Ballad: A Gathering of Fairie

by Maggie Stiefvater.

The companion novel to Lament. This story takes place just after Lament when James is now at the Thornking-Ash school (for gifted students?) and meets Nuala a fairie who can make James even more exceptional at his music (bagpipes) in exchange for siphoning years off the end of his life.

While it's not a sequal to Lament (it doesn't follow the original 2 characters at all), it definitely continues the story from a fairie political point of view. Just like Lament, there is plenty of danger and action to keep the interest high and I finished this one very quickly (2 nights?). I thought it was a great companion book and I highly recommend both of these books. I do hope or wish that the author would write a third book sometime in the future because I feel that there is more to Dee's story as she has not met her potential in the least yet.

Lament: The Fairie Queen's Deception

by Maggie Stiefvater.

A new fairie book that was on sale one day for cheap on kindle so I purchased it. I loved it! This one is kind of a traditional fairie book, one where you don't speak of the fairies and therefore don't learn much about their world. It's about a young girl Dee who is very special and a young (man? or fairie? or what) Luke who is intrigued by Dee.

I won't give more than that away by stating what it's really about but it goes through some very interesting fairie lore. Dee caught the fairie's interest due to her music (she plays the harp) and I thought the story really was wonderful.

Dee's best friend James Morgan has a companion novel 'Ballad' which I'm reading now. Dee still makes appearances in Ballad but it's not a sequel. I'm enjoying this 'world' and these characters but I know there are only the 2 books unfortunately.