hard to believe that she is the one who also wrote assassin by accident.

this is by far e.j.russell’s best work.

truth be told, I’ve heard this once, several years back (6? 7?), for free on youTube. And ever-since, I knew I would buy it one day, along all of it’s brothers in the series.

the parallel to beauty and the beast is nicely framed, in a well written, highly moral, enlightening urban fantasy.

the magic insertion into the modern technological world is very well done.

the characters are the exact amount of adaptable and resistant-to-change, powerful and self-recriminating, optimistic and realistic.

the writing is very good: clever without being too academic, funny without snark, enlightened without too much hollywood incredible sweetness.

the characters are believable – including the nearly flat psychopathic and narcissist villains. and the rich-white-old-men mentality of the fairy queen.

I love stories that preach self-empowerment. it is always too sweet and swift in books, and it is unrealistic when you try to measure it against the real world, but it is useful. and we need more of it when it is done as well as this one.

and as for the narration? joel leslie at his best! love his welsh accent – even though I have no idea how accurate it is; and his silly german-like accent he always uses for vampires. love his emotional intonation. love his way of making different voices for different characters and maintaining them throughout the whole book.

definitely one for the favorites list, together with its series-brothers.