Of Blood and Honey (The Fey and the Fallen Book 1)

I've put off writing this review for too long.I did that for several reasons. One, the book is written by a friend of mine. Can I truly be objective as I review the book? Will I pull punches when it comes to the things I didn't like? Two, the book isn't the kind of thing I normally read. I'm a logical science fiction kind of guy, and while a lot of people lump fantasy and sci-fi together, I have trouble with the more spiritual world of fantasy. It's even worse when authors rely on the standard fantasy tropes and settings or walk down the path of "it's magic, anything can happen!"Here's the best thing I can say about this novel: Before I'd finished the first five pages, I'd forgotten that I was reading a friend's book that I was kind of, sort of, obligated to read. By the end of the first chapter, I didn't care that there were fantasy elements in the book, because it wasn't really a fantasy book. I simply wanted to finish the book as quickly as I could because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I ended up staying up late to read it non-stop from cover to cover.That never happens for me in this genre, not even with my other favorite, The Rook.Really, this is a gritty tale about Ireland and The Troubles and the people caught in the path of that awful time. It just happens to have a little bit of magic in it and some fairies -- though not the kind you normally think of when you hear that word. They're just as dark and gritty and nasty as the book they populate.Oh yeah, I should probably warn you ahead of time, it's not really what you'd call a pleasant read. A lot of really awful things happen to the characters in these books and there's not really a "Happily Ever After". It's a nasty world they live in, and Stina pulls no punches in describing it.And what a world! It's obvious she did her homework in writing it, the things I do know about ring absolutely true, and from what I've read of The Troubles since then, it appears about as accurate as you can expect. Remember, stories of fiction are really about the story, they're not documentaries. Not that I can find any discrepancies, but I'm not Irish and I didn't live through the period in question.My only complaint is that I never felt like I really understood or got to know The Redcap. The most interesting villains are those that have motivation and reason behind their actions instead of acting evil just for the sake of being evil. Of course, that's kind of what a redcap is, so being true to folklore means that I'm not going to get the kind of villain I wanted. Still, it would have been nice to have a little more backstory on him so that we could better understand the gambit he was trying to play.Still, this is a book that got the author nominated twice for a Campbell award, which is a pretty high praise indeed. It may have faults, but I have trouble finding them.

I had purchased this book awhile ago, but I made sure to read it after the author had an excellent AMA on the r/Fantasy sub-reddit. I wasn't sure if I would like this book, but after I got into it I really loved it. I've really never read anything quite like this book, with the combination of Urban Fantasy style Fae creatures (although they weren't too prominent in this book, as a lot of the action occurs in the normal world) in the very interesting historical setting of the Irish Revolution (1970's). The main character is the bastard child of an Irish Catholic woman and a Fae shapeshifter, he was then raised by his mother and hateful adopted father, without any knowledge of what his real father was. After Liam is wrongfully imprisoned for being at the wrong place and the wrong time during a protest, he experiences a horrifying trauma which has a very realistic and thoughtful effect on his character, with an added fantastical side-effect of uncontrollable shape-shifting into a fae beast/wolf with it's own mind/personality. Following his imprisonment (after he's wrongfully arrested again) he marries a woman he's loved all of his life and joins the IRA. Afterwards, there's a lot of entertaining bits where Liam becomes a racecar/getaway driver, but while avoiding spoilers, I'll just say that everything seems to go wrong, and the the coming of age in a troubling time story turns into a revenge story. This part of the story is also great, and there's even a bit of a Narc and addiction side-story, and as the truth of his parentage comes out towards the end, a lot more of the fantasy comes into play for the climax. I loved all of the characters in this book, they all feel very real and fully developed, with the only one lacking being the main villain (he's a good villain, and while we learn some of his backstory, the reason he does what he does isn't explained too well).Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

Stina Leicht has written a really good first novel in "Of Blood and Honey".She has developed her characters well, the story line is well thought out and the dialogue is the best I've read in a long time. (By the way, I have never met Ms. Leicht so I'm not one of her friends). It is refreshing for me to read subject matter I have never read before. To have it come across as a sound novel, well, that's just a bonus. Ms. Leicht has given me a better knowledge of what individuals may have gone through during the turmoil of Ireland in the mid 1970's.It was a nice change to read about a different kind of supernatural being other than vampires and werewolves and to mix it all in with the terrible police force of Ireland. It was also nice that Ms. Leicht did not overuse the Irish dialect in her writing as that becomes tedious very, very quickly.I briefly mentioned that the characters were well-developed. Usually in novels one or two characters stand out, but in "Of Blood and Honey" all of them are attractive to read. I don't mean that in the literal sense of the word, but more that they are interesting to read and to get to know. Kathleen, Father Murray, Bran, Liam, Mary Kate, Oran, Haddock and the rest of them are all interesting characters well worth reading.About the only thing I did not like is the strong use of vulgar language. I'm no prude and use those words myself on occasion, but reading them is distasteful to me and they were used a great deal in the course of this novel. That's my only complaint, otherwise it's a great story.

Stina writes evocatively, giving a true sense of the place, the people and the time she's writing about. She's done her cultural research to the extent that the Irish characters actually speak using sentence constructions that my Irish friends would use.I believe the ideas of 2 simultaneous wars ("The Troubles" and a supernatural one "The Fey and The Fallen") and of the Roman Catholic Church as an actor i nthe supernatural war are original too (at least for values of original).There are a few details that jar slightly, but they don't affect the story.