Mist and Mirrors, Books One to Three

De: Eve Langlais

Narrado por: Carly Robins

A stunning fantasy epic featuring three previously released titles in one super sized edition.

Includes:

Mist Rising: The mist is rising nightly and with it brings monsters. It's up to Agathe and her sisters to delve into the mystery of its origin if they are to have any hope for a future.

Lying Mirror: A betrayal leads to a setback in Agathe's quest. The mist and monsters are getting deadlier by the day, however her quest for answers is fraught with lies. Who can Agathe believe?

Deadly Abyss: With no other choices, Agathe must enter the Abyss to find the truth and save the kingdom. She'll discover more than she expected, including the strength to fight back against those that would see her destroyed.

Contains mature themes.

©2021, 2022 Eve Langlais (P)2023 Tantor

Perfection

This truly was a very beautiful journey with suspense and excitement. Truly heartwarming and heartfelt.

Twisty, original and freshly feminist.

Book 1
“You do know I’m perfectly capable of detesting people without murdering them?
Your continued existence is a prime example of this.”
What a fun trilogy of YA fantasy, mystery and romance. This is more Grimm’s Fairy Tales over Disney, with named characters being killed, sex (albeit of the fade to black variety), and adult themes like gender prejudice or same-sex relations.

The way the story was told was a bit frustrating as the characters’ problems are exacerbated by failures to communicate. I understood the three women (Agathe, Hicks, and Venna) failing to communicate with the three knights (Meric, Bear, and Zav), at least in the beginning, when they’re on opposite sides of the King’s practice of taking the Blessed women. But, there’s a lot of secret keeping between the women and their charges, or between the knights and the community they’re supposed to protect, or between Zenir and Agathe that didn’t make sense to me. Stay with it; there’s reason behind the secrets and misdirects.

Book 2
Oh the tangled web we weave…
I had an absolute blast trying to figure out the twists and turns. Some I predicted- some I did not … but I was entertained throughout and chomping at the bit to get to the final part. The concepts of consent and victimization get stronger here. It’s still YA, but be ready for a few more F bombs and dastardly deeds by men without honor.

Book 3
“Vague instructions again- yay!”
As much as cryptic fantasy annoys me, I have to admit that in this series it elevated the story. Minor downsides include a bigger sex fixation (more detailed, but still tame compared to the author’s other books), the majority of the book spent away from the Ninth Realm and in a whole new kingdom, and the absence of most of the characters from the previous books for all but a few chapters. That last one was very disappointing, because I was very much hoping that Hicks and Venna would form the Three Musketresses with Agathe for an epic climactic battle. The ending was still solid, just not quite as feminist as I thought a series dedicated to girl-power would be.

There is room for continuation of the series, or perhaps a spinoff.
If so, I would gladly plunge back into the mist.
This is not your typical fairy tale and that’s a welcome thing.