the story is not really what I was expecting ... I have been reading alot of teen books recently but I would class this book as more like an adult book then a teen book ... Mainly because of the language ......... Gosh there is alot of bad language in the first 60 pages to which I was actually going to give up reading the rest of the book ....... But it does calm down and then the real story begins ......

It is an interesting concept of Faeries being not so the nice Faeries that we have been led to believe ... I feel that this book really is more so setting up the characters for the rest of the series ...

Who can Kaye trust? ......... It meant just surprise you !!! ........

I rate this book 3 ***

WARNING: I would have rated it higher expect for the language there was way to much of it that alot of people would not continue reading the novel which is a shame .... There is some violence also in the book which at some cases can be graphic ..... Definitely an older adult read not a young teen which it is marketed for ......

The Field Guide, The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (17/81)

Twins Jared and Simon Grace, and their older sister Mallory, move with their mother to a decaying Victorian house in the first of The Spiderwick Chronicles. There they discover a secret room, and clues which eventually lead them to an old, handwritten and illustrated book, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You.


I have had these books for a while but to be honest they are my daughter's .... I have been reading alot of fantasy recently and really wanted to pick these books up and see how they rated with the movie which I quite enjoyed !!!

This is book 1 ... There are 5 books in total which make up the movie .... So I will review each book as I read them .... This is quite short only 107 pages in total but it is not only hard backed which I love but also illustrated throughout beautifully .... It was a real joy to read !!!

One of my favourite lines from the books was:

"He didn't want to find an old, dead body, even if there was something really cool inside it" pg 51

It is a story of 3 children finding a book which opens up a whole new world to them .... It allows them to see Faeries and another creatures that we humans cannot see !!! It is filled with adventure and every young teen would gobble this book up !!

I rate this book 5*****