Check It Out: A Locket of No

Lily

6 years ago

A Locket of No Particular Significance by Florien St John
The First Book of Weskerlee
A Whimsical Historical Fantasy of Faerie
Historical Fantasy

Can a GOOD Faerie turned BAD ever turn GOOD again? Higher Faerie has banished unworthy Lesser Faerie from The Other-Lands. Like it or not, the human realm of The Middle Counties and The Wild South is besieged.When bookish Alisanne Frochard, a Vigilant apprentice studying Faerie Lore at Weskerlee Folly is tasked to track down a mischievous Dark Faerie alongside her handsome Captain whom she may or may not admire more than she ought, she hopes to prove herself worthy, or at the very least, tolerably capable.

Jasper Wintergreen and Faerydae Ib, two elite Nobles from Faerie, both hard-pressed to contain their natural proclivity for expressing excessive and elaborately ebullient expostulations, are unbeknown to the Vigilants, watching over them.

There’s a Half-Faerie orphan if we are to believe what she says and she is never ever where she is thought to be. There is a riddle, heartrending lost love, a prologue, an enchanted locket and a blue feather in a hat worn for luck. An almost Regency period historical fantasy of manners where the wit appears larger than the plot holes and where becoming lost in a fog in a bog somewhere east of Whirrel is only of concern during Autumn.

“Are you suggesting Captain that a Faerie might have wings? Like a bird? That’s preposterous. Why, think of all that effort flapping one’s arms getting from point A to point B when with just a small amount of magic, one could achieve the very same result. Without the flapping. Next, you will have us in nests gathering worms and shiny things. I’d be very embarrassed for any Faerie so tiny it must fly about like an insect, building tiny houses in the exposed roots of trees, dressed in nothing but Butterbell trousers. Have you ever worn Butterbell trousers Ib? Of course you haven’t. No one has. I am not sure who is responsible for creating such an idle fantasy. Perhaps one of your literature types? There is nothing worse than a writer, who when they have nothing to write of consequence, find themselves seduced by the temptation to expostulate on what could or might be, instead of what is!”

– The Good Faerie Jasper Wintergreen

5 out of 5 fairies

A Locket of No Particular Significance will captivate you from the first page. I grew up on fairy tales of all sorts. I’ve always been fascinated by them and the fae. I think that, in part is what drew me in. The story is well paced, although not action packed, with moments that will make you tear up and moments that will have you giggling. The prologue alone is a wild ride, and the story that follows does not disappoint.

Where to buy: Amazon, Amazon UK

Add to your TBR list: Goodreads

About the Author: Florien St John has been working hard on the first book of this series for two years. The work has seen numerous iterations and he trialled four different versions of this story (it began as a middle-grade concept) until he felt that he had the tone and voice right for the exact way he wanted to write the final novel. Completely re-written, this title is now an adult/ Youth Adult read which has allowed him the opportunity to use much longer words in extraordinarily longer sentences which have not surprisingly become insurmountable paragraphs 🙂