Of Sand and Storm

****

4 Stars/5

Thanks to Amber Argyle for giving me this book to review.

Of Sand and Storm is the very good 3rd novella in the Fairy Queens series and like the others it is fast paced, well written and has good world building. However this is the darkest of the books as it deals with difficult issues such as slavery and sex trafficking. I would suggest you don’t read this story until you have read the previous books otherwise it could be confusing. One thing which lets this story down is that it had insta-love which I am not a fan of, and I got the impression from Winter’s Heir that Cinder would not have a love interest.

Cinder is determined, protective and like all of Amber’s protagonists she has strong inner strength. However, she is the most damaged of the heroines with a coping mechanism in numbers, and not surprisingly Cinder is not very trusting. The love interest,  Darsam, pretends to be flippant and cocky but is actually selfless, kind and gentle. Ash and Storm would do anything to protect Cinder and want her to have a better life than they did.

I love this series and I am looking forward to reading what Amber writes next. I would highly recommend the Fairy Queens series to fans of YA fantasy novels, especially to those who like Maria V Snyder and Trudi Canavan’s books.