Halayda

A mortal alchemist. A faerie king. A bond that transcends death. Betrayed by a trusted mentor, Sylvie Imanthiya hides on the fringes of society, caring for half-fae orphans and trading her alchemical creations on the black market. She lives for the one night each season when she can see her dearest friend—a man whose destiny is far above hers.King Taylan Ashkalabek knows better than to exchange halayda vows with a mortal. Even their friendship is a risk; love is an impossible dream. Then a brutal alchemical attack poisons his realm, unearthing a dark power within him—and leaving Sylvie with the ancient mark of Faerie's savior.Manifesting unpredictable abilities and aided by allies with their own secrets, Sylvie and Taylan journey into the wilds of Faerie to heal the damage and confront Casimir, an invincible star-fae determined to claim the realm as his own. But only their enemy knows Sylvie's true capabilities—and Taylan's weaknesses—and how to use them in his vicious schemes.Her fate is life. His fate is death. With Faerie in the balance, Sylvie and Taylan must stand together before reality as they know it is destroyed.

This tale starts with quick introductions to most of the major characters who in one shape or another are connected to the realm of  the fae. As the story progresses it becomes quite clear that the land of Faerie is not at all what Sylvie thought it to be and even worse it's success depends on her. She is brought into a dark and poisoned world, content with it's own destruction. Little does she know Casimir, a star-fae of legend is seeking to re-write the reality of Faerie using her powers. In the end Sylvie must overcome her own fears and self doubts to save her world and Faerie as well. 

While reading this book I really struggled because so much of it felt like it was borrowed from another well known author, Sarah J. Maas. I feel like a good portion of the material in the book was copy/pasted, abet very poorly. The book dragged on un-necessarily without developing the plot at all in multiple areas. I also struggled to even write this review due to my string feelings towards the concepts and ideas used. I'm not sure whether the author forgot to change the names of some things, or was just trying to branch off of ideas established by another author, or wanted to expand on Sarah's world. In all I've very disappointed by this blatant use of another author's material so openly.

If you are a fan of fantasy novels or enjoy magical worlds with far away places then this book might be for you. Again I found it dull, drawn out, and using what I consider stolen material. That is a word that I do not use lightly at all. 

This book can be picked up from the Amazon link above. There is a link to the author's bio at the top of the page. I humbly thank NetGalley and the publisherUncommon Universes Press for this ARC copy of the book to review prior to release. I wish the author the best of luck with her future writing endeavors. 

I rated this book a 2/5. I'm not extremely hopeful about the next book in the series to be honest, but time will tell if I give it a chance.