Less Than Three Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Sparkwood. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Finn Bricket does not trust fairies, but ends up tangled up with them after his twin brother dies under mysterious circumstances. When an invitation to his brother's funeral in the fairy world gives Finn the opportunity to investigate, will he be able to figure out the real story and stay out of danger?

Sparkwood is a sleepy town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, the kind of place where you know your neighbors and everyone looks out for each other. That being said, I found that the inhabitants were not all that realistically represented, as the population was more diverse than what you would normally see. This fantasy novel could have been interesting to me, but the author chose to use the book as a platform for LGBT romance. The mystery and intrigue helped to carry the plot forward, but the romance dragged it down, in my opinion. Sparkwood was a miss for me, but it might appeal to readers who like fantasy and LGBT romance.

<img src="http://i68.tinypic.com/2rpr7nl.jpg" alt="NetGalley Review" width="200">

Due to my interest in fairies, picking this one up was a no brainer. The main character has a brother who was killed in fairy and, despite having no detective experience, embarks on a mission to find out his brother's killer.

And in so doing, almost commits himself to 14 years of servitude to a fairy who had an indirect hand in his brother's death.

So it went very well, then.

The plot of this book was solid. The only part that let it down, for me, was that I didn't really get the romance between Finn and Robin. This was despite the fact of loving Finn kissing Robin for the first time to distract from the fact that they were being thieves. Because it works so well in the movies!! Brilliant.

For this to be a perfect book to me, I would have just liked a bit more fleshing out of the two mains, to have a lot more on page unresolved sexual tension before they started having the actual feelings for one another. And then it would have been a much longer book. And, actually, I think I would have been quite okay with that.

Delightful, an interesting and well drawn world, I just wish it could have been longer...or maybe a series?!?

*3.5 stars*

Surprisingly enjoyable book from new-to-me author, Daria Defore.

I'm a big paranormal and urban fantasy fan, and some of my favorite books are fairy/fae stories (The Fever Series: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever). However, I don't have a great track record with trying new authors, and novella-length stories can be tricky business. I was really impressed with what Daria Defore did with this one.

Sparkwood combines a mystery, an enemies-to-lovers romance, and some paranormal goodness into one story. I'm not a big mystery fan, but the mystery here wasn't too... mysterious, if I may say so myself. It was enough to keep me entertained, but I had a feeling what was going on for a good part of the story. That didn't bother me much, and the great enemies-to-lovers element kept my excitement level up.

It's hard to pull off slow burn in a shorter story, but this book did it. I'm a sucker for a slow burn, and so I loved waiting for the romance to get going. Make me wait, authors! This book is also low on the heat, but I didn't miss it (much). We get a little something towards the end, but smut-lovers should know that this isn't a fairy sex-fest story.

I thought that the fairy world was pretty cool, even if I could have used a LOT more world-building. I had a ton of questions about the fairy-world that weren't answered. I think with some more finesse, the author could get a ton out of this world. It reminded me vaguely of On the Edge and that type of world-idea.

I also love a bi-guy and we get that here. The MC has to come to terms with his own sexuality, but he doesn't deny it in his head. I'm always #teambisexualpride, so I was excited about that.

A pretty great little story from Daria Defore, I think fairy fans won't be disappointed.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

When his twin is killed by fairies, Finn wants nothing more than to find the murderer and bring them to justice. When he's invited to the funeral the fairies are holding, Finn goes in the hopes of solving the mystery. Instead, Finn is accidentally embroiled in fairy politics and he quickly starts to realize that the longer he stays with the fairies, the sooner he'll end up dead like his brother.

I enjoyed the world building of this story a lot. The differences between the human town named Sparkwood versus the fairy town also named Sparkwood were very interesting. I particularly liked how the fairies tried to emulate the human side, but everything was just slightly off so Finn kept getting lost. The way the fairies were described with the strange eyes and the way they walk provided a lot of depth to the overall story.

While I did enjoy reading this book, I never felt like I was compelled to continue with it. It was missing a hook to yank me into the story. Part of that was because I couldn't identify with Finn. He's sullen and confused and generally unlikable, which made it difficult for me to follow his story. The relationship with Robin never gelled for me either.

This book was absolutely wonderful. With wonderful characters, great writing, and a healthy dose of humor, this is the way fantasy novels should be.
(Full review on my blog)

When I've read the premise I become wildly interested. I love stories about fae and I love crime. When I've read a book - I wasn't disappointed. I liked the main characters, and the plot overall was good. Yet, I have a problem with "main evil" character - it was very predictable and the character itself was build in a way you needed to hate/dislike him. It would be better if he had at least one positive trait.

Overall: pretty good. I spent an afternoon with it and I don't regret it.

My feelings having read this novel is a mixed bag. The imagination in this novel is really strong, Daria Defore knows her magic, fairies, legends and fables. I just found it lacked that added *wow* factor. Finn is very angry for a large part of the novel, so whilst it's very imaginative and amazing what's happening to him living in fairy "world", the funeral, being Alans slave it's seen through quite a bitter lens one that I felt slightly tainted it. We also had Luke as this entity, an accepting gay -loving- fairy- kinda guy who is loved by all We never do find out what happened to his diaries which I thought was a key plot device.

I was left feeling the romantic part was very mixed. Robin and Finn spent nearly all of it, very cold rather than the hot and cold that would never readers to really get behind them. Past the 70% mark this changes, The author has written a really good sex scene. This was written like it could definitely be the start of a series, it would be interesting to see where this goes.

3 stars

for some reason i thought this was YA and then suddenly there was a very steamy sex scene in the middle, which was a pleasant surprise.

this was quite enjoyable; the main storyline was pretty good, the characters were alright, there was a good twist near the ending. however, i did feel that there was something missing - perhaps it was the lack of chemistry between finn and robin in the first three-quarters or so of the book.

although i usually enjoy brevity in fiction, i thought this book was a little <i>too</i> brief in some places; the narrative could have definitely benefited from more world-building, as we don't really learn a lot about the fairy world, which was the most interesting aspect of the book.

the writing wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't exactly good either; i'd say it was just about average, which is an adjective that could sum up the entire book. it was a fun read, but there isn't anything breathtakingly original that would make it stand head and shoulders above other books in the genre. it's not a book i would necessarily recommend, but neither is it one i would warn people away from. give it a go if you're interested in the synopsis, but don't expect anything spectacular.

I enjoyed the book, although it was an unusual book for me to read. I chose the book based on cover art and description that included murder mystery and fairies. The fact that it also included gay/queer/bi-sexual characters was more a curiosity factor for me. As in; how does a murder mystery involving gay/bi-sexual characters differ from a murder mystery with heterosexual characters? Umm – not that much, LOL.

Set in Sparkwood, WA – a small rural town on the edge of great forests, and the “mirror image” of Sparkwood – the town where magical fairies live. The story starts out with 2 fairies in a human diner. Humans are aware that fairies exist. The book is lacking in background details of when this action/realization occurred or if it is a welcomed occurrence.

I felt the characters were only fairly well described. The same goes for the locations in each town. Readers were given brief physical descriptions of the characters and for no apparent reason, included the characters sexual orientation. I feel the characters could have been given more personality and more background history would have given the book more substance.

I'm NOT trying to write a scathing review. I DID enjoy the book. I simply feel the story has more potential.

For a heterosexual female, the sex scenes did not creep me out because they appear to be tastefully and artistically written. I could have said “lovingly” but the characters didn't seem to develop a “loving” relationship before falling into bed with each other. BUT, on the other hand, that is also true of most couples in society today. So I can't hold that against the author. It was actually realistic.

In the end, the story did elude to the promise of a life-long romance, love and a committed relationship.

To sum up the book, it's a murder mystery, fairies, romance with a little coming out and self-acceptance, finding love when you least expect it. Running off (to a warmer climate) for a happily ever-after.


I received the book free in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my rating nor review.

My review will be posted on amazon, netgalley, goodreads and moonshineartspot.blogspot.com

Terri/Aunt Meanie

I found this book to be very well written and complex, it was story filled with mystery, humor, fear, friendship, love, and finally acceptance. There was an equal balance of everything and was not overwhelmed by the mystical nature of the fairies. I have always avoided M/M stories and this was my first M/M only romance and I found the sexual orientation and nature not relevant to how I viewed the characters, due to the authors ability create well developed characters. Worth a read.

This is my Goodreads review, which has also been cross-posted to my blog and will be up tomorrow.

I requested this from NetGalley because (a) fairies and (b) the protagonist's called Finn. For those who aren't aware, Finn's a nickname of mine (and I've been thinking a lot about changing my professional name lately, so it may end up being more than that). Although it was an enjoyable read, I felt aspects of it were a little bit weak and needed some more work before it could reach its full potential.

First of all, I liked the book's approach to queer characters. I found it in the LGBTQ section of NetGalley and it's published by Less Than Three Press, so I assumed it would have a focus on that kind of thing, but I liked how it was done. Defore struck a balance between dealing with real issues like homophobia and being closeted, and allowing queer characters to be happy, mainly by offering the reader two worlds: our world, with all its accompanying homophobia issues, and the fairy world, which doesn't care. This was effective in meaning it had some realistic grittiness without that being overwhelming.

I didn't, however, enjoy the sex scenes. They weren't exactly a big part of the book, but I'm pretty picky about that kind of thing (probably due to being ace and sex-repulsed and generally weirded out by anything involving penises). I have three categories: these scenes are either interesting, they don't register with me on any level, or they weird me out. Sadly, these were in the third category. This is probably due to my own personal preferences, but it did make it difficult to feel invested in the denouement of the relationships involved because I would've been happy for the characters not to get together if it meant I didn't have to read sex scenes. So, that was less great.

Also, I tend to enjoy the 'fake dating' trope (the most effective example I've seen was actually in a Les Mis fanfic AU of 10 Things I Hate About You which... says way too much about my teenage fan fic habits but it was great and I don't care what you think), but I felt it wasn't used to its full potential here, as the relationship developed too quickly and there wasn't nearly enough of the slow realisation of feelings or agonised pining, to be honest.

I mostly really enjoyed the fairy lore, which seemed to work on the premise that fairies have been hidden until recently but now, and in this particular town of Sparkwood, they're known and visible while generally feared and on the whole keeping themselves to themselves. However, I say 'seemed' because this was something that wasn't explained as much as it could have been: I would've liked more backstory and worldbuilding to explain exactly what the situation was, and why it had changed (or even if it had). There were some tantalising glimpses at fairy politics, particularly with regard to changelings, but again, this was something we didn't get to see quite enough of for my tastes.

I did like the way fairy promises and contracts of servitude and so on were used as plot points, and how magic worked. But all of these were things that I felt we only got tantalising glimpses of: I wanted to know more about how they worked, to delve deeper, and I'm not usually THAT big a fan of worldbuilding. (I like it and I always have questions, but I don't tend to notice inconsistencies and I don't care that much about the little details the way some of my friends do.)

The same could probably be said of all the things I found interesting -- hints at character relationships, Finn's backstory in the town itself, and so on, much of which was only revealed in passing references and flashbacks when it became relevant to the immediate story. Maybe it would have slowed the book down to learn more of this, but it was such a quick read that it would probably have benefited from that.

All in all, then, my issues with the book were to do with balance. There wasn't enough of what interested me, and I never felt quite like I had enough information to go on. In some ways this kept me reading, but without the pay-off that would have been actually finding out all the details I was lacking. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, because hey, fairies, right? I'm fairly easy to please when it comes to fairies.*

It would probably be a 3.5* read, but I think a low one; it doesn't feel strong enough to get pushed up to 4*s. It was one of those books that had a lot more potential than was realised.

Rating: ***

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*There are definitely exceptions to this and they usually involve gross misuse of medieval Irish literature in the guise of 'mythology', for the record. Blame my degree.