Servant of Earth (The Shards of Magic, #1) by Sarah Hawley 
Series: The Shards of Magic #1
Published by Ace Books on November 12th 2024
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 451
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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In the underground Fae realm, only the strongest and most ruthless have power—but a young human woman forced into a life of servitude is about to change everything.
Kenna Heron is best known in her village for being a little wild—some say “half feral”—but she’ll need every ounce of that ferocity to survive captivity in the cruel Fae court.
Trapped as a servant in the faeries’ underground kingdom of Mistei, Kenna must help her new mistress undertake six deadly trials, one for each branch of magic: Fire, Earth, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood. If she succeeds, her mistress will gain immortality and become the heir to Earth House. If she doesn’t, the punishment is death—for both mistress and servant.
With no ally but a sentient dagger of mysterious origins, Kenna must face monsters, magic, and grueling physical tests. But worse dangers wait underground, and soon Kenna gets caught up in a secret rebellion against the inventively sadistic faerie king. When her feelings for the rebellion’s leader turn passionate, Kenna must decide if she’s willing to risk her life for a better world and a chance at happiness.
Surviving the trials and overthrowing a tyrant king will take cunning, courage, and an iron will... but even that may not be enough.
I generally don’t like Fae stories but I’m hooked on this one.
Kenna Heron is just an average human girl in a dirt poor village on the border of the bog which leads to the fae underworld. Maybe a little more below-average as the people in the village consider her half-feral. Her mother was a firm believer in the fae and always prayed, even with her dying breath, that the fae would choose her and bring her to live a life a luxury in the fae lands. Every six years, young women are chosen to go live with the fae, marry a fae prince and live happily ever after. Kenna wants none of this B.S. Kenna dreams of becoming a trader and leaving this sad little village behind. So she spends most mornings skimming through the mud of the bog looking for coins and other valuables that others toss to the fae for good luck. When she finds a perfectly preserved, intricately carved dagger in the mud, Kenna knows she can sell it for enough money for her and her best friend, Anya, to finally leave this village and see the world.
Everything is finally going Kenna’s way until Anya’s name is called to go join the fae and she is excited to go. Anya won’t listen to Kenna’s warnings about the fae. No one knows the bog like Kenna, so she is determined to follow the girls and actually lead them across the bog safely to the fae land. The odd blade that Kenna finds helps guide her towards the fae, but as they get closer, it also shows her that the fairy lights are hiding terrible monsters and Kenna is the only one to arrive in Mistei.
Kenna didn’t think she could hate the fae more until she finds out that they never intend for the girls to make it across the bog and simply bet on which girl will make it furthest before the monsters get her. Since Kenna is the first human to make it to the fae land in…no one actually remembers the last time, they don’t know what to do with her at first but end up giving her as a servant to the Earth House to help the Princess’s daughter prepare for her upcoming trials. This is a huge insult to Earth House, by the way. It takes Lara a few days of pitching a fit to give in and accept Kenna and even more time to see her as anything more than a disgusting human.
The Princess of Earth House fears her slightly spoiled and very timid daughter will fail the upcoming trials where Lara will be blessed with her immortality so she tells Kenna that she must help Lara succeed and if she fails, Kenna will die. No pressure. Kenna will help, she has no other choice, but her main goal is finding a way out and back to the human world.
The thing is that the more she learns about the different Houses (Earth, Fire, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood) and the fae, the more she understands that she isn’t the only prisoner in Mistei. The cruel king fears another attempt on his life so he controls the fae with a iron fist and living underground allows him to block the exits so no one can escape. Kenna finally realizes that she isn’t the only one trying to escape and she needs to decide if she wants to continue looking for her own way out or does she join the rebellion and risk her life to free everyone in Mistei, including the underfae and all the humans held as slaves.
THOUGHTS:
Life in the village was boring and it took until Kenna got to Mistei to catch my attention. I still say the fae are horrible, and this book doesn’t make me change my opinion. Even I know that you aren’t supposed to eat or drink anything they offer and Kenna keeps glugging down the wine at every event and being effected by it. Duh!
When I first saw this on the book jacket, I thought Kenna and Lara needed to work together as part of the trial but apparently, this is cheating. Kenna is forced to help but if she gets caught, she will be killed for cheating. The trials also take about a year to complete which gives us plenty of time for Kenna to get to know Lara, her younger brother, the Prince of Fire and the Lord of Void, as well as a few of the humans.
I was offered a copy of Book 2 and I was reading a few reviews on this story. It seems a lot of them indicated that the ending threw them. At this point (I don’t know if I can call it a spoiler) but I read the title of Book 2 and immediately guessed where this first Book was going to take us at the end. I wasn’t shocked, surprised or upset about what happened so I am unaware why everyone was disturbed by the ending, but again, I kind of had a head’s up.
What I didn’t like about this story is that Kenna hooks up (often) with the Prince of Fire, and while he is very helpful to her, as well as charming and flirty, I didn’t like him. He kept coming off as superficial and someone who hates Fae as much as Kenna, I am surprised she didn’t keep more of a distance since the hot fae prince isn’t going to end up with a lowly human servant. I guess I am more drawn to the dark, broody types. Lord Kallen reminded me a lot of Xaden (Fourth Wing) and his shadow powers. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t understand her attraction to the shallow Fire Prince.
Kenna apparently is amazing at spy work and lying to everyone as Kellan forces her to spy for him. The Earth House has her hiding secrets and the Fire Prince is drawing her into his rebellion. Yet she manages to balance the lies she tells to each of them when they harass her for information. Keeping everyone’s secrets and not really giving anything away when pressed for answers is a pretty impressive gift, yet she complains that the fae can’t give a straight answer.
I was definitely drawn into the story and am looking forward to the next one. The poor me of reviewing is that book 2 isn’t released until the Fall and if there is a book 3, that won’t come out until Fall of 2026. If there is a cliffhanger, it’s gonna suck to have to wait so long for a conclusion. I can’t imagine this is going to be a series but you never know.
I liked this story as well and look forward to the next one. I agree with how hard it is to wait for the next book when there are cliff hangers.