Synopsis:
Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.
Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.
Rating: 🌟🌟
I really wanted to love this. Despite going in with low expectations, I
still came out disappointed. More than anything, I think this book has a lot of missed potential because it's too short.
I was drawn in immediately by the writing, characters, and setting, but
those quickly got sacrificed in order to rush through the plot in the
small amount of page space.
This book's biggest downfall is that it's not longer. It clocks in at 297 pages, which just simply isn't enough for a fantasy story that is driven primarily by love. If there had been even 100 extra pages, I think the romance would've felt more fleshed out and the main antagonist more present earlier in the story. But because this story didn't have that extra space, An Enchantment of Ravens is plagued by insta-love and an ending that doesn't have any weight because the antagonist was introduced in the last 50 pages.
The insta-love was definitely the most harmful aspect to this book for me. Unlike other YA fantasies, where the romance is a subplot to the main plot, the story of An Enchanment of Ravens hinges completely on the romance between Isobel and Rook. Even if in other YA fantasies, the romance overwhelms what's actually happening in the main plot, a main plot still exists outside of the romance. In this book, all of the stakes and consequences are derived from the romance. The characters are only in peril because of their love. And so when we don't actually get to see that love develop on the page beyond a few scenes of the characters interacting, the whole story just feels hollow.
I'm also personally just not into journey books. I usually find them meandering and kind of boring. The synopsis set me up for court intrigue, which I love, and instead I ended up with a journey narrative. I would've reconsidered picking up this book, had I known half of it would've been a journey story.
Overall, An Enchanment of Ravens falls flat because of its short length. Margaret Rogerson is a good writer and has interesting ideas, but the length of this novel just did not do the story Rogerson wanted to tell justice.
This book's biggest downfall is that it's not longer. It clocks in at 297 pages, which just simply isn't enough for a fantasy story that is driven primarily by love. If there had been even 100 extra pages, I think the romance would've felt more fleshed out and the main antagonist more present earlier in the story. But because this story didn't have that extra space, An Enchantment of Ravens is plagued by insta-love and an ending that doesn't have any weight because the antagonist was introduced in the last 50 pages.
The insta-love was definitely the most harmful aspect to this book for me. Unlike other YA fantasies, where the romance is a subplot to the main plot, the story of An Enchanment of Ravens hinges completely on the romance between Isobel and Rook. Even if in other YA fantasies, the romance overwhelms what's actually happening in the main plot, a main plot still exists outside of the romance. In this book, all of the stakes and consequences are derived from the romance. The characters are only in peril because of their love. And so when we don't actually get to see that love develop on the page beyond a few scenes of the characters interacting, the whole story just feels hollow.
I'm also personally just not into journey books. I usually find them meandering and kind of boring. The synopsis set me up for court intrigue, which I love, and instead I ended up with a journey narrative. I would've reconsidered picking up this book, had I known half of it would've been a journey story.
Overall, An Enchanment of Ravens falls flat because of its short length. Margaret Rogerson is a good writer and has interesting ideas, but the length of this novel just did not do the story Rogerson wanted to tell justice.
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