An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson Published by Simon and Schuster ISBN: 9781481497602
on September 26th 2017
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Art
Pages: 304
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis
Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.
Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.
An Enchantment of Ravens has been so hyped lately. And ever since I spotted the cover in Goodreads, I knew I had to read it when it came out. The cover gods have blessed this author because that book is just gorgeous.
All the right elements, but falls kind of short in execution
The frustrating is, this book had the makings of a perfect, perfect story. I was excited at finding out it was a standalone. This meant, to me, that it would have a lot going on. Lots of magic, action, romance all packed into one book without me having to wait for a sequel to find out how it all ends! Yay!
Isobel is a great character, and so is Rook. The world is interesting and the fair folk even more so, what with the fact that Craft -creating things- is something only humans can do, and emotion is weakness.
So what went wrong?
We had all of these elements, but there was no depth. No depth in the worldbuilding, conflict or characters. They were just there, and things happened to them, and suddenly Isobel had fallen in love with Rook, and viceversa, and I don’t really know what happened there, to be honest. So, there was magic, action and romance, but… in a very superficial way that just didn’t let me get sucked into the story and become invested in these characters’ lives.
That’s why I feel like this should have been longer. Everything that I like in stories was there, but it just needed more space to really develop.
Would I recommend it?
I wouldn’t say, ‘don’t read it’. But I do recommend going in without out of proportion expectations. It’s a nice book, but I like it more when books blow me away. I look forward to reading more works of the author and seeing some improvement, because this idea was truly fantastic!
Have you heard about this book?
That cover looks pretty amazing, such a bummer the content didn’t match though 🙁 I must admit, I love standalones, it’s nice to get a whole story at once sometimes!
Yeah 🙁 But standalones ARE so cool. At least when the book isn’t out yet it’s nice to know you’re getting the whole story in just one swoop so I get you!
What a bummer! I’m so sorry you didn’t love it. 🙁 I really wanted to read this one (swayed by the gorgeous cover, as you were), but then I ended up not reading it because I started seeing some iffy reviews come in. It definitely sounds like over-hype was an issue here! Shame!
By the time I’d read those reviews, I’d already bought it. I was like ‘hmmm, maybe it’s just them. I’m in the right mood. I WANT to love it. Maybe I will!’ :/ But I’m so bad that I don’t even regret getting it that much if only to display its cover XD
Well, that’s disappointing 🙁 It is such a gorgeous cover. Hmph.
Have you ever read the book by John and Carol Barrowman that has the character able to paint her way into and out of paintings?
Yeah. But no, haven’t read it, though it sounds amazing! I did watch the Barbie Rapunzel movie, in which she could do that! XD Well, actually, she could paint a place and by stepping into the painting, she’d be able to go to that place. An Enchantment of Ravens could have been soo cool. It could even have drawn some inspiration from Dorian Gray! It does kind of remind me of it, but it just doesn’t take advantage of that potential 🙁