Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: No Fae is An Island

SERIES: Endangered Fae #4

AUTHOR: Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: MLR Press

LENGTH: 74,000 words

BLURB:

Diego comes home to a world that refused to stand still in his absence—there’s a vampire on Tearmann Island’s security force, a curious selkie has followed him home, and so much to do to make the world a safer place for magic, but Diego’s no longer sure he has the right to interfere.

Three years ago, Danu banished Diego for a time from the human world. Three years and three days doesn’t seem that long to be away from home but living among the wild /fae /can change a man and the human world returns the favor by changing while he’s gone. There’s a vampire on Tearmann Island’s security force. A curious selkie’s followed him home. So much to do to keep the world safe…but Diego’s no longer sure he has the right to interfere.

Theo Aguilar started his vampire life on the wrong side of the law. He’s killed and knows he’s dangerous if he doesn’t stay in control every moment. But the /fae/ took him in and Prince Lugh has given him a position of trust. So when Diego and Finn are arrested on a diplomatic mission far from home, he knows his duty. He’s striking out on his own to rescue them, a lone vigilante once again, this time for the good guys. The only glitch? The selkie, Limpet, can’t seem to understand the alone part.

REVIEW:

AHHH!!!! I have a problem… I loved this book and I just want to babble about it, but I need to write a coherent review and not just bounce up and down and yell “Read it! Read it!” over and over again.

Here we go. My rational review of No Fae is An Island:

This is the fourth book in the Endangered Fae series, the stars are Diego, a human with magical powers, who is the reincarnation of Taliesin. He is generous to a fault, suffering from seizures that result from a head injury he acquired while helping homeless people in New York. His costar, many life times lover, and now husband is Finn, a pooka pain in the ass. Really, I love him, he’s quite sweet and is the hero as often as not, but he’s a handful for Diego! So they meet, in the first book, bad things happen, good things happen, and REALLY bad things happen to Diego in the last book. Finn, who can be a bit flighty, turns out to be the rock Diego needs to survive. The first two books are pretty much Diego and Finn, then in Semper Fae we get costars. Zack and Lugh. They were cool, but I’m all about Diego and Finn. I have a confession to make, I was pissed at Angel for what she put Diego through in Semper Fae. I won’t say much, I don’t want to ruin it for someone, but Diego has been my particular favorite of this series and he was in a bad way! I love that an author engendered such passion for me, I love that I was mad at Angel! I really wasn’t, but I was quite unhappy about Diego. So she had some redemption to do in this book. I was trying to have faith, but it was hard! My Diego was hurting so bad at the end of the last book. Then we go to this one.

No Fae is An Island is mostly about Diego and Finn, picking up three years after Diego was banished from the Fae court, and his job as the human consulate for the organization between the human and fae world. It’s a big complex story, developing over the last two books, just read it and get caught up! So the main plot is Diego recovering his true self and working past the bad shit, but of course it can’t be that simple. There are countries not accepting of the new magical beings now in the world, and locking them up. Because humans are stupid. Diego, Finn, and friends head to a middle eastern country to help negotiate the release of three incarcerated college students. As happens with these boys, shit goes bad and they need to be rescued. It’s a fantastic plot, I was nervous we would have some serious drama with Diego and Finn, but it wasn’t toooo horrible. Good people, bad people, new potential characters for future stories, and lots of action. Not a lot of sex, just a little bit, but I didn’t really notice the lack until I was done. Also a good lesson on the intolerance and hatred that can occur when people don’t understand and accept differences.

Like the last book, we have a couple of costars. Theo, a vampire that was unwillingly drawn in to Diego’s crap in Semper Fae, has hung around the consulate and is now a part of the security force. He’s lonely and miserable, and doesn’t trust himself not to hurt anyone. He’s got two strikes against him, he’s a vampire and he’s gay. You would think humans dealing with fae folk, who look different and have a whole different understanding and openness about sexuality wouldn’t be prejudiced, but they seem to be, and poor Theo is the target. The Fae don’t like him either, so he’s just screwed and not in the good way. He’s somewhat cranky and crabby. Then we have Limpet! When Diego and Finn were in their three year recovery period, they spent some time with the wild fae, part of it was with a selkie pod. Selkie are fae humanoids, who have seal suits they put on and become seals! A lovely little selkie named Limpet latches on to Diego and Finn, leaves his pod and follows them. All the way from the faery realm to the human world. Theo catches him sneaking around and the rest is history…. I LOVED LIMPET! Really loved him. He’s sweet, and goofy, and innocent, and strong, and stubborn, and awesome. I want my own Limpet. Yes, I’m babbling. Whatever. Read the damn book and see! Limpet may have stolen Diego’s spot as my favorite. So Theo and Limpet turn out to be the heros of this story, Limpet keeps following Theo when he’s not supposed to even be there and literally saves his life. I loved them together, and loved their contribution to the story.

Angel Martinez writes some amazingly creative stories. This series is the perfect blend of contemporary, fantasy, and paranormal. Humans, fae, vampires, werewolves, djinn, basilisks, selkies, dragons, on and on she goes. Traditional myths and made up shit. She gives us creative plots, deep characters, true love, trauma, drama, action, and pain. I have been happy, sad, concerned and pissed off. I’ve praised Angel on Facebook, and bitched at her. I’ve threatened to slap and/or hug her. She has made me laugh and cry. All in these four books! I nearly gave the last one a one star review just because she hurt Diego, but that would have been stupid! And I am not that petty. I do get why he had to go through his dark time, but still, it sucked. My one complaint (other than hurting Diego!) about the last book was her over use of pet names, “hun” and something else I have forgotten, but that was not an issue in this book at all. The writing was great, the plot was great, the characters both old and new were great, I obviously loved this book. The whole series. I hope we get more and more.

You have to read the previous books, this is a series, and you’ll miss stuff if you don’t. If you are a fan of fantasy romance novels, or paranormal romance novels, these need to be on your to be read list. I can see if someone isn’t in to fantasy these would be hard to get in to, but they are so good. Maybe try the first one and see how it goes! Holy crap they are good.

I’m done babbling now!

Here are my reviews of the previous books:

Finn

Diego

Semper Fae

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

MLR Press  

 Amazon

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