A Just OK Fae Fantasy | Of Beast and Burden by Kelsey Kicklighter [REVIEW]

On the coast of Georgia rests a small southern town where faeries still take changelings. Faye lost her mother to the Folk, but has she spent her whole life longing for a glimpse—however brief—behind the veil.

When Faye finds her way in, she also finds the truth of why the dark and alluring world of the Folk has always called to her: She’s half-faerie, and heiress to the Dark Court’s throne.

When the rival court steals her best friend, she’ll have to claim her crown to get her back. But that means learning how to use her glamour so she can face three deadly trials—and not falling for the dark and brooding king she’s meant to be replacing, or the nymph-turned-knight teaching her to fight. [From Goodreads]

I had high hopes for this one, and maybe that was inevitably its downfall. I had seen someone compare this to The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black, one of my all-time favorites. So I was incredibly excited to start this one when I received approval on NetGalley.

Jordyn from Jordyn Reads really summed it up in her one-word review of this book: “underdeveloped”. This book had so much potential, and in the end, it just did not deliver.

The story started out with Faye at a high school party. Lots of southern charm, lots of friend dynamics already starting to form. I thought we would get to see a mix of the fae world and southern suburbia and how they interact with each other throughout the story, but this scene is really the extent we get of that.

After this, we get so much info on seelie/unseelie dynamics and absolutely no development of any of the characters. The only character who seemed well-developed was Gage. I know nothing about Faye, Isla, Ellie, or their grandmother.

The interactions with Gage are what kept me from DNFing this book. They were little glimmers of what could have been with this story had the other characters benefited from the same kind of characterization.

I loved the Bi rep as well, which is why I was so sad about not enjoying this one. It was underwhelming, and not much happens until the very end of the book. When something eventually did happen, I didn’t care enough about the characters to really feel anything.

II will give credit to this one for at least not giving me the feeling I had to DNF.