Book Review: House of Ash and Shadow

Title: House of Ash and Shadow
Author: Leia Stone
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Magic, Fiction

What It’s About: Fallon and her friend surprise Fallon’s dad with a birthday cake and they tell stories of each other instead of giving gifts as they are located in a city on the outskirts where the banished Fae live. Her father’s favorite memory of her is of the day they first met–the day that someone left Fallon with a note, “she is cursed, don’t touch her,” at the entrance of the village. He was a widower who wanted a child but resigned himself to dying that night, and since the villagers were afraid of curses and what that could mean, he took her in. He raised her as his own, finding out along the way that Fallon literally cannot be touched, or else she starts convulsing.

Her father passes out from a cut that gave him an infection, which will in turn kill him once it reaches the heart. Sorrel, her friend, is a herbalist but there is nothing that she can do besides making sure he is comfortable. In order to heal him, she would need a healer or medicine from the Gilded City, where all the magical fae live. Fallon makes her way there and with some help makes her way to the apothecary, breaking in. The owner hears her and comes down to catch her in the act, but when Fallon explains the situation, she tells her that Fallon really needs a healer. The apothecary owner directs her to the Academy, a school. Fallon finds it, and gets help from a student there that takes her to the student-run clinic. There, Fallon meets Ariyon and his gaze does some strange things to her. Once she explains what she needs, Ariyon jumps at the offer, beating out the other student and the two of them head out to the West End which is where everyone has been assuming Fallon is from–it’s a part of the city where Fae with less magic live.

As they ride on the horse, Fallon tells him to go to her village, and he almost kicks her off his horse until she tells him that she’s really desperate and holds a knife to him. They get to her village and Ariyon says that he will have to battle death when he sees her father. He starts working on her father, and the tattoos on his hands become animated. He manages to heal her father, and when he returns to his body, the tattoos are fully complete, giving him a Master Status, which may be a problem for him as he only needed a 2nd year’s tattoo completions. In the ensuing happiness, Fallon forgets that Ariyon was able to touch her without causing her pain, and Ariyon stays the night with them at their home. Fallon tells her father the next day that he can touch her, and he suggest a plan–touching her at breakfast. She does this, without pain, which surprises her father to the point that he mentions Fallon’s curse. Ariyon runs away, telling her to stay away from him, and that she should never come back to the Gilded City.

While Fallon is at work at the Tavern, Royal Guards come for her to question her further, but the people of the village stand up for her. Fallon then turns one of the guard’s weapons to ash, and Hipsie, the owner of the Tavern, cleaves off the hand off of one of the soldiers who tries to grab Fallon. A fight ensues, an Fallon is touched by one of the guards, which causes her pain so excruciating that she passes out. She wakes up in jail, overhearing Queen Solara and a man talking. The queen reveals that Fallon is the daughter of Marissa Bane, and proposes killing or caging her. The man, on the other hand, advocates to educate her and says that Fallon won’t go dark because she is surrounded by love based on the amount of people who stood up for her. The Queen leaves, and the man reveals that he has known that she’s been away. He tells her that Hipsie is in the jail as well, to be sentenced to death for what she did, and Fallon asks him to release her if he wants to prove that the Citizens of the Gilded City are kind. The Guards release her and she finds her dad waiting for her in the town center. Another guard takes them to a new house–it is a condition of her release that they live in this house and she must attend classes for all four years at the academy. Hipsie gets dropped off at their house without a hand, in exchange for taking a hand.

Fallon heads over to Avis apothecary and asks for tinctures for Hipsie, and tells Avis to add it to her tab to work off. They help Hipsie through the night, and the next day Fallon has to go to the school, but is worried about Hipsie. Eden, the girl who helped her at the Academy when she visited, shows up with her mom, Mable, who is the landlord of the house. They give Fallon clothes and food, and Eden and Fallon meet up a little while later to walk together to school. Eden tells her all about school and the curfew. Once at school, Fallon goes to see Master Clarke and finds him being held up in the air by Blair, a student who uses Telekinesis but who has bullied Fallon during her outing.

Fallon attends classes and meets Ariyon’s twin, Ayden who takes an immediate liking to her and tells her that he doesn’t blame her for who her birth mother is and what she had done. Over time, it is revealed that Marissa Bane, Fallon’s birth mother, killed Ariyon and Ayden’s parents–the King and Queen of the Gilded City. Fallon also finds herself attacked by a crow, who turns out to be none other than her familiar, Yanric Bane, though she tries to run him off because it makes her look strange.

The second week of school, Fallon meets Master Knight, whose whole family was murdered by Marissa, and who forces Fallon to use magic fire–one that is purple in color on the first day of class, in order to get her to stop being afraid. By this point, she is getting accustomed to having her familiar, but then during a lunch break, Blair touches Fallon’s hair by grabbing her bun and causing her to convulse in pain. Ariyon heals her in private, showing that he’s aware that only he is able to touch her.

Ayden invites Fallon and Eden to his party and makes sure to give Fallon a space near the stage that is cordoned off so that no one will accidentally touch her. He tells her that night that he likes her but doesn’t want to take it any further in case his touch hurts her. She finds Ariyon drunk in the woods and they almost kiss, but are interrupted by screams. Nightlings–fae that drink blood–have survived the destruction and come to the party. Amongst the Nightlings is Fallon’s birth mother, Marissa, with her own familiar, a snake. Fallon helps chase them off, but Ayden is injured and refuses Ariyon’s help in healing. Eden tells Fallon that the reason Ayden refuses Ariyon’s help is because any time Ariyon heals, he shaves years off his life as he is known as a Maven healer–a rare type of healer. The day after the attacks, Queen Solana has Fallon questioned, with Ariyon acting as a healer for Fallon. Fallon tells the Queen the truth, as Queen Solana has the power to extract the truth from others, that she is not working with Marissa or knows anything of the attack. When Solana asks what is it that Fallon wants then, Fallon tells her it’s to be touched, hugged and love. Those words break Ariyon because is an empath and he feels those feelings.

Fallon works at Avis Apothecary, when suddenly Avis shoves her into the bookcase and hides her, telling her that someone with ill intent is coming to the store. The individual turns out to be none other than Queen Solana and it turns out that the Queen is the half sister of Avis. Solana asks Avis about Fallon, and Avis tells her that all she has read from Fallon in her energy is that she is a good, kind person–nothing like her mother, Marissa Bane. Queen Solana asks if she is sure and Avis asks her how long it took for their mother to find out someone’s true feelings. Later, once Solana is gone after having purchased some cream, Avis invites Fallon up to her house for hot chocolate, and confirms that Avis is Solana’s half sister. Their mother was betrothed to the King, but had a tryst with a lowly Shopkeeper from the West Side. When it was found out that her mother was pregnant with her, she was sent away to give birth to Avis and upon her return, her maternal family negotiated with her paternal family that she would be raised by the father and they were to keep it secret, in exchange for money and a shop. The girls’ mother would let them play together when they were younger.

Fallon celebrates her birthday by getting dressed up, putting on make up and walking to school with Eden. Ayden shows up with some roses, which he gives to Fallon, and she asks Ayden if they would like to go to the ball together, to which Ayden says yes. At school, she finds a drunk Ariyon, who shows her the paintings he’d made and gives her a gift–a small painting of roses that will last forever. She doesn’t get why he is so hot and cold towards her or what to make of it. The next day Eden and Fallon go over to Ariyon and Ayden’s house and the twins had burnt the cookies that their mom used to make for them. It was supposed to be a celebration of their parent’s lives, who were murdered by Marissa Bane the day after Fallon’s birth. Fallon makes the cookies, and after eating with the twins and Eden, she takes them out of the oven. Ariyon tastes one of them and says that they taste exactly like the ones their mom used to make. Ayden comes by, snaps one up and tastes it. He agrees with Ariyon’s assessment, and in his excitement, he picks up Fallon by her bare skin, activating her curse and causing her to convulse. She plays it off as no big deal, though she is in pain, and she forbids Ariyon from healing her, but she does want to leave. Her request is only for Ariyon to take her to Avis Apothecary, where Avis gives her tinctures that would help her out. Ariyon takes her home and she subsequently passes out from the pain.

At one point, Fallon’s dad gets injured at work and Mabel takes him to the clinic, but it’s all overrun. So Fallon, who was at school late due to tutoring, borrows Ember, Ariyon’s horse, and races for tinctures at Avis’ apothecary. After Avis grabs a lot of tinctures–as many as she can–the two of them ride on Ember to the clinic, where Avis helps deliver medicine to Fallon’s dad and other people. Amongst those people is a lady who knows how to sew the injury back together as she is a seamstress, so once she is healed, she helps them.

Ariyon breaks up with Blair after their exams. The exams consisted of canon shots that Eden totally eviscerated; however, when it is Fallon’s turn, two of the ceramic plates are actually metal. They start to take down the awning around the queen, and in her instinct to protect, Fallon uses telekinesis to lower the Queen without further harm, though she is unable to save the guard. The Queen is in shock that Fallon would save her and Master Clarke comments that Fallon’s powers are not born of anger like her mother, but of the need to protect others.

Fallon gets ready for the ball she is attending with Ayden after the exams. Eden shows up, crying and it turns out that Hayes, who was supposed to go with Eden to the ball would no longer be taking her as he is going with Blair. According to Eden, Hayes had told her that he was forced to take Blair per his father’s mandate. Ayden arrives and agrees to take them both so they head to the party and Fallon struggles to keep up with them in the dress that Avis made for her. She stumbles and falls over, touching Ayden, which in turn triggers her curse. She sees in that moment that Ayden is done–even though he wanted to try to continue their relationship, he cannot keep going this way knowing that his touch would harm her. Fallon tells Eden to go ahead, while Ayden and she talk, deciding to stay best friends instead. She goes to the courtyard of the school to catch a break and meets Master Clarke and Master Hart, Ariyon’s healing teacher who appears to be very skittish around her. They leave, and then she sees two shadows–Ayden and Ariyon coming towards the entrance to the courtyard. Ayden gives Ariyon a nod and walks away. Ariyon then heads into the gate towards her, with purpose and when he reaches her, he starts pulling off her gloves, unclipping her hair and then dancing with her. They talk and Ariyon reveals that he broke up with Blair because she’s not Fallon and it’s always been her. He kisses her and she feels like a normal person.

Their night, however, is interrupted by Nightlings. Both of them run towards the panic and in the ensuing fight, Marissa drops Fallon a letter. Marissa then attempts to hurt both Ariyon and Ayden. Fallon tells her that she loves them but Marissa tells her that they are poison. Fallon then uses her powers against Marissa and frees the two boys; however, Marissa wedges an axe straight into Ariyon and then disappears. Fallon channels her fury and uses her magic to take out the Nightlings. Then she runs to Ariyon and tries to figure out how to save him as she doesn’t have healing magic. They have to move him because of the fire enveloping the ballroom, but Ariyon’s healer marks start to show up on her hands and she uses the healing magic to save him. Suddenly, the stone walls of the school are replaced by grass in what she thinks is the Realm of Eternity. Fallon faces off with the Fae of Death, begging him to save Ariyon though the Grim does not believe she can save him because she is not a Maven Healer, though Fallon bears the marks. The Grim takes her request for consideration to Keep Ariyon safe. As the Grim slams his sickle, Ariyon sits up, fully healed and she gets ejected because she does not belong in that realm since she is a Nightlong.

Fallon returns to the ballroom and gets out with Ayden who is dragged by guards, and they both runs straight into the Queen, who demands to know what happened to Ariyon. Queen Solana also demands to know just what had Fallon done. Fallon responds honestly that Ariyon is with the Grim and then gets knocked out.

Upon waking, Fallon gets questioned but the Queen in jail to find out what actually happened. Again, Fallon is unable to lie because Queen Solana is using her magic on her, so she tells the Queen nearly everything except for telling her about the romance with Ariyon. The Queen cuts her, and Yanric attacks the Queen in Fallon’s stead, but the Queen kills him. Fallon brings him back with the Queen’s permission and Yanric reports that he saw Ariyon in the Realm of Eternity being placed in cuffs. Fallon relays this to the Queen as Yanric can only communicate with her, and the color bleaches out of the Queen’s face. Solana calls for Master Clarke, and when he overhears Fallon repeating the same information, he also looks pale. He reveals that when a member of the House of Ash and Shadow dies, they are arrested and taken to the Realm of Rebirth. There they are challenged in a series of fights, after which the winner gets to be reborn as a knighting. Master Clarke also reveals that the Banes could switch magic with another fae, which is what Fallon did, clearly having Ariyon’s magic. That in turn means that Ariyon has hers. Fallon knows that Ariyon will never be happy to be turned into a blood drinker, and Queen Solana orders Master Clarke to teach Fallon how to fix this.

My Thoughts: Holy Moly! This is an amazing story–totally not what I was expecting when I first picked up the book. I love the character building–specifically the growth in Fallon and how she’s so surrounded by love, which she also exudes despite all the horrible circumstances around her life, from her curse to her association with the Banes. I also love how the romance with Ariyon grows, like tentative tentacles, bit by bit. And it’s sweet the way they find each other, find peace in each other. I’m curious to see what the outcome will be of this separation in the second book, and how they will find a way to get him out of the underworld. This is exciting!! Love this book.