Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales)

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Lord Blackthorn is a very interesting character because he’s kind of Effie’s magical fairy godfather but at the same time faeries can also be tricksters. However, as their characters become more fleshed out, I became more interested in their stories, especially Effie’s and Blackthorn’s. Thanks to the anger Effie inadvertently spreads, the workers of the household reach the boiling point and then some, and ultimately demand action. He's an absolute ray of sunshine, always curious about how human beings work, unashamed of his emotions, desperate to please others and improve himself as a person.

The second book in the Regency Faerie Tales series, I ended up enjoying this book way more than I thought I would. This is why Effie feels such inordinate relief when she leaves the house with Lord Blackthorn and feels the sun on her skin.Effie is a maid who is full of anger because what else does she have left when she is I’ll treated every single day.

I didn’t read this novel’s predecessor in the author’s Regency Fairy Tale series, and thankfully, this did not lessen my enjoyment of Ten Thousand Stitches at all, which can be read as a standalone. Lydia mentions that a servant named Lucy was dismissed after Lady Culver discovered she was pregnant. He actually reminded me a bit of a more genuine and sincere version of Bambleby from Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, which I also loved. Effie is such an easy character to cheer for, since she is in such a position that she doesn’t deserve to be in.

Lord Blackthorn is a benefactor, more than willing to help Effie in her venture, for a trade of one thousand stitches sewn into his favorite jacket. Other events were so ridiculous that I knew I'd be accused of writing cardboard villains if I included them. I liked that story just fine - although it’s a very white, very heteronormative view of the issues - but I didn’t vibe with the central relationship between Effie, an exhausted maid, and the self-improving elf, Lord Blackthorn. Now, Effie has one hundred days and ten thousand stitches to make Mr Benedict fall in love with her and propose… if Lord Blackthorn doesn’t wreck things by accident, that is.

it sweeps you off your feet in the swooniest way possible' Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy on Half a Soul'A charming and original take on both the fae and the Regency fantasy genre, with plenty of humour and heart. She blasts Miss Buxley for being willing to settle for being a good wife to a man with enough money to keep her in relative comfort without expecting either love or faithfulness from him and tells her she's not worthy of marrying anyone. The latter had a grain of truth: butlers held the key to the wine cellar, and were therefore capable of sneaking drinks from the good stuff. Allen are the housekeeper and butler, almost antagonistic towards each other but the way their character arcs develop is also a joy to discover. Some of these things are mentioned below, but please be forewarned that trigger warnings for sexual assault are appropriate.

And if she fails to get a proposal out of Benedict, she becomes Lord Blackthorn's servant in faerie for life. It has both the bad side of anger, the impotent rage of the Ashbrokes that causes them to lash out and hurt those below them (without ever thinking about the fact it will hurt others), and also the anger at injustice that forces you to act. He is hopeful and optimistic and wants to learn and grow and be virtuous, and his cheer just lights up the pages here.

With the author's smart but funny writing, we get to see the plight of the people who work in such households and have no status, how their invisibility is considered their best quality, any wrongs done unto them have no consequences for the perpetrators but they are really powerless to do much about it.He’s a bit of an enigma, and I wondered throughout the story if he was trying to help or hinder because his intentions seemed unclear. The first book explored it from the view of nobility being forced to confront the underbelly of their glittering world.