Book Review: The Mist Thief

Title: The Mist Thief
Author: L.J. Andrews
Genre: Romantasy, Fantasy, Romance

What It’s About: As Elves are only able to protect against their own Kin, Jonas decides to enter into marriage with Skadinia as he is sworn to protect the Ever and the Fae. He feels that this is the right thing to do to ensure that Skadinia’s powers are never used against the fae, though at the signing of the contract, he feels guilty that Skadinia has been used as a pawn.

When they marry, Skadinia’s gown glows, showing that she is not as emotionless as she has appeared, and then the two of them head together with their group to the Alver lands, as per the contract. Together, they learn that they actually do have feelings for each other, and discover that they care for each other, with Jonas trying to find ways to bring joy to Skadinia in their lands—from creating a spacious and beautiful room for her, to creating a library with her favorite books. She learns to fight and use her power to protect, feeling accepted for the first time. But, she also gets sinister messages that unnerve her—these messages imply that she is meant to be with the Elves and no one else, with vague threats of death.

The couple visits the Island, and Skadinia shows Jonas some of her own spaces in the island. Their relationship warms up, and Jonas does everything to make her seem his equal, to the annoyance of Skadinia’s grandfather, who adopted her after her parents died by her magic.

It turns out that the marriage contract had hidden language that only would have appeared at the touch of a king’s hand—and Jonas’s father had never touched the contract because he has trouble reading, so his mother had read the contract aloud. The Alvers are thieves and tricksters, however, so they decide to outsmart the contract, and Jonas kills one of the elves that had come to Alver lands and had previously tortured Skadinia when she was growing up. This causes Skadinia to be kidnapped by her former fiancé back to the Island. The Alver go to war with the Elves again, this time getting assistant from all of the Fae as well in order to bring Skadinia back. Both of Jonas’s parents fight side by side together, and they get to Skadinia in the end. In the meantime, Skadinia had a conversation with her grandfather, where she told him that she loved Jonas and wants to be with him. Her grandfather makes her the queen of the island, and tells her the truth that it was actually he who killed her parents in the tree, because they did not want to give her up, while he had seen her magic and saw it to be a sign of the prophecy that the elves had. He then takes her to the throne room and tells the other king and his son that Skadinia is not going to marry his son. This results in those elves killing Skadinia’s grandfather, and finding out that she is indeed the queen of the Isle. During the battle, both the King of the Light elves and his son perish.

Skadinia returns with Jonas back to the Alver lands, but she also brings her island to it, and they join the lands together with a bridge, giving the Elves the freedom to go wherever they wish, and want to go across the realms. They also bring in the Queen of the Light elves, who is a bit skittish as she has lost her husband and son, and never previously had power. They end up living in peace, but find out that Mira and Tait had disappeared after they were supposed to return from the Ever.

My Thoughts: Jonas and Skadinia are so cute together—I really enjoyed their story and their relationship, though it makes me sad that they do not have a second book in the series. I feel like it would only be much better if the author had two books per couple so that we could see them develop and grow. I’m still in love with this series and these characters, and love seeing Livia and Erik pop up here and there to support Jonas and Skadinia. Overall, a great story! Can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out to read it!.