Stranded in Faerie: A Journey of Black and Red Book Ten

A Journey of Black and Red #10

by Álex Gilbert

Trapped! Tricked! Betrayed! Ariane finds herself stuck in the fae spheres, away from Earth and its ongoing vampire war. The many worlds of the fae defy her understanding while death lurks at every corner. She is not the apex predator here. Where there is danger, there is opportunity as well, however. Ariane is still unable to match her sire Nirari, the millennia old monster. In the fae spheres, she might find the strength to bridge that gap and give her world a chance, but can her guide be trusted? After all, he is the one who closed the way home in the first place…

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Dark

444 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2025

Reviews

[Emilio Alvarado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastical Faerie Fun

Been reading since there were only two volumes released, Alex Gilbert never disappoints. The storyline with the Likaean spheres was fantastic and pretty imaginative, being only somewhat derivative. I was pleasantly surprised to find out this only took up half the volume, and while an entire volume of adventures in the Faerie realms would have been acceptable, I greatly appreciate the author taking care to not overextend such a radical change in setting. The return to Earth was fantastic and the American Gaslamp Gothic(with a dash of Wyrd Western) setting feels better than ever. Eagerly waiting the next entry in the story

[Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book is amazing. Made me laugh and cry

I don't like the type of humor where the author makes characters stupid in order to make them do funny things. So the humor in this book was smartly done. There are some hilarious scenes that made me laugh so hard in this book.
Also, I've read over a thousand books and it is hard for me to get super emotional about them now, but I got a little choked up during a scene in this book.
The rest of the book is fun and exciting. Read it!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really long denouement

I feel like the story reached a good conclusion around the half way mark. From there the rest felt like a very long denouement, interrupted by yet another Bingle adventure. The first half was great, but the second half felt kind of drawn out.

Also, this book would really benefit from another editing pass. Lots of minor editing and grammar mistakes, and Adler's name is spelled at least three different ways.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most of these books, there are parts that I really like, but there are often bits that I also really dislike. I suppose it is because I grew up reading Science Fiction and more traditional Fantasy that I find some of the storylines in this book illogical, ridiculous, disjointed and at times just inane.
Unfortunately there is also a long section of ‘training’, which has become a little bit tedious.
If possible I would have given 2.5 stars.

[Thorsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, and a great setup for the conclusion of the series. I thought the trip to faerie was a fun romp and wouldn't have minded if it had been drawn out a little longer. But, the rest of the book was needed to set the stage for the finale, and it seems we are destined to suffer the Bingle alongside Ariane.

On to the finale!

[William Moses Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing like a romp in an unexpected setting, followed by a pleasant binglery<\spoiler> to set things up for the end game. It's so nice that despite the immense stakes, Gilbert still find clever ways to insert humor into the setting. And with this, we're at the end. After all this time, I am absolutely looking forward to how Gilbert decides to end things.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story

Ariane's story continues with new characters, battles a plenty and amazing character development. I can't get enough of this series Ariane is awesome and refreshingly funny, the next entry in the series can't get here soon enough.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed exploring the fae realm, even if most of it consisted of training segments.

I deducted a star because another god aweful Bingle appearance.
I really loved the closing scene of the book though.

[Vero · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars

It dragged - I was not a fan of the interlude in fairie.
And the arc from the last few books with getting stronger to face the big baddie goes on...

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

not sure that's how I wanted the world to go given today's political climate - a bit on the nose