The Magpie's Brood The Will-o'-the-Wisp Stories Book #4
Fantasy Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fairies, Fantasy, Fae, Folklore
Independent
Feb 11, 2024
Kindle
375
Amazon
When Morgan Patterson came to Northern Ireland for a college year abroad, she didn't expect to meet the man of her dreams, Tiernan Doherty. Except Tiernan wasn't a man at all. He was the hereditary lord of an ancient faerie kingdom, who had an enduring chain of duty to the wicked faerie queen, Em. Even more burdensome is Tiernan's debt to the morally ambiguous Connor Doyle--the man who has threatened everything Morgan loves and Tiernan wants.
Now Morgan is married to Connor, not Tiernan. And Tiernan, he's doing something he said he never would. He's marrying the evil Em. Both marriages were meant to secure peace in the faerie kingdoms of the North but after Tiernan's marriage, something terrible occurs. It's a crime no one would have dared imagine and because of it, any hope of peace is threatened.
In a surprising move, Morgan is tasked with solving the crime, but it soon becomes apparent much more is at stake than simply bringing the culprits to justice. Will Morgan learn what the true motive for the crime is before the longstanding truce between the faerie kingdoms and humans is shattered--or someone truly dear to Morgan must pay the cost for this attempt to overthrow the standing faerie monarchy?
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
This is the fourth book in this serialized series and must be read in order to fully understand what is going on. Unfortunately, I did not read the first three books and found myself a little lost. Although there is so much I missed I still loved this book and managed to read enough to kind of catch up.
Intrigue and betrayal, murder and enough secrets and surprises to keep me interested till the end. When Morgan Patterson came to Ireland to complete her last year of college, she had no idea what she would become involved in, fairies and Elfs and danger all around her. Her love for Tiernan Doherty, a fairy lord, would get her twisted up in family drama but they loved each other.
Morgan became pregnant with Tiernan’s child, and she married, only she married his brother Connor and allowed him to claim Pearl, her and Tiernan’s daughter as his own. This marriage to a man she didn’t love and who was not her husband’s child was just a drop in the bucket when it came to more surprises.
Tiernan married Em, the Fairy Queen who he despises an evil woman who wouldn’t hesitate to kill off anyone who stood in her way, and her target is Morgan. Why he married her is just one more piece in a large puzzle.
Em had a son with Connor and when he left her to marry Morgan Em castrated him now Tiernan is seen as the father while Connor is Pearl’s dad for those who do not know the truth. Of course, Connor has another son with Tiernan’s ex-wife, a woman who attempted to kill Morgan. It is hard to keep up with the characters and what they have planned and when one of the characters is murdered Morgan is assigned to help in finding the killer.
Fairies kill with impunity and in this book, everyone seems to be a target, trust is not a word you would associate with Fairies. Morgan and Tiernan are still in love, but they are both married to other people, so their love now falls into a plutonic one. There are secrets that are being kept from Morgan, secrets that make finding a killer next to impossible.
There is a blood feud between Connor and Tiernan but neither of them will reveal what it is to Morgan but their hatred for each other is very evident. There is plotting, intrigue and distrust, I don’t know who can be trusted and Morgan is in the middle of chaos affecting everyone. Children are being raised by fathers that aren’t really theirs, leaving the biological parent locked out of their lives.
There are things that I suspect but will not reveal because they may be true or just figments of my imagination and this book left my imagination in overdrive. As I said before there are many things that I know I missed by not reading the first three books and I am hoping that the next book will answer so many of the questions I have.
Violence, betrayal, hatred, secrets and lies were hard to keep up with at times so many characters, so many questions and I will have to wait. If reading about elves and fairies’ interest you then you must read this series but start at the beginning. The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars was because I came in on Act Four leaving me a bit lost.