Review: Shadowfae by Erica Hayes

Shadowfae 
Erica Hayes
St. Martin's Griffin
October 13, 2009
ISBN-10: 0312578008

Imagine a secret world veiled in fairy glamour and brimming with unearthly delights. A city swarming with half-mad fairies, where thieving spriggans rob you blind, beautiful banshees mesmerize you with their song, and big green trolls bust heads at nightclubs. And once you’re in, there’s no escape…

Enslaved by a demon lord, Jade is forced to spend her nights seducing vampire gangsters and shapeshifting thugs.  After two hundred years as a succubus, she burns for freedom and longs to escape her brutal life as a trophy girl for hell’s minions.  Then she meets Rajah, an incubus who touches her heart and intoxicates her senses. Rajah shares the same bleak fate as she, and yearns just as desperately for freedom.  But the only way for Jade to break her bonds is to betray Rajah—and doom the only man she’s ever loved to a lifetime in hell.

Jade is a soul-sucking succubus but she doesn't get to seduce nice guys who treat her to dinner and a movie. Her boss, who happens to be a demon, wants her going after gang members and murderers. She's pretty sick of it and Jade is willing to do anything to get out of this life. When she meets Rajah, a four-hundred-year-old incubus, she finds out about an ancient spell that could break the demonic bonds so she can be freed. But Rajah's looking for his freedom too and this makes Jade and Rajah enemies, even though they're wildly attracted to each other.

Finding their freedom could curse the other and when things go beyond just a physical attraction, Jade's torn between gaining her freedom and cursing Rajah to a lifetime of slavery as an incubus or spending eternity as a trophy girl for hell's minions. While both Jade and Rajah are fighting for for their freedom, there's someone killing faeries and unbeknown to both of them, they're right in the middle of it.

The world of Shadowfae is anything but light and cute faeries. They're dark beings that steal and mesmerize human beings. Shadowfae's a very dark story, while it has its funny moments, things continue to escalate and get serious as Jade and Rajah fight for their freedom. I had a hard time with Jade. I liked her as a character, especially how she was so determined to gain her freedom. However, at other times I just found her annoying and I just couldn't connect with her. Surprisingly enough, I really liked the "bad guy". I think it was due to the writing, Ms. Hayes has a way with words that is atmospheric and it flows very nicely and the way this character was written just attracted me.

There were certain parts that were just pretty gross. The way Jade has to go about getting these souls is just yucky, I'll leave it at that! All-in-all, I did enjoy Shadowfae. I have mixed feelings about it though and I think with the next book in the series, I could go either way. I think it has the potential to become a very good Urban Fantasy series and I'm definitely looking forward to the next book, Shadowglass, out March 2010.

[Posted on NOR]