Heart of the Raven Prince: A Cinderella Retelling (Entangled with Fae)

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Brief Summary of the Storyline: This is Anna and Edward’s story. Widowed Anna is having troubles financially and decides to get a job and finds one being a secretary to the local mysterious (and grumpy) earl. Edward has lost his family being the sole survivor to a smallpox outbreak when he was younger as well as his wife and baby in childbirth, so he has a lot to be grumpy about. What Edward doesn’t expect is that his new secretary will turn his world upside down. When Anna discovers that Edward uses a brothel to meet his manly needs, she decides that she needs her womanly needs met too and concocts a plan. There is some side character drama, some hot sexy times, and some sweet moments...and they get a HEA ending. A half-hour later, I trail behind Mrs. Coleman and my two stepsisters as we make our way through the Gray Quarter toward the heart of the city. The three figures walk clustered together, nearly identical in looks and height, all with blonde curls and pale, snooty faces. Clara, the shortest of the three by an inch or two, is seventeen—a year younger than me—while Imogen, a near-spitting image of Mrs. Coleman, is nearly twenty. They wear their best dresses, hats, and coats reserved only for public outings, a façade to hide the truth of our poverty. But there’s something about him that sparks a tempest inside me, one that explodes from my lips before I can stop it. “What are you talking about?” I found it really refreshing that Franco wasn't described as the typical fae male who is big, beefy, and muscular. He was still alluring with his silver hair and eyes, his tattoos, and his wings and raven form. Such a captivating hero, but it was a refreshing reminder that a love interest doesn't have to be chiseled and muscular for me to enjoy the romance.

Half-fae Ember craves freedom from her conniving stepfamily. As if they weren't enough to deal with, a chance encounter with the arrogant Prince Franco leaves her humiliated and in a fiery rage. Nothing could convince her the prince is anything but a rake. But when the opportunity to evade her scheming stepmother falls into her lap, she'll pay the price-even if it means impersonating the prince's newest flame... The manor doesn’t belong to us anymore, Clara dear,” Mrs. Coleman says. “We can’t simply ask to stay somewhere uninvited.” It doesn’t even matter that he supposedly doesn’t drink blood. It doesn’t matter that he’s spoken of as a highly sought-after bachelor. The disdain in his glowering, silver stare is enough to make my knees quake. Elizabeth Hoyt has a slightly different writing style in that she doesn't seem to reveal all of her character's insecurities, vulnerabilities and motivations right away. Most authors have a tendency to let the reader in on these things up front, and then the story centers around them making peace with those things and finding healing if the pain is deep. With Edward and Anna, Ms. Hoyt leaves the reader with the sense that there are mysterious things lurking beneath the surface that can't be seen, but she takes her time, revealing them one-by-one when the situation seems ripe for it. This does give the story a more languid feel which may not work well for readers who prefer a faster pace, but I thought that it was an interesting approach. The story also has a very angsty quality to it, I think, in large part, because of Edward's intensity. I found a certain beauty to it though, an emotional depth that was somehow different from other stories I've read. Edward and Anna have both suffered emotional pain in their lives, yet both seem to be fairly comfortable in their own skin and not harboring major neuroses. Once again, I thought this was a unique blend which made the characters very complex and multi-dimensional.Every human on the isle of Faerwyvae is taught never to bargain with the fae. It’s a tenet learned long before the human lands merged with the fae lands twenty-one years ago and unified under fae rule. Ok, one of my favorite characters was Mr. Davis, Edward’s valet/butler. What a hoot this man was! He suffered from a malady known as Selective Hearing Loss. It’s a wide spread, yet little understood illness, usually found in teen agers. In fact, all three of my own children became afflicted with this illness somewhere around the age of 13. I found it quite endearing in Mr. Davis. Not so much in my own children. Some of the plot is not very believable, a bit too contrived, but the story tugged on my emotions, and that's always a sign of a well-written story. Can Ember and Franco find love when the masks come off? Or will illusions and lies prove stronger than their hearts? My shoulders tense at the dare while a sudden tightness in my throat begs to be freed. Climbing this high up, giving in to even a portion of my fae nature, always tempts me to sing. Just considering the action of setting my voice to a tune, letting it mingle with the quiet music of the morning, sends a painful longing through me. My throat bobs, pleading for a hum, but I swallow it down.

And yet, no one ever tells a fae—or a half fae like me—never to bargain with a human. I often wonder…if I’d grown up with a warning like those the humans are given, would I have gone through with the bargain three years ago? Would my grief and guilt still have been so overwhelming that I would have neglected to pause long enough to see the truth? The lie? The deception?

Customer reviews

I liked the subtle humor here, a light touch that brightened this story and kept it from being too melancholy. As much as I like angst, sometimes it's nice to have a fun read that's also deep and manages to move me at the same time. Her footsteps approach the dressing screen but—thankfully—stop on the other side. If she sees the state I’m in, she’ll know I’ve been outdoors. “What excuse do you have today?” ACOTAR meets Bridgerton in this standalone fairytale retelling of Cinderella. If you like slow burn romance, fake engagements, and snarky fae royals, then you’ll love this swoon-worthy story in the Entangled with Fae series.

I don't want to give away too much and of course I don't want to spoil your reading experience. That's why my synopsis will be super short. Suffice to say that Edward de Raaf, the fifth Earl of Swartingham, meets Anna Wren while falling off his gelding--oh, please excuse me, Edward--you did not fall off, you were unseated. *cheeky smile* Shortly afterwards, Edward is in dire need of a new secretary and guess what? Plain Anna-- small morsel dressed in brown, her hair hidden by a god-awful frilled cap--gets the job. If you want to know more about these two and why Edward was aroused by a frumpy woman with an outstanding mouth he didn't even know, then you have no other choice than to read The Raven Prince. I guarantee you it's totally worth your time and money. Enjoy! Heat level: Hot. They have some hot tension, chemistry, and scenes -- but not so much it takes away from the story. Hotter than the usual HR! You know what happened last time I interacted with the humans,” I say, my tone wary. “And now…well, you know how I feel about these ridiculous human practices. I detest their restrictive codes of conduct. Even worse than that are the mothers and fathers who throw unmarried daughters at me, eager for one to snatch me up like I’m some war prize.” Another delightful part of this novel was the fairytale within the story, which was so beautiful in its telling, that I had thought it surely written hundreds of years ago by a master storyteller. But the truth is that it was also written by Elizabeth Hoyt. What a talent she has! I’m looking forward to continuing the Prince’s Trilogy and seeing what’s in store for Harry Pye in The Leopard Prince.I’d hate to find out. Come on. Your glamours make life so much more interesting.” My words are more than just flattery. While most fae are capable of conjuring glamours, myself included, we are limited by our own particular strengths and imaginations. Flora’s creations are artistic marvels unparalleled by the capabilities of the average fae. She has the distinct talent of connecting a glamour to an object. I don’t know any other glamourist who can do that. And where most fae glamours are nothing more than illusions, hers take physical form, forging with its wearer. The first wisp clasps her hands in an innocent gesture. “But you’ll miss the sunrise. It’s nearly at the horizon. Don’t you want to see it?”