Book info ⭐
Name: House of Beating Wings
Author: Olivia Wildenstein
Release Date: September 22nd 2022
Edition: eBook
Pages: 490
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, New Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Free the crows, Fallon, and they will make you queen.

Until an oracle predicted my regal future, I’d never imagined myself rising above the curve of my round ears. After all, I was the magicless halfling loved by beasts but loathed by every pure-blooded faerie at court. Well… by all but one.

Dante Regio, prince of Luce, had owned my heart since he gave me my first kiss. If gathering a slew of iron relics could help me overthrow the current monarch and crown his brother to rule at my side, then treasure hunting I’d go.

If only the oracle had warned me what winged demon I was releasing into the world.

And that I’d become this demon’s obsession.

MY REVIEW;

I rated this book 4.5/5 stars!

I actually really really enjoyed this book. I love most things fae related so was fairly hopeful going into it in the first place and it didn’t disappoint. Nothing felt.. too much. I felt the balance was fair across the board, the world building, the character development, the relationships, the plot. They all progressed at such a nice pace throughout this story that it felt so smooth to read.

There was two reasons I took half a star off. The main was quite how long it took our mc, Fallon, to realise her love interest was an ass. To put it fairly bluntly. It was fairly obvious how that particular relationship would play with the amount of read flags flying around so I wasn’t surprised when I was proven right, but dear Fallon was still defending his honour until the last second.. that level of naivety was pushed just a little too far and for a little too long for me personally.

The secondary reason was towards the end I did get a little confused to Fallon’s heritage and that particular arc. It’s hinted throughout that her heritage isn’t what it seems and when it seemed to have become clear we then get another arc thrown into the mix which just took my head a little getting around. It wasn’t anything dramatically unbelievable but the way it was presented confused me just a tiny bit.

Other than those two smaller elements I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it. I enjoyed Fallon (apart from her naivety towards a certain love interest), her development was a pleasure to experience. It wasn’t a huge change but you could just tell, her energy by the end of the book was just different, stronger.. more mature. She still retained her heart of gold for the creatures around her but that edge of naivety sharpened, she wanted to prove she could be more. And she did.

And who would of thought I’d fall in love with a crow. But alas.. I did! Our crow, Morrgot, was grumpy, morally grey but oh so protective and committed. Not afraid to kill but clearly loyal to his kingdom. I couldn’t help but fall for his charm by the end. His back and forth sass with Fallon during their time together was honestly just heartwarming, it was very clear that this relationship was the driving force behind her growth throughout the book. And that ending paragraph made me very excited to dive into the second book, I want to see how his relationship with Fallon and his comeback as king take place.

I will also note that I did thoroughly enjoy the other friendships in this book and I do hope they are included in the rest of books. They brought out a spark in Fallon and I think she needs them to keep her whole. It will also be interesting to see if there’s any development between Fallon and Antoni, she rejected him fairly early on in the book but I see at least a strong friendship developing.. but I do wonder if there’ll be more to come.

Overall this was just a solid fantasy story. I’ve seen some say it was too long but frankly I didn’t actually have any issues with it’s length. The writing style was strong enough for me not to notice the length. I can completely understand why we didn’t dive straight into the action, we needed that backstory, those relationships set up.. otherwise Fallon’s quest wouldn’t have made much sense.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely! I already have the second book downloaded and will be starting it after I’ve finished one of my other ebooks. I am very much looking forward to it!

Until next time.

Shannon 😊