REVIEW: How to Survive a Fairy Bargain: A Laugh-Out-Loud Fairytale What-If (Fairies and Familiars Book 2) by Laura J. Mayo
Theodosia’s already survived being the evil stepsister in one fairy tale, but surviving fae bargains, fairy rings, and being turned into a hedgehog will be a whole new challenge in this hilarious sequel to Laura Mayo’s How to Summon a Fairy Godmother.
Theodosia Balfour is in a panic—she has no clue how to handle her new life as a fairy’s familiar. She just can’t seem to find her place in Cecily’s land of decadence, doublespeak, and whimsy.
Moreover, Theo can’t stop thinking about Kasra, Cecily’s last familiar who is now living a cozy human life without any memories of his time in a fairy’s service. All she wants is to tell Kaz how she feels about him, but that’s impossible now. Then suddenly, the regent of the fairy kingdom reveals a secret that shocks Theo to her core and thrusts her into the role of detective to solve a thousand-year-old royal assassination attempt.
With time running out to catch the would-be assassin, Theo can rely on only her own wits and unique charm to discover what’s really going on.
NOTE – spoilers for book one.
Dear Ms. Mayo,
I was delighted to see that there would be a follow up to “How to Summon a Fairy Godmother.” That book ended with a gigantic pivot and I wanted to see what would happen next.
Theo Balfour is now a fairy familiar, bound to Cecily of the Ash fairies. But her heart is really not into lounging around in Cecily’s lovely home and living a life of idle existence. Theo longs for the man who is now out of her life forever and if she sometimes whisks herself to his new human abode and wistfully watches him in her hedgehog form, well who cares? She does enjoy playing fairy music with her new fairy musician friends and does a good job in snapping back at snobbish fairies who give her condescending compliments.
Then The Truth comes out and everyone is knocked for a loop. Worse still the danger from 1000 years ago is still very much there and if Theo wants to survive, she and her friends will have to figure out what happened, why, and who did it. Yet even if they can, does Theo want yet another new life, away from the one she has?
Heads up and a fair warning – the first chapter is a lot of recapping of “How to Summon a Fairy Godmother,” which is a great reminder or introduction to newbies. The next bit is a whole lot of exposition to set up the main points of this book. It dragged and I mentally had ‘yep, yep, let’s get moving’ thoughts. Once past all of this, the action gets going and really takes off.
In book one, Theo is prickly for a lot of good reasons. At the end of that book, she makes a difficult decision. Theo has always been last in and been put-upon by her family so I actually hated to see her yield once again. In this book, I’m not surprised that Theo is still prickly. Her fairy is kind and not demanding but Theo is a bound familiar. Then new WTF stuff is revealed and once again it sounds as if others will be making Theo’s decisions. TBH, I was at first delighted that she verbally smacks someone around and won’t just give in like a nice girl.
However, this character and Theo spend basically most of the book snarling and snapping at each other. He’s pretty much a bully and Theo acts like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Okay so they both have legitimate reasons but a book’s worth of Attitude from both sides got Old.
Theo has taken on an almost impossible task to be carried out in a short amount of time. In book one, she thought outside the box which is something I’m delighted to see her carry on doing. Her human perspective lets her approach the problems from different angles and she has learned how to make fairy bargains which are tricky little devils in which you have to get the wording just right.
I’ll be honest and say that there aren’t too many whoa! twists here. The information needed to figure things out is provided and all a reader really needs to do is apply the details mentioned already to see who is behind what Theo needs to solve and why things were done. I enjoyed playing along at home to see how Theo was going to work things out but I knew the answers already.
What is really lovely in this story is Theo really coming into herself, gaining confidence, and standing up for herself. Theo takes shit from no one. The found family and her realization of it are the cherry on top. New character Alby is a delight and I love that Theo sticks up for a person whom many dismiss. What is less overwhelming is the romance, which is subdued for most of the book, and the fairly obvious villains. I’m not sure if there’s a third book to be made from this and I’m fine either way as this one ends perfectly well on its own. B-
~Jayne
AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle
