Briar Queen

March 23, 2015
In Thorn Jack, Harbour’s first Night and Nothing contemporary fantasy, Serafina “Finn” Sullivan lost her sister, Lily, to suicide; fell in love with a dark and immortal fae known as a Fata, who became the mortal Jack Hawthorn; and survived nearly being sacrificed before she and Jack killed the ancient Fata queen, Reiko. Finn just wants to live a normal life with Jack, but Seth Lot, another evil being, wants revenge for Reiko’s death. He lures Finn to the Ghostlands, a place of horrors worse than death, using a secret about Lily as bait. Armed with a few arcane items, Finn and Jack find dubious allies among Seth’s old enemies and gain the help of the mysterious Moth, who cannot remember what he is or why Lily told him to protect Finn. After a quiet beginning, the threats hammer at an unrelenting pace once the Ghostlands are crossed. Harbour makes love, suffering, and sacrifice the most poignant parts of her worlds, and readers with even the barest knowledge of fairy lore and legends will be pulled deep into this tale of sharp magic and its ruthless children. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary.

April 1, 2015
A gothic story of faerie-tale romance, rescue, and revenge. Finn Sullivan is just hoping things will go back to normal now that her ex-changeling boyfriend, Jack, has grown a real heart. Or at least as close to normal as things get in Fair Hollow, where the supernatural world tends to bleed through. But normal isn't in the cards, not when the creature known as the Wolf has come to town looking for revenge for the death of his erstwhile wife, Reiko, the faerie queen Finn and Jack killed-and not when there's a chance that Finn's sister, Lily, might not really be dead. Finn and Jack are going to have to enter the Ghostlands, "the betwixt and between," to confront the monsters there, with help from Finn's best friends, Christie and Sylvie, and a stranger with a moth-wing tattoo who almost certainly isn't what he seems. There's plenty of danger and mystery here, and Harbour (Thorn Jack, 2014) has created an alluring world that oozes with atmosphere. But there are so many characters, each with his or her own agenda, that the plot gets muddled. Still, the emotional core of the story is strong, and the beautiful, crumbling, poisonous world of the Ghostlands presents more than enough weird and wonderful images to satisfy fans of the gothic and strange. Readers drawn to faerie lore will enjoy this lush, romantic tale even if the plot does wander in the gothic wilderness a bit too long.

May 15, 2015

Seraphina "Finn" Sullivan's life hasn't been the same since she came to Fair Hollow, seeking the truth about her sister Lily Rose's death. In the series opener, Thorn Jack, Finn found a college town full of dangerous fairy creatures known as fata, hiding in plain sight and playing with the lives and souls of mortals like herself. She also discovered love with Jack, a man she fought to free from the fata. But when Finn realizes Lily Rose might still be alive and in the clutches of the fata, she plunges even deeper into their shadowy world. VERDICT Steeped in well-researched Celtic lore, this book is stylish, with lush descriptions of the beautiful fata and their dangerous worlds; however, it is style without much substance. Finn hasn't broken her habit of rushing headlong into danger and needing to be rescued, and the fata and their allies continue to be tricksters. The angst-filled young love between Finn and her otherworldly Jack, who watches her sleep and tries to protect her from the grim beings of his world, will remind readers of a Celtic-flavored Twilight.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
Paranormal romance is a genre equipped to attract a significant chunk of readers looking for an escapist fantasy, and Harbour's Night and Nothing series has laid every trap in the arsenal to draw its readers in. In the second installment, main character Serafina Sullivan's new goal, after helping to resurrect her new lover and destroy the evil forces trying to control him, is to preserve the new life she's made for herself while delving deeper into the spiritual otherworld and uncovering mysteries from her own past. The lilting, whimsical new adult fantasy, balanced by impressively detailed and dark vignettes, is fueled by a goth-emo-scenester aesthetic designed to make readers of Twilight and its kin feel at home. The magic is mysterious, the drama is aching, and the people are beautifuljust the way paranormal-romance readers want it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)