My favourite part of War of the Fae is the beginning – the setting of a high school, complete with a rebellious teenage heroine and her dorky best friend. In fact, it was so normal that I quickly verified if I was actually reading ‘War of the Fae’ and not some other YA book accidentally. Don’t worry, this is a fantasy novel. The author Elle Casy has a few surprises planned for her reader.

**Minor spoilers ahead**

You can get the first book free on Amazon.

So I was warming up to the best friend, Tony, and building up my dream pairing of him and the heroine, Jayne, when he pulled out a gun at the local school bully. Jayne had described her best friend as thin and awkward. Which is why I was totally taken by surprise and hooked on to the War of the Fae.

What follows are chapters in a kind of Hunger Games like survival arena, only the contestants don’t need to kill each other. There are enough supernatural elements who are more than happy to do the killing. Because the setup and outcome were predictable, this portion of the book was harder to get caught up in even though there was an interesting range of creatures being introduced by Elle Casey. Also surviving the challenges relied on what soon became a repetitive solution.

The writing flows easily and there are some genuinely funny dialogue exchanges. The main heroine is likeable and much more resourceful than typical hotheaded YA heroines. Jayne’s friendship with her best friend Tony continues to be the highlight of the book for me.

The other characters in the arena have distinct characteristics and don’t just blend into the forest scenery. Chase is the strong and silent kind, while Spike has attractive teeth amongst other things. Beth didn’t sit well with me because of her similarity to Ruth from Hunger Games. Then there is Jared with surely a hidden agenda, or not?

By the end, there are more hot guys willing and wishing to protect Jayne. Would have been good if those relationships grew in later books in the series since its hard to see why people would all fall for Jayne, not in a mild crush way but a supposedly more sincere I-want-to-be-the-one-protecting-her-and-taking-care-of-her-forever way.

The ending is a fabulous unexpected cliff hanger which inspite of the passable middle made me rush to get the next book in the series War of the Fae: Book 2 (Call to Arms)

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