Faery Queen

Bestseller Pillow catapults readers back into the high fantasy world of her Realm Immortal series in this jam-packed dark romance, which picks up a year after the events of King of the Unblessed. Hugh, Earl of Bellemare in England, has had his eyes opened to things beyond his mortal ken and found both love and heartache in Tania, Lesser Queen of the faerie Kingdom of Feia. He left her to rescue his sister, Juliana, from kidnappers, promising to return in a year. But while away, he has come to believe that Tania was only trifling with him—and perhaps even had him under a love spell—and resolves never to go back to fairy land. Now, however, his once-blessed childhood home of Bellemare is seeing its fortunes fail. Meanwhile, Tania, normally a being of light and happiness, can’t understand why Hugh has forsaken her. As her health and kingdom slowly crumble around her, she makes a desperate play to recover Hugh’s heart—and in so doing she brings the dastardly Lucien, King of the Damned, closer to his domination of Hugh’s world. The worldbuilding is expansive and Pillow strikes a good balance between romance and action. The plot itself feels fairly familiar and some sex scenes depict dubious consent, which won’t sit well with all readers. Still, series fans will find this a solid continuation. (Self-published)