Faerie Blood

The Changeling Chronicles #1

by Emma L. Adams

I’m Ivy Lane, and if I never see another faerie again, it’ll be too soon.

Twenty years after the faeries came and destroyed the world as we knew it, I use my specialist skills to keep rogue faeries in line and ensure humans and their magically gifted neighbours can coexist (relatively) peacefully.

Nobody knows those skills came from the darkest corner of Faerie itself.

When a human child disappears, replaced with a faerie changeling, I have to choose between taking the safe road or exposing my own history with the faeries to the seductively dangerous head of the Mage Lords. He’s the exact kind of distraction I don’t need, but it’s work with him or lose my chance to save the victims. It’ll take all my skills to catch the kidnappers and stop Faerie’s dark denizens overrunning the city — but if the faerie lords find out about the magic I stole last time I went into their realm, running won’t save me this time…

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Fae, Paranormal, Magic, Romance, Paranormal Romance

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2016

About the author

I'm Emma, a fantasy author, book collector, gamer, and wanderer. I write urban and epic fantasy novels, including the international bestselling Changeling Chronicles, the Relics of Power trilogy, and the Death's Disciple quartet.

*Note: I use Goodreads only to keep a record of what I'm reading. Please don't send me unsolicited review requests.*

Reviews

[Cece ❀Rants, Raves &Reviews❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone knows the changeling stories-- fey swap out their babies, leaving humans terrified with the crazy fey baby

Now meet Ivy Lane, the changeling human who was captured and grew up IN Faerie….

Oh I did *not* see that coming muhaha!!!



Ivy Lane and her friend Isabel run a detective problem solving shop. Basically, thats who you call when you got a magical problem and can't afford the artistocrat mages

“What happened this time?” Her eyes widened at the sight of my tattered, bloodstained clothes.
“Fucking faeries.” I stormed past into my bedroom”

And, thats the whole book



The Worldbuilding was a post-apocalyptic feel. Couple decades ago, the Human and Fey worlds first met— death and destruction ensued — the Fey got bored and left… and here we are !

As Ivy and Isabel run around trying to solve this book's crime, it involves most of the magical power players in the city so

We meet the necromancers

“Nice,” I said, glancing at the skull-shaped door knocker. “That’s how you play up to stereotypes.”

The asshole of a Mage Lord Vance

“He frowned. “You’re bleeding on the carpet.”
I drew in a shaky breath. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I’ll try to bleed to death in the hall next time.”

The mystery, the betrayal, the intrigue was written to both entice the readers and further the plot. iIt was just so creatively done and some parts were pretty fuckig funny

“The gate swung open, revealing a fancy headstone with my own name written on it in bright blue. I squinted at the words underneath.
“Watch yourself, human.”

I also really loved the friendship here, especially Isabel’s background. BFF to Ivy, Isabel also belongs to a coven so she has a whole life and setting OUTSIDE the heroine. And I really wanna know more about this coven, especially if they as sassy as Isabel

“Underneath the window, a sudden blast of fire scorched the flowerbeds near the ward line.
“Whoa,” I said.
“Hey!” Isabel shouted. “Those are rare herbs, you bastard.”

Another thing this book also worked to do was avoid the dreaded ｓｐｅｃｉａｌ ｓｎｏｗｆｌａｋｅ
It was hit and miss as some scenes really emphasized Ivy as the rare changeling, which sure makes her pretty damn unique... but there's also lotta other magical people involved and fighting with the fey. Lots of people could save the world, but Ivy the one who usually steps up first:

“Wait. What? You battled faeries without telling me?”
He tilted his head on one side. “I had the impression you were a tad preoccupied. I wasn’t aware you had a monopoly on all faerie killings in town.”

Romance was pretty fun. I not really the Mage Lord’s fan yet. I still think he’s an ass but Ivy likes him so eyyyyy

“How about we continue our conversation from yesterday?”
I read ‘conversation’ as ‘making out’. That, I could get on board with. I drew in a breath. “That seems adequate.”
His chuckle vibrated through the phone. “I’ll see you at seven.”

Main critiques

I guess I don’t really have any. It was just a fun book. Quick read. Nice characters. I wasn’t disappointed but I also wasn’t "wowed". It was a fun take to enjoy a magical detective book with some twists that I’m definitely going to be continuing the series just to enjoy reading something, but I’m not dying to get the next book.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faerie Blood
By: Emma L. Adams
Narrated by: Luci Christian
Series: The Changeling Chronicles, Book 1
I really liked this fun book about a missing human replaced by a changling. Ivy and the Mage Lord works together to find out what is going on...of course nothing is so simple! Lots of action, adventure, creatures, and touch of romance. Lots of fun!
The narrator was terrific! I have more in the series! That's how much I liked it.

[Don Gerstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, “Faerie Blood” by author Emma L. Adams is not a bad read, and is good enough that readers of fantasy should enjoy the story. The plusses and minuses of it all:

The PLOT is solid, though it is a standard that has been done before. Ms. Adams puts her own touch on it with the mixture of the human and supernatural races barely coexisting, creating tensions that feel natural and allow for additional subplots and color. While I didn’t catch any holes, the storyline was somewhat predictable and the ending felt miraculous, or at the very least, a solution once the plot was painted into the corner.

Ms. Adams has a number of CHARACTERS in the story, which is told in first person through the eyes of Ivy. I liked the character of the Mage Lord Vance Colton and would have preferred to see Isabel (Ivy’s roommate) and Drake (Colton’s second-in-command) fleshed out, although the author may be performing this task in future books. Ivy is your typical snarky female character, sassy and insulting both in thoughts and words. While this type of character is extremely popular nowadays, Ms. Adams’ decision to permit Ivy to mentally second-guess her decisions all the time allows the character to appear more human than arrogant.

I considered WORLD-BUILDING the book’s five-star element. Although the first few pages felt like a tsunami of information, the author has crafted a background that effectively explains the relationships between the different races, guilds, and professions.

OVERALL, while predictable at times, “Faerie Blood” is an interesting debut to Ms. Adams’ Changeling Chronicles series. Those who prefer their books to be obscenity-free zones may take issue with Ivy, whose language is seasoned with vulgarities. I found the book to be a quick read and am considering reading the next book, “Faerie Magic.” Four stars.

[Ian]

Everyone has a book in them. And sometimes that book should stay in them.

(I don't rate books unless I've read at least 50%)

[Erin McKeown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wishing I wore my black strapless bra to battle

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a copy in exchange for an honest review

Faerie Blood is a great Young Adult Urban Fantasy book filled with action, magic, supernatural creatures, awesome characters and a fast paced storyline. From the first chapter this book had my attention, it start action packed with hints of a dark past and I wanted to know more. It only gets better form there on. Someone's kid has disappeared and Ivy accepts the case. Then the Mage Lord gets involved and things get even more interesting.

The story has a fast and steady pace. The story is direct enough that its easy to follow, but it also turns out soon there is more going on than the characters thought. And something bad has happened to Ivy in her past, enough hints are dropped at the beginning to make me even more curious about what exactly happened to Ivy. I really enjoyed this book and already can't wait to see where the second book takes us. There are some interesting twists at the end, and some action packed scenes before the book got wrapped up nicely with just a hint of what we might see in the next book.

Ivy is a great main character, she is hard strong, isn't afraid to say what she means and she's a bit too reckless and stubborn at times. She runs into danger without a second thought and thinks she can do everything alone, while sometimes she could use a little help. She cares a lot of about her best friend Isabelle, but she never opened up about a dark event in her past. I liked Ivy as a character, although I had wished she had opened up to the Mage Lord earlier, but I can also understand why she doesn't. I liked seeing the banter between the mage lord and Ivy and there's even a hint of romance, which totally worked for me. The Mage Lord was an interesting character and we learn a bit more about him as the story progresses although he also keeps part of that mysterious imposing feel. The side characters get a bit less fleshed out, but I still liked what we saw, especially Isabelle, Ivy her room-mate and the Pixie who lives in their house.

The world is very interesting and original, years ago the Faeries came to this realm and wrecked havoc. It felt a bit like a supernatural apocalypse and now years later the Faeries are gone, but the world is forever changed and many supernaturals are out in the open now. The Faeries also are called named Sidhe, Fae or other names sometimes, which could be a tad confusing at times. Then there is a bunch of other supernaturals like necromancers, shifters, mages and witches. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but slowly we got a better feel for what each creature was and their place in this new world. Although I am still not 100% sure what the mages and witches can do and what if any is the difference between the two. The world building was done well overall and it was interesting to learn more and more about the world, the magic ad the supernaturals.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book, it had a nice and steady page and a story that kept me interested. There's a lot of magic, action and supernatural creatures. I liked main character Ivy, she was headstrong and likeable, although she also could be a bit too stubborn and reckless at times, but it ft her personality. There's a bit of mystery about what exactly happened in her past and nice twist later in the book. I also liked the Mage Lord and Ivy and his banter and the hint of romance, which totally worked for me. This book has an interesting world where the Faeries invaded and that hasn't been the same since then now all the supernaturals are out in the open. I am looking forward to the next book! I would recommend this if you're looking for a good YA urban fantasy with lots of action and magic.

[mippers · Rating 3 out of 5]

sorry to the lives lost in the faerie-pocalypse 🙏

[Bec · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was entertaining enough but the plot suffered from many inconsistencies and other issues that an editor really should have taken care of, it was noticeable enough to be annoying throughout the story.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wearing a strapless bra to my combat-based job

[Colin Cochran · Rating 3 out of 5]

very literal title

[Mary K · Rating 1 out of 5]

was hopeful that an abandonment of expectations for the plot to make any kind of sense or the characters to be interesting at all would be redeeming. alas, 0.5/5

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun, crazy adventure in the first book of a new author for me. Look at that cool cover and it's about the Fae, count me in. This was a super fast paced story and I loved Ivy, the main character and her roomate, they complemented each other quite nicely. I do believe this is going to be a great series and I'm thrilled that I get to follow Ivy in her world. This reminded me of Cassandra Palmer series somewhat.

[TSN ☮ · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 70%

Meh...
The story was entertaining enough, or could have been, but the plot had one too many inconsistencies and other issues for my taste. It became too annoying for me to bother finishing it.

[Olivia Coan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two stars are only for the nostalgia this book gave me for the terribly written fanfics I read in middle and high school

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great paranormal read. Ivy Lane is the lead character, and she has already survived years of torture in Fairy. She now resides in an apartment with her flat mate and dear friend who is also a strong witch. Ivy had been taken when the wall between the fey world, and the mortal realm fell. Winter, and Summer courts had since returned, but lots of scavengers and other fey remained. Ivy kills them for a living. She is hired by a couple whose son has disappeared, and left a changing in his place, an evil one at that. The high Lord Mage gets involved, and forces Ivy to include him in the investigation. It is hard to put all the details down, since they are constantly fighting one supernatural creature, after another. Plus there seems to be a growing attraction between the mage / Vance, and Ivy. The only way to get the children back, since the numbers rise , is for Ivy to go back to where her nightmare began, because someone wants to even the score, and in the end only Ivy can face her past. This is a good world building storyline, with great characters, and lots of adventure, and suspense. I will look forward to her continuing adventures.

[Monica Hills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the premise of this urban fantasy novel. There were times where it did remind me of other popular urban fantasy novels but I did like the overall premise. Ivy is a human who was taken to faerie when the veil collapsed. She returned ten years later, human time to find out that nothing was the same including herself. The book kept me interested and I am excited to read the next one.

[Ms. Cyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and exciting.

I didn't want to put this story down. Ivy is one tough woman with a mysterious past. It took a while to completely get her childhood story but it flowed well with the present. I really enjoyed how she reacts to Vance. He isn't how she portrays him. She is a bit judgemental but eventually she starts to see him for who he really is. This was a fun and exciting adventure.

[Laura..devouring books like crumpets · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and a bit

I liked it a great start to a new world, i felt the ending was a little rushed but i found the concept really interesting, the characters likable and the world building was interesting, i think there was alot for a first book so im holding my opinions till i read book 2

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was interesting enough that I finished it, but it was not that good. I often found myself a little lost on how the character came to certain conclusions, and sometimes sentences were so poorly written that they should not have been in there because I just couldn't make sense of them. It seemed like the plot depended on the character getting attacked/in a fight every time she left her house. If she got into fights that often then I would expect her to be a bit better at fighting (to the point where not every fight almost kills her). Also, I find it hard to believe that people don't know much about fairies (such as changelings) when there is a bunch of folklore about it. Did all that folklore get lost after the fae revealed themselves, or were people just stupid? Honestly this book was pretty mediocre, but again interesting enough that I actually finished this one. However, I won't be continuing the series.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Source* Amazon
*Genre* Urban Fantasy
*Rating* 3.5

*My Thoughts*

Faerie Blood, by author Emma L. Adams, is the first installment in The Changeling Chronicles. The story takes place 20 years after Faeries crossed over into the human realm to stop a human on human war, and caused great chaos in their wake. In lieu of stopping the war, the Faeries left behind those with magical abilities, closed the way into Faerie for those left behind, and helped themselves to innocent children in the areas they destroyed. 

*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*

http://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/201...

[Trillian Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read!

I really enjoyed this story. There were a few things that kept this from being a favorite, but generally, I liked the world building, the characters, and storyline. I really liked Vance, a somewhat snobby man with an ego, but he was fun and likeable, and I enjoy that sort of blend in characters. Heroine was also likeable, and I found her easy to sympathize with.

I am on the fence about getting the next book in the series, but I expect I will when money allows.

[Tèo Sip · Rating 2 out of 5]

My face halfway through this book...

There's no plot nor worldbuilding and the main character always rushes into fights with people much stronger than she is. Alone. Without any plan. And forget to bring along her wit.

[Lyndi W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waffled back and forth on this one. Ivy fell into the Bumbling Investigator trope and I got annoyed at the fact that she constantly refused help. She'd have died a dozen times over without help. But I like the characters, the plot was engaging, and I'm interested in where the story is headed, so I'll continue with the sequel.

Kinda reminds me of the Ivy Granger series.

[Barbara Sykeshaha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great storyline

Enjoyed a different perspective on mages, fairies, shifters, witches. Always a pleasure to read lots of action and less filling up space with empty words. Descriptive words tend to be boring, not a word I would use to describe Emma L. Adam's style. Enough said, read the story dang it!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twenty years ago, faeries invaded and wreaked havok in the human world, and it has never been the same since. Ivy Lane, a former captive escaped from the Sidhe, must team up with an aristocratic shifter Mage and use her own hidden magic to keep all hell from breaking loose once again.

Gritty, tense, fast-paced and well-written, this is a dystopian Pride and Prejudice and Faeries.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to put down

I really enjoyed this book about Fairies magic and humans. It kept me entranced as the heroine struggled with her dilemma ...how was she human but also have magic powers

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced interesting read - in this genre. I quite liked our heroine and hero...and it there was a good bit of world building

[Book Goblin, Page Devourer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really worth a read. Much better and lighter than the annoying grimdark October Day and Kate Daniels

[Aybiline Dahlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantasy at its best.
There is a war between mages and faeries going on. Ivy Lane, the heroine is in the middle. The book is full of adventure, love and magic.
I really enjoyed it.

Aybi

[Mettesknit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would've probably liket this one better if I read it when I was 10.
Will I read the rest of this series?
Nope.