The Exile by CT Adams

Genre:  Adult Urban Fantasy

The Fae Series, Book 1

CT Adams' website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Goodreads):

Brianna Hai runs an occult shop that sells useless trinkets to tourists—and real magic supplies to witches and warlocks. The magical painting that hangs in Brianna's apartment is the last portal between the fae and human worlds.

A shocking magical assault on her home reveals to Brianna that her father, High King Liu of the Fae, is under attack. With the help of her gargoyle, Pug, her friend David, and Angelo, a police detective who doesn't believe in magic, Brianna recovers what was stolen from her and becomes an unwilling potential heir to the throne.

Brianna is your typical occult shop owner.  You know the kind that is half-witch-half-fae.  She left the fae world to join her mother in the human world.  And while she collects and sells magical artifacts, her father watches from the only known portal between the two worlds.  Needless to say, it only takes a small catalyst to bring her back to the fae world.

After receiving a gift from her father, King Liu, Brianna has to find something to send in return.  With the help of her coworker and friend, David, she's able to find the perfect piece of art.  When they struggle to get it home, David's brother, Nick, just happens to be in the neighborhood to offer them a ride back to the shop.  Seems like the perfect opportunity to introduce the magic and the fae.  In an attempt to save what's hers, she along with her two companions end up in the fae world.  But it's kind of hard to not make an attempt at war when the other side is willing to kill her.  And of course it draws the attention of her father.  Brianna is now back as princess of the fae.

I loved this book from start to finish.  While I had a hard time with the intro and sticking with the characters as the narrator changed, I was captivated by all of the action.  There were so many side stories keeping up with the main plotline that I felt like I was in an actual person's world.  The only issue I had is I felt like everything tied up too nicely with the ending.  It set everything up perfectly and didn't offer too many twists.  But the story itself is still worth it.

This is a definite for urban fantasy fans.  It has just a dash of romance in it (almost non-existent); it's more focused on Brianna's past and her path forward.  It's good!

Thanks goes to Tor for providing me a review copy.

Guest Post: The Exile by CT Adams

The Exile by CT Adams

The Fae Series, Book 1

Genre:  Adult Paranormal Fantasy

CT Adams website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Goodreads):

Brianna Hai runs an occult shop that sells useless trinkets to tourists—and real magic supplies to witches and warlocks. The magical painting that hangs in Brianna's apartment is the last portal between the fae and human worlds.

A shocking magical assault on her home reveals to Brianna that her father, High King Liu of the Fae, is under attack. With the help of her gargoyle, Pug, her friend David, and Angelo, a police detective who doesn't believe in magic, Brianna recovers what was stolen from her and becomes an unwilling potential heir to the throne.

A suspenseful urban fantasy with a hint of romance, The Exile is the first solo novel by C. T. Adams, who is half of USA Today bestselling author Cat Adams. Like the Cat Adams Blood Singer novels, The Exile is set in a world where magic is real and contains Adams's trademark blend of suspense, action, humor, and strongly emotional writing.

Q:  How did you come up with the idea to write this book?

A:  Honestly, I don’t know. It’s odd. Sometimes you have a single thing that triggers a character, a story, or a series. I can absolutely tell you the story of how I ‘found’ Celia Graves and the whole Blood Singer series. It was a specific event. I saw a picture and BAM. There the world was, fully formed, along with the main characters in it.

But every once in a while an idea just sort of seeps into my consciousness, and when I recognize it, it’s as if it was always there, just waiting to be written. I’ve read lots of fantasy and lots of urban fantasy. In my mind the distinction has always been a little blurry. I loved Barbara Hambly’s Darwath series, and it was one of the very first I found that combined people from our reality with a fantasy world (well, that and the C.S. Lewis children’s books). I’ve loved many books that embraced the Fae, and the mythology of the Sidhe. But I always wanted them to be just a little . . . more . . . me.

Eventually the time was ripe, the idea was there, the characters, world ready. And I wrote THE EXILE, the first book in this series. And I’m very excited because I know where I want the next two books to go—and I hope the readers will be willing to follow me there.