What would you do if your beloved girlfriend suddenly became your worst enemy? That dilemma’s all too real for Syl Skye. As the last princess of the fair Fae, Syl is all things brightness and sun and white flame, but even though she’s Summer incarnate, she’s drawn to Rouen Rivoche, the dark Fae princess-assassin of the Winter Court.
They should be mortal enemies, but they’re best friends. Girlfriends. In love.
That is, until an old enemy puts Roue under a dark spell that makes her forget all about Syl, their lives and their love. Now Roue rules Dark Faerie as a cruel and cold Queen, and she wants nothing more than to destroy Syl and her fair Fae people.
Worse, both opposing Faerie realms stand on the brink of utter destruction, and only their queens, Syl and Rouen, can save them—and only if they can put their differences aside for two seconds and fight together as allies.
But how can you fight against an enemy when your true nemesis is on your team?
Genevieve Iseult Eldredge (she/they) writes angsty, slow-burn lesbian stories about girls who can’t decide whether to kiss or kill each other.
Sometimes they do both.
GIE is multi-published and, in her role as an editor, has guided hundreds of authors throughout the course of their publishing careers.
Her readers say GIE is a "master of world building," who is "stellar" at normalizing LGBTQIA+ characters and relationships and "writing for the broader community."
Spoiler warning: this review contains minor spoilers for the series, but none for this specific book. If you've read this far in the series, you're good to go.
Every book in this series gets better, and Nemesis is no exception. I discovered this series right before Inimical (book 3) released. If you've read this far in the series you know that is the WORST one to end on because of what happens to Rouen. It was painful waiting for an entire year for the next main installment after reading 1 – 3 back to back. I'm so excited Nemesis is here and we can finally save Rouen! (I hope!)
Nemesis is shorter than the other books in the series but so much happens! There's lots of action and tension since, you know, Dark Rouen wants to eliminate Syl and take over all of Faerie. Do yourself a favor and read it in one sitting. Don't get to about 50 pages from the end and have to go to bed so you can go to work because that is NOT a good stopping point! 😅
Throughout Nemesis we get background information on some characters we've met before, meet a handful of new ones, and the dark Fae kids return! The background info reveals affect both Syl and Rouen, which changes how they tackle their current situation. I suspected who a character really was when they were first introduced in an earlier book and I celebrated when I found out I was right…then I read a few more sentences and DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! 😱 Celebration to shock in 3 sentences.
Per usual, Syl and Rouen are excellent together. Their entertaining banter lightens the tense action scenes, even with Rouen under a spell. I really loved Rouen's struggle now that her dark side is in control. She remembers her feelings for Syl but her dark side wants more power and doesn't really care about Syl. Enter Jarden (yes, that puca!!) who decides to gift Rouen with a way to control Syl and become Overqueen of all Faerie. Rouen's dark side can't turn down the offer of more power, even though Rouen knows Jarden can't be trusted. It's never good when Jarden enters the picture and you know it's terrible for Syl that she's helping Rouen.
Syl learns the fair Fae will wake soon and thinks it's great because they can stop the dark Fae. Then she learns both Faerie realms will perish in 7 days when they wake. It's not a lot of time, especially when Dark Rouen knows she has to kill Syl to prevent Faerie Armageddon and has no problem doing it.
During all this chaos, Syl and Rouen also grow in their relationship. Syl refuses to give up on Rouen even though Dark Rouen has control and decides Syl is a rival to eliminate. Rouen struggles between her feelings for Syl and trying to be the queen her people need. Syl learns some things about Rouen that impact their relationship, but they work through all this while also trying to figure out how to save their people. The ending is perfect.
There are a couple loose ends (mostly I'm not giving up on a certain character who got swept up in one of the battles!) I'm assuming these will be handled in the final book which releases in 2020. I hope it ends with them on a Disneyland trip because they deserve a vacation after all this. 😉
Syl Skye and Rouen Rivoche are friends, best friends, lovers and soulmates with a soul-bond. Syl is the queen of the fair fae and Rouen is the queen of the dark fae and are the summer queen and the winter queen. The dark fae and the fair fae have been enemies for a very long time but when our two girls met they fell in love.
A spell has been cast on Rouen drawing her back to the Faerie realm to the winter court to server as their queen. War is about to be declared on the two Faerie realms destroying both worlds. Syl has only a few days to save her people and the Faerie realms.
Syl and Rouen are about to come face to face in battle if Syl can't find a way to stop the destruction of the two worlds. Syl hates violence of any kind and definitely wants no part in hurting her beloved Rouen but if she is to save the Faerie world then it may just come down to that. Can Syl save the Faerie worlds? Can she save the love of her life from the dark evil? What will Syl do?
Nemesis is filled with so much action that it keeps the adrenaline pumping from the first page until the last as Syl and Rouen go up against each other on more than one occasion as they battle it out. I love the banter between Syl and Rouen and how their souls seem to just take over at well maybe just the right times. I love the action and the fighting with all the electricity flying. Oh man I would so love to this on the big screen.
I have read each and every one of Syl and Rouen's books and I am so glad that I decided to take this journey with them as their love grew and their souls intertwined and they became one. I feel as if I know what a soulmate is as I married mine. I can just feel the bond the love between Syl and Rouen. I have truly loved and enjoyed reading each and every book in the Circuit Fae world. Each book seems to get better and better like a bottle of wine.
There is one big twist about the Moribund I would like to mention without any spoilers I hope I would like to say I enjoyed this twist very much and that I never saw it coming. Yep, loved it! One more thing before I let ya go and that is that ending so thrilling I loved it too and as I was reading it I was doing a little dance in my head. I had a picture pop into my head of a music box with two ballerinas instead of one, one dressed in white and the other dress in black and it made me think of Syl and Rouen dancing and it was playing Rouen's violin music.
I would love to recommend Nemesis and the whole Circuit Fae series to all fans of fantasy and love. One click yourself a copy today!
You have to pick this up if you have read any of the previous books. I would say the same if you have not. You would enjoy the rich blend of characters, world building, and the creativity of what happens when it all goes down south very quickly.
Watching Syl and Rouen be at odds was this time around was a bit different than the previous encounters. Yes, the are dating (or at least what they constitute dating). Yes, the love each other. Yes, they are both queens in their prospective court. Yes, they are on opposing sides. But there something different in the steps, the process, the decision. Syl and Rouen have to complete this dance and make it though the round for it all to make sense and for some light to shine on something more.
This fourth full-length installment has a greater intensity than experienced with the other read from this series with the same young ladies running the show. The characters feel more developed, like growth has occurred. While at the same time you almost feel that things are just repeating themselves. It may feel that way but I assure you this was a completely different ride all together.
The writing is there. The character full. The plot brings you closer to something big. The way it all combines gives you a read that was full. The world building and crafting of characters helped to develop another level or layer to the story. I found it all enjoyable.
The epic battle is joined, with the multiverse in peril and the destruction of the Faerie realms all but certain in Nemesis, Book 4 of Genevieve Iseult Eldredge’s exciting Circuit Fae series. Regular readers will recall Syl Skye and Rouen Rivoche’s star-crossed romance from across the divide between the fair and dark Fae. The excitement begins on Page 1 with Syl fighting to save Rouen from darkness and their respective Summer and Winter Courts from imploding. Fasten your seatbelts for action spanning high school, water park and the snickelways. We can’t put down any book in this series, but this one, No. 4, was especially breathtaking!
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC in return for an honest review. Syl and Rouen continue their struggle to join the dark and fair faerie realms but their love for each other seems doomed as Miss Jardin tries to decimate the faerie realms in an attempt to rule the multiverse. Another gripping novel in the Circuit Fae series in which the reader is on a rollercoaster ride of emotional stress. I really enjoyed this ARC and look forward to the next episode in the series.
OMG. Seriously, I can't believe how much I loved this book. Though I started really excited to read the continuation of Rouen and Syl's story, I couldn't believe how this installment had me turning the pages faster than ever. The pacing, the story, the angst, the love - man, this book has it all! I CANNOT wait for the final book - I want it like YESTERDAY!
Syl and Roue are apart and really(?) enemies in this installment, with Syl in the mortal realm trying to stop the faerie world from 'bleeding' into it, whereas Roue is being Dark Queen, dealing with the fusing of the two courts and trying to save Winter. Everything is leading to war.
Eldredge's writing is like visiting one of those old friends with whom you automatically pick up where you left off, like no time has passed. I have always loved the sass of the protagonists in this series. Also the great use of pop culture references for apt descriptions. There is a sense of urgency to the story, which the author paces well.
The Fae mythology evolves and expands with each book, adding such amazing details to the narrative. And a few bombshells to the mix. Sometimes the barrage of new Fae information is a bit overwhelming. And some explanations are more confusing than clarifying.
There is a lot more action in this one, and I love that. Also the depiction of Syl & Roue's internal struggle, whereas feelings are all over the place and very intense.
With her imagination running sprints, Eldredge has created another satisfying installment in her bewitching Circuit Fae series. Can't wait for the next one.
This is my favorite Circuit Fae book so far! I LOVE Dark Rouen's voice and the broody prose is really beautiful in her chapters. Eldredge has a masterful way of blending humor with serious angst that is truly enjoyable. The action gets going right away and just keeps going. Even though this is the 7th book in the series, it stands alone and a new reader to the series would also love it.
Nemesis is the fourth book in The Circuit Fae series, and it piqued my interest when it came up on an expresso tour with the tag line “What would you do if your beloved girlfriend became your worst enemy”. It has a synopsis speaking of dark spells, princess assassins and Faerie realms, IT’S QUEER and the tour blurb stated that it could be read as a standalone - how could I not sign up!
Yes, I did read it as a standalone and I did enjoy it. But the whole time I was wishing I’d got to see these two teenage Fae queens come together and fall in love despite one being a dark Fae and one being light, given they were meant to be enemies and all that. In this book they’ve already fallen for each other and have now been ripped apart by the scheming dark forces hell bent on their and both the mortal and Faerie realms destruction.
“I’ve felt every month, every day, every second I’ve been without Rouen Rivoche, the rightful Queen of the dark Fae. My mortal enemy. We defied the odds -and the ancient war between our Faerie Counts- by falling in love. Now, every breath without her hurts. It’s all I can do to stand here, captive to my mortal life.”
The POV alternates chapter per chapter between Syl Skye, Queen of the fair Fae and Rouen Rivoche, Queen of the dark Fae. The “bad guy” is a real evil bitch, so hey, at least it’s powerful woman all round! Nemesis is a clean and quick read, with fast pacing and plenty of action.
While I felt a missing connection to the story, jumping in at book four, what reading nemesis has done is make me want to go back to the beginning of the series and kick of meeting Syl and Rouen as they meet each other.
A series that features Queer Fae queens, magic and mayhem, multiverses collapsing and colliding, action packed battles, love triumphing overall – How could you not be into that.
Syl Skye is the princess of the fair Fae — meaning all that is sun and summer. She is the opposite of Rouen Rivoche who is the princess of the dark Fae — meaning winter. They were once girlfriends that loved each other. Roue has fallen under a very dark spell making her forget the past, making her become a dark and cruel queen. She can use her magic on technology for killing. She wants all of the fair Fae to die especially Syl. Why? Why can’t Roue remember her love for Syl? When an enemy causes both Fairie realms to be on the verge of dying does Syl and Roue must decide if they can work together to save Fairie. Why together and not separately? Will they save the Fairie realms?
The novel is well written. I was caught up in the dilemmas of the Faerie realms. Their dilemmas intrigued me as I didn’t know how it would be resolve. There are influences outside of the two main characters that made their decisions difficult. The twist and turns were unexpected. I can’t wait to read the next novel!
Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review or any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book, but the cover drew me in and seemed so fascinating! Right away my brain tried to compare it to something, but what? It has a similar *feeling* of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instrument series, but that's where the similarities stop.
I will admit I haven't read any of the other books, so I was a touch lost in the beginning, but that quickly went away the further into the story I went. I enjoyed the book, loved the dynamic of good versus evil, and the overall plot. Super easy flow that kept me wanting to turn the pages.
I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley
As this series continues it feels more and more like it is being drawn out unnecessarily. I feel like most of the books just have the same overall plot and that in general not a lot of progress is made by the end. This one is a bit different as it does actually pick up in the last few chapters and there is satisfying progress in solving their overall problems, but it still seemed like slow going in the beginning. Pretty sure the next book is the last one so I'm happy to see everything finally wrap up. This series is not mind-blowing but it is cute if you just want a fun F/F story with faeries in it.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect about this book but it didn’t disappointed me. Every book in this series has their unique style that make every one of them splendid books but Nemesis was more than epic. I’m not so used into these topics so I must be honest and said that it was a challenge to me. The angst, the plot, the characters everything was so intense. I really enjoyed the story.”
So I pretty much loved this book. I binged it (thank you NetGallery gods for allowing me to read it for free), well most of it and then put off finishing it because I was way too close to the end. I just wasn't ready to put it down. Roue and Syl are both so precious and I love them both. I also loved the side characters too. I did found some parts cheesy, but I mean what book with romance doesn't have some cheesy parts. I would have loved to see more angst with dark Rouen (I'm sorry, I just love that in books, sue me). I need to know what happened to Lennon, she better not have pooffed away permanently. This is probably just me, but I would have liked it to be longer, with slower pacing. This may be because I wanted more to read or maybe because I wanted the characters struggle more (as harsh as that sounds). Or both.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.