This book had my heart in a vice grip. It's about so many things, but at it's heart it's about the different forms of love and what we'll do for those we love.
If there's one thing H.G. Parry has mastered in this novel it's tone. It moved from a tender story about a girl watching her brother return from war into a bright-eyed adventure. Then it was full of golden nostalgia that makes you ache for those years when you can see the entire future spread out before you with hope. (The tones shifted further from there, but I feel that would be spoiler territory.) And that nostalgic wonder is when the novel really found it's way into my heart.
I loved all of the characters so much for their strengths and flaws, both of which are put on full display. I was pulled into their world and wanted desperately to live those golden days with them. How Parry managed to fit so much heart and plot into this one book is truly a feat. It could have easily been more than one book, but having it all distilled into one volume felt so right.
I'm so glad this was my first H.G. Parry book because it means I now get to go and read everything else she's written.

Thank you to Redhook and Orbit books and Netgalley for the ARC.

I want a sequel!! Lol.
I have always liked books about fae, and this one did not disappoint. It is dark, twisted, funny, deep…..it kept me on my toes and I did not want to put it down!
The entire concept of magic in the book’s world was really interesting, and I liked reading about a setting that involved a magical school.
The twist at the end (or should I saw twists?) was very unexpected and tied into everything perfectly.
This is perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince.
10/10 would recommend and read again.

H.G. Parry, I will never forgive you for the emotional turmoil this book has put me through! The way this book enveloped me and wouldn’t let me go. The absolute heartbreak I felt and shock at the end.

I loved this story! It was beautiful written, wonderful world building, found family, and magical.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for the arc!This was an intriguing, decadent, and intellectual novel that I devoured within 3 days. Here are some things that I adored about it:

The atmosphere was decadent, mysterious, and intriguing; I soaked all of it up. This book is truly for the dark academia whores, and what I should have done was wait to binge this on a rainy, fall day.

The characters grow on you like one of Eddie’s plants. They were complex, flawed, and yet I couldn’t help but root for them. Gotta say though, I love Hero indubitably.

The plot was whiplash inducing, even when it wasn’t. You may think you know where this book is going, and you may be right, but you will also be VERY wrong. It took so many twists and turns that had me reeling and giggling mischievously. The plot truly gripped me, even in the slower sections. There is a stark contrast in the pacing and vibe of the two different halves of this book, but I found both equally interesting.

This book will be more emotional than you are expecting. At least, it was to me. No punches were pulled here, and that shit hurted!

The ending. It was phenomenal. Good shit!


All in all, this book was a scholarly slay. I would love to get more content in this world, even if this book is a standalone, and I hope that it is. Spin offs would be greatly appreciated. Anyways, I would love to reread this in the fall, while sipping some hot tea and lightly a candle. -4.5 doors

This is my second H. G. Parry book and, honestly, it was hard to pick up anything after the amazingness of Uriah Heep. This new story, however, was also engaging and enjoyable, if not quite as emotionally resonant for me. My favorite aspect was how unexpected, twisting, and meandering the plot was. It is really refreshing to read a book where I really didn’t feel like I knew what was going to happen next! With likeable characters and a satisfying ending, this is definitely a book I would recommend to any fans of fantasy.

The Last Faerie Door offers a captivating blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and coming-of-age themes. Set in 1920s England, the story follows Clover, a young woman with a hidden magical talent, as she navigates the elite world of Camford Academy.

The author skillfully crafts a rich and immersive world, filled with intrigue, romance, and supernatural elements. Clover's journey is both heartwarming and suspenseful, as she grapples with the consequences of her actions and the complexities of friendship and betrayal.

Fans of historical fantasy and magical realism will find The Last Faerie Door a thrilling and thought-provoking read. With its well-developed characters and engaging plot, this novel is sure to enchant readers of all ages.

I absolutely loved this book. The plot was fantastic, the characters were loveable but also realistic. It was a book that once I started reading I had to know how it finished. There were talks of class differences, sexuality differences, and even what it meant to be a woman in the 1800s. There's fantasy thrown into major events, like the World Wars, but this is a fantastic book. The foreshadowing was done excellently and after I finished the book, I finally put all the pieces together. This is a perfect one book, and doesn't need a series, but also I would absolutely love it if this was a series.

Babel meets Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fearies! Really fun academia book, I enjoyed the characters and the world building. It is a little slow but in general it’s low stakes and cozy.

I’m a bit conflicted. Disappointed even. The storyline was quite good. I have to admit it had all of the features that I love in fantasy novels about faeries. And I love the Fae, truly, and every novel I read about their wicked ways. It’s just like so good I don’t know why I have an odd fascination with it but it’s so fun! It’s just so interesting to read about people studying things that I know that do not exist. Magical schools intrigue me very much and Camford was no different. It reminded me almost of Hogwarts in the best way possible and when the character (Clover) walks up to it for the first time there was just something so magical about it!
This novel is not just about a girl from a non-magical place trying to learn magic. It’s more than that, it’s found family, friendship, and what it means to really truly trust someone. However, not all the characters in this book are trustworthy. It shows you the world and people through different lense.
This book reminds me of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries. This book would be like what I imagine studying under Professor Emily Wilde and I think that’s really cool. That's what I imagined the whole time while I was reading the first part at least. When I made it to the 60% mark of the book, I felt like I was reading a completely different book at first. It wasn’t the story but how it was structured that bothered me. The first part of the book follows Clover and her friends when she is about 18 and in university and the second part is when she’s older. I felt like it just wasn’t connected but it was, but it also wasn’t. I don’t know. Like I said I was very conflicted on this. I really did think that this was going to be a five-star read for me, but unfortunately, it was not.
If it was possibly written in more of a diary-like format to begin with and then the ending stays what it was I think that I would’ve liked it better? I hope you can tell how conflicted I am right now. I do highly recommend this, though. The writing and the characters especially! I will definitely be reading another book by the author this time. I’m not sure if I will purchase a physical copy when it comes out later this year though. But I might.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Book Group for allowing me to access an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<u>The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door</u> is a dark academia book in the style I usually adore. It’s reminiscent of all of my favorites (<u>If We Were Villains</u>, <u>The Atlas Six</u>) but with a world building that’s uniquely H.G. Parry. I’ve always admired how reverent Parry is of magic; even in the worlds she builds, where magic is ubiquitous, she allows the reader to experience magic through the eyes of people who don’t take it for granted, such that the magic never loses its <i>wonder</i>. And that is the case for the protagonist and narrator of <u>The Scholar</u>, Clover Hill, who is introduced to magic when her brother, Matthew, is cursed by a faerie during WWI. In an attempt to save his life, she forces herself into the upper echelons of English magical society and becomes not just a practitioner but a scholar of magic, even as her relationships with other students drag her into magic’s more sinister roots.

The story itself, here, is good. Along with three other students, Clover discovers a way to open the faerie doors that have been closed since Matthew was cursed at Amiens, and this discovery has radical implications that shatter her only friendships, as well as the broader magical world that she has come to love. Clover’s desire to right her wrong is admirable, and a sufficient backbone on which to hang the plot. I was never bored while reading this book; I was fully invested in both the world building and the plot, and was ultimately satisfied with the way things resolved at the end.

However, there was something lacking in this book that made me unable to enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. Part of what I tend to love about books like this is the relationships that grow, fracture, and rebuild between the main characters. That can only be accomplished by <i>showing</i> exactly how the characters grow together and apart, and the ways in which their worldviews and morals evolve as they get older. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Clover spends a lot of time with Alden, Hero, and Eddie, we’re mostly <i>told</i> that she loves them and that they love her. And, perhaps since Clover is a bit of an unreliable narrator, I never truly believed in their closeness and affection.

Which is all to say that, although I did appreciate, plot-wise, how the story ended, I missed the emotional depth of the characters’ choices and resolutions. It says a lot that I cared more about what happened to the fae than what happened to Clover and her friends, with the possible exception of Eddie, who actually managed to be human and relatable in a way that the other characters did not.

It’s possible that <u>The Scholar</u> was never meant to be about the relationships between the characters, and was rather meant to be a study of inherited power, in which case this book succeeds quite well. And some people will probably love this book for that exact angle. Unfortunately, I need a little more emotional depth to my reading experience to really love a book, so while this was a <i>good</i> read, it was not my <i>favorite</i> read. And that’s okay.

This one was kind of hard for me to pick a rating because the first 50% was SO slow. The world building was awesome — We love a dark academia setting. But I was bored. Around 50% it started to pick up. By about 75% I finally was putting the pieces together and I was addicted. Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this a try!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is a slow burn, but not a slog.
In this world that Parry has created, magic exists, but only the elite know about it-the Families. Clover Hill finds out about this magic world after her brother is struck with a faerie curse. She's determined to find a way to break the curse. when the magic world bans all faerie magic, what lengths will she go to to find a solution?
I really enjoyed the world building here, and found the way the elite hid magic to be so realistic. The characters had a lot of depth and I enjoyed the academic setting. This book does require some patience, but I felt it was worth it.
I definitely want to check out some of Parry's other work.

Thanks to Netgalley and Red Hook for an early copy for review.

The writing was nice, the story was lovely, the fairies are appropriately sinister...but I'm likely to forget every single thing about this book within the next three days - it just didn't have any lingering stick to your bones material for me.

This was simply beautiful! The academic setting, secret magic society/university, clever mages, and the found family aspect all came together and gave me everything I wanted in a cozy faerie fantasy. We didn’t get the pretty high fae, this time we got the dangerous tricky fae and I ate that up! I loved the pacing, the little plot twists, the dark curse, how flawed and real the characters are, and definitely how well that this story was written. 5/5 ⭐️

Dive into a world filled with magic, but not everyone knows it's there.
Clover Hill's brother is shipped off to fight the Germans, but returns with a unique injury; a faery curse.
Follow Clover as she demands entry into an exclusive magic school made for men. Not only is she one of the only women allowed, she is the only student not from a magical Family.
Clover fights her way into the school to learn of a cure for her brother, making friends along the way who have their own secrets.
The four work together to learn how to open a door into the fae realm, but unseen consequences arise.
8 years later, those consequences face the light of day and Clover is forced to join forces with those friends again to fight the fae.

I'm having trouble writing competently about this book. I looked at what I wrote about H.G. Parry's last two books, and I was hard pressed to write about those with the level of enthusiasm I felt for them. Maybe I'll circle back and rewrite this closer to publication day if I find the right words to convey how captivating this story was!

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is a sweeping, engrossing read that combines dark academia, WW2 fiction, and fantasy. There's also some great social commentary about the aristocracy and social classes.

We follow a group of four students while they're at university for magic studies (part 1), at one of their estates for summer vacation (part 2), and then dealing with the aftermath of their experimentation during school a decade later (parts 3 and 4). I was prepared for this to be a story simply solely about students at university and that part of the story was fantastic, but when the time jumped ten years, I was even more fascinated.

Our main heroine is the underdog - a common girl named Clover Hill who gets special tutoring to pass the entrance exam for a magic university. Her motivation is to learn how to remove a curse that was put on her brother at the Battle of Amiens by a faerie. Much of the scholarship about the fae is off limits in the post-WW2, as the powers that be have decided that the faerie world is too dangerous after what happened at Amiens. Clover is smart and determined to find the information she needs. Being a commoner at a school full of aristocrats, who have been using magic since they were children, means she's got plenty of time to study...until one of those aristocrats brings her into this small circle. Their friend group of four is united in wanting to study the fae, but they go their separate ways after one bad interaction with a faerie. What they don't realize is that there are lasting effects of what they did as students, which they have to deal with as adults.

The writing is gorgeous, as I've come to expect from H.G. Parry. This is a book I know I'll find myself reading again and again.

Thank you to Redhook for the opportunity to read and review this title early!
Out Oct. 22, 2024!

After her brother returns from WW1 with a deadly faerie curse on him, Clover Hill leaves her family farm to attend Camford in order to learn all that she can about the faerie world and magic in order to cure her brother. There is only one problem - the doors to the faerie world were locked after the war, and summoning them is now illegal.
It Camford, Clover is drawn into the circle of society's golden boy, Alden, and his small group of friends. Her first summer at Camford and with Alden leads her down a path of forbidden magic gone awry. Years later, when the doors come crumbling down, Clover knows that she is partly to blame and must team up with people who used to be her closest confidants in order to save the world.

I loved the synopsis, but ended up not connecting with this one, and this is coming from an HG Parry LOVER. Uriah Heep and A Declaration on the Rights of Magicians are my favs of hers.
If you are more into The Magician's Daughter, I think that this book will be right up your alley!
There is nothing wrong with the book, but I think that it is just slightly too similar to other fae books that I adore, and I could not stop the comparison (specifically to Emily Wilde), which is not fair to the book.
I loved the academic set up and the setting, but I struggled with the slow pacing and the characterization. At 35%, I felt that hardly anything had happened, and found myself wanting to skip to the end to figure out what happened. I also desired more scenes of genuine connection from these friends, and I failed to feel connected to them. I wanted them to be slightly more fleshed out.
I think that so many people will love this, and that it is a book worth loving, but it was just not for me unfortunately.

Thank you again to the publisher for this ARC!

The only word I can think to use to describe this book is decadent. From the first, the author slowly, deliciously introduces you to a world that at once feels familiar and exotic, a dark academia setting of wealth and power and magic. Like the protagonist, Clover, an outsider who forces her way into a society that at every turn makes sure she knows she is neither welcomed nor worthy, we want so badly to know, to learn, to uncover the secrets of a hidden magical world and the elite university meant only for those whose blood is right, and like Clover, we are confronted with the realities of elitism, colonialism, and complicity in oppression, even when oppressed ourselves.

There is no part of this book I did not love. There is no character who does not feel sparklingly alive, no connection between them that did not have my spine pricking with recognition. I've been Clover, stubbornly shoving my nose where it doesn't belong because I refuse to acknowledge the very concept of belonging. I've been Eddie, on the outside looking in and just so grateful to even be at the window. I've been Hero, pulled in two different directions by the privilege I wield and the systems that exclude me. And I've been Alden, blurring the lines between passion and mania in a misguided attempt to get what I think I deserve. I could have read a thousand more pages of this quartet, of their delicate dance, of the ways they pushed and pulled each other without really moving. Parry so perfectly encapsulates what it is to be not quite a child, not quite an adult, with too much curiosity and not enough sense but most of all so much love for your friends that you don't know what to do with it.

I also have to commend Parry on her restraint. The scope of this story is broad, both in time and location, and quite easily it could have spiraled into a familiar fantasy trilogy structure. But the limits that being just one novel put on the way this story was told serve the narrative so well; we are forced to keep moving forward, never spending too much time in one feeling or one moment, no matter how much we want to. Time marches on, and the choices characters make must eventually have their consequences. One can only hide away at Ashfield for so long. Again, though I selfishly would read so much more of this world, I feel that what I was given was exactly correct.

There are a number of plot twists wound into this story that, in a lesser writer's hands, would have felt cheap or gimmicky. In Parry's writing, however, they feel right, appropriate, necessary. The pacing is such that each new wrench thrown into Clover's life, while understandably overwhelming, never bogged the plot down. Parry has a gift for keeping her readers on their toes, never quite comfortable enough in the now not to be worrying about the what's next, and as a result, the twists hit less like a fist to the face and more like an unexpected turn in a labyrinth.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this book, one of the most exciting reads of my 2024 thus far. I will be sure to pick up my own physical copy of this book when it comes out, because I know I will be revisiting it many times to come.

Dark academia, faeries, magic school. This book on paper was everything I love, and i could see how it would be the perfect book for many. The characters are incredibly well developed as is the world. It had a dark edge to it that i loved, but it lacked the charm and whimsy that usually draws me deeper into stories like this one. That said, it is one I see myself returning to for sure!

All they needed to break the world was a door, and someone to open it.


The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door
by H. G. Parry
Pub Date: Oct 22 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England's secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country's magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden’s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.

Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it.