“Swear on something else. Swear on your humanity.” I suddenly find it very hard to swallow. My humanity? With a jolt I realize that there are far greater things at risk here than just my life. I’m in the faerie world, anything could happen. Even immortality. The Otherworld is the home of the faeries, deceitful, decadent, and deadly. As the next in line to be-come Guardians, Jaye and her brother Thomas are tasked with defending the human world from all things magical. But when a routine scouting mission ends with them trapped in the Otherworld, it becomes pain-fully clear that someone doesn’t want them to leave the world of the faeries. Determined to not become an immortal’s pawn, Jaye kidnaps Ravven Crowe, an arrogant solitary faerie, so that he can guide them safely home. But things quickly go from bad to worse when they are captured by the Winter Court and embroiled in a plot to start a faerie civil war. Thomas is enslaved by an Unseelie faerie, and it seems that the only way to save her brother and avoid a war is for Jaye to ally herself with Ravven. |
Release date: Sept 20, 2020
I'm going to start of this review by saying how mad I am at the author! How could she do this to me?! How could Nicki Chapelway get me so invested in the story and then end the story the way she did? How can she leave me in this cruel state of wondering and waiting, desperate to know what happens next with Jaye, Ravven, Thomas, and the others?
OK, dramatic intro aside, Of Gold And Iron was a surprisingly good book. I ran the gamut of emotions while reading it, pretty much like the heroine, Jaye, does as she 'lives' the story. I was completely immersed, sometimes in spellbound horror, in the faerie's Otherworld realms. The worldbuilding was excellent, varied, detailed, interesting, but the author did not get bogged down in the minutiae of it. Very easy to visualize in your mind's eye. And Jaye herself? Well, she managed to surprise me at every turn.
And, while I'm thinking of it, I want to mention how much I appreciated Nicki Chapelway's portrayal of faeries and the Otherworld. Not the cutesy tiny winged creatures we are used to, no, these are the manipulative, spiteful, and even vengeful, beings of Irish legend. And in my estimation this is what made this YA book so good.
If you are up for a clean read YA fantasy tale of danger, intrigue, and maybe a little romance, I'll suggest you check into Of Gold And Iron, the first book in Nicki Chapelway's exciting Of Dreams And Nightmares Trilogy...
Tell Tale Book Reviews gives Of Gold And Iron by Nicki Chapelway a 4.5 Bark rating.
More from Nicki
Tolkien has inspired so much about my fantasy worlds—actually he is directly responsible for why I write fantasy—and because of that I adopted his own source of inspiration for many of the events of Middle Earth: myths.
And much, much scarier than the faeries I grew up hearing about.
Irish mythology gave me everything I needed, from many different forms of faeries to defining characteristics and names. All I had to do was fit them into my world… and come up with a plot and characters, of course, but those I actually got from a dream.
Nicki is a twenty-something author of clean YA speculative fiction. She has been writing since she was eleven years old, and has published several works including portal fantasies such as A Week of Werewolves, Faeries, and Fancy Dresses and A Certain Sort of Madness; as well as Winter Cursed a dark fantasy Snow White retelling. Nicki lives in Ohio where she spends far too much time watching TV and sleeping. She listens to music basically all the time, and adores obsessing over mythologies, her shows, and her slew of fictional boyfriends. When not writing, she can usually be found at her desk with either a paintbrush or a pen in her hand. |
It's Time For A Giveaway!
Blog Stops
Rebecca Tews, February 13
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, February 14
Texas Book-aholic, February 15
Blogging With Carol, February 15
Sara Jane Jacobs, February 16
Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, February 17
Inklings and notions, February 18
Heidi and Books, February 18
For Him and My Family, February 19
deb’s Book Review, February 20
Tell Tale Book Reviews, February 21
Artistic Nobody, February 22 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)
Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, February 23
Locks, Hooks and Books, February 24
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, February 25
Breny and Books, February 25