Trailer Park Fae

Starred review from April 20, 2015
Saintcrow’s urban fantasy series launch is expertly crafted with heartbreak and mistrust, far darker and lovelier than the title suggests. Widower Jeremiah Gallow—a half-human, half-Sidhe former armormaster to the Sidhe queen of the Summer Court—is living a carefully mortal life as a construction worker in our world. He’s unaware of a plague sweeping through the Summer Sidhe, possibly sent by the lord of Unwinter. When Robin Ragged, also half-Sidhe, dodges an Unwinter knight and seeks shelter in a rundown bar, Jeremiah can’t help but notice her, and her resemblance to his dead wife unexpectedly draws out his protective instincts. Robin, a rare Realmaker (someone who has the ability to make objects that have unfading enchantments), is the queen’s chosen courier for the newly discovered plague cure. But when the queen takes Robin’s adopted child as her new plaything, Robin bargains for the boy’s life, setting off a chain of events that will bring about open war between the Summer and Unwinter courts. Saintcrow’s artful, poignant descriptions remain with the reader long after the tale’s end, as does the persistent sense of dark, unsettling unease. Agent: Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Literary.

Starred review from June 15, 2015

Popular urban fantasy author Saintcrow ("Bannon and Clare" books) initiates a new series starring half-human construction worker and former fae knight Jeremiah Gallow and Robin Ragged, errand girl to the Winter Queen. When Gallow's construction site is attacked, he's forced to come out of hiding and acknowledge his heritage as an armsmaster to the fae and confront his sad life as a widower. Meanwhile, Robin's royal service is clearly not by choice, yet it's unclear where her true loyalties lie. Add in her uncanny resemblance to Gallow's dead (and very human) wife, a plague that seems only to affect the full-blood fae, and a late arrival of spring, and the result is a fast-paced, skillfully crafted novel. VERDICT Saintcrow's excellent tale will immerse readers in a complex and eerily familiar world of fae-inhabited trailer parks and diners and find definite appeal among fans of Seanan Maguire's "October Daye" series. Try this for Charles de Lint aficionados who want something a touch lighter but still with profound worldbuilding and characters.--JM

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