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Title | A Dark and Hollow Star
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Author | Ashley Shuttleworth
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | Simon Pulse - 2021
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First Printing | Simon Pulse - 2021
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Title | A Cruel and Fated Light
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Author | Ashley Shuttleworth
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Cover Art | Melanie Delon
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Publisher | Margaret K. McElderry Books - 2022
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First Printing | Margaret K. McElderry Books - 2022
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Title | A Grim and Sunken Vow
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Author | Ashley Shuttleworth
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Cover Art | Melanie Delon
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Publisher | Margaret K. McElderry Books - 2023
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First Printing | Margaret K. McElderry Books - 2023
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Title | A Wild and Ruined Song
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Author | Ashley Shuttleworth
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Cover Art | Melanie Delon
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Publisher | Margaret K. McElderry Books - 2024
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First Printing | Margaret K. McElderry Books - 2024
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Category | Young Adult
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Arlo, Nausicaä, Aurelian, Vehan, Celadon, Riadne, Lethe, Theo
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Main Elements | Fae
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Website | ---
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A Dark and Hollow Star
Choose your player.
The “ironborn” half-fae outcast of her royal fae family.
A tempestuous Fury, exiled to earth from the Immortal Realm and hellbent on revenge.
A dutiful fae prince, determined to earn his place on the throne.
The prince’s brooding guardian, burdened with a terrible secret.
For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world.
Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a war brewing between the Mortal and Immortal Realms, and one of these teens is destined to tip the scales. The only question is: which way?
Wish them luck. They’re going to need it.
A Cruel and Fated Light
Half-fae Arlo becomes entangled in the courtly intrigue at the Seelie Summer palace as danger for ironborns mounts in this “beautifully written and deliciously complex” (Nicki Pau Preto, author of the Crown of Feathers trilogy) sequel to A Dark and Hollow Star that’s The Cruel Prince meets City of Bones .
After thwarting the man behind the gruesome ironborn murders—and breaking several fae laws to do so—all Arlo wants is a quiet summer. As the deity of luck’s Hollow Star, capable of bringing about endless possibilities, this shouldn’t be too much to ask, right?
But someone is still trying to summon the mythical Seven Deadly Sins. All signs point to immortal meddling, and if this is the gods’ attempt at returning to the Mortal Realm, it’s Arlo they’re going to use to do it.
When Queen Riadne offers to host Arlo at the Seelie Summer palace, she jumps at the chance. She’ll get to see more of Vehan and Aurelian and perhaps even work out her complicated feelings for the gorgeous ex-Fury, Nausicaä. But no one trusts the infamous Queen of Light, even as Arlo wonders if she’s just been greatly misunderstood.
With the Summer Solstice quickly approaching, everyone expects Riadne to finally challenge the High King for his crown. And as Arlo struggles to get control of her powers and take charge of her destiny, she’ll soon be faced with a choice that won’t only change the fate of the Mortal Realm forever but could condemn it to a cruelty the likes of which the Courts have never known.
A Grim and Sunken Vow
Arlo and her friends must decide how far they’re willing to go to depose a cruel ruler in this third book in the Hollow Star Saga that’s The Cruel Prince meets City of Bones .
The die is cast.
The era of Spring is over.
Riadne’s bloody coup on the Summer Solstice changed Arlo’s life forever. In one fell swoop and a fool’s bargain, she lost both her family and free will to the newly crowned High Queen. Now, with Arlo forced to use her powers as Luck’s Hollow Star to help summon the rest of the seven deadly sins, Riadne stands closer than ever to achieving her dark goals.
And Arlo isn’t the only one trapped in a frightening new role. Her ex-Fury girlfriend, Nausicaä, is determined to do whatever it takes to stay by Arlo’s side, even if that means becoming Riadne’s pet assassin. Aurelian and Vehan, torn apart, struggle to survive on their own.
Meanwhile, Celadon has been revealed as Riadne’s illegitimate son—and heir to both Spring and Summer, the ultimate offense in the faerie world. But the High Prince has secret plans of his own, plans made all the more complicated when the beautiful and deadly immortal Hunter Lethe takes an interest in him…
Five budding legacies will need more than luck if they hope to stand a chance against the greatest adversary the Courts have faced. For nothing’s more dangerous than a faerie tale… except the one who tells it, and maybe what they’re going to need is no longer that story’s hero but its villain.
A Wild and Ruined Song
Arlo and her friends struggle to rally against an overwhelming foe before time runs out in this gripping final book in the Hollow Star Saga, the urban fantasy series about fae in Toronto.
Arlo Jarsdel has lost everything. Her family. Her freedom. Her name. And now that she’s sharing her body with Ruin, the formidable titan of devastation, she’s even beginning to lose herself.
In their most dangerous game of deception yet, Arlo has just one goal: destroy the three Bone Crowns corrupting the mortal and immortal realms before her time runs out and Ruin takes permanent control of her being.
With Celadon fighting on the political front against the ruthless High Queen Riadne—now armed with the cataclysmic power of her Crown, the Sins, and Ruin—Vehan and Aurelian are scrambling in secret to build an army to rival Riadne’s infernal forces. Meanwhile, Nausicaä will do whatever it takes to save her girlfriend from obliteration, despite knowing the odds of survival are nearly nonexistent.
When the line between hero and villain becomes blurred, and bonds are put to the ultimate test, it has never been more imperative—or more difficult—to stand united. For this is not the first lifetime that these five friends have faced the evil behind this impending war, but if they can’t find their way back to each other, it might just be their last.

This was free on rivetedlit.com in the month of January, and the timing was perfect as I had just started a "Fae" themed reading year. The downside is you have to read it online so I read it in bits and pieces across the month, whenever I had time on my computer, this affected of course my ability to easily follow what was going on.
And it's a pretty complex mystery, someone is killing the ironborn, the half-bloods, and the full-blooded fae don't seem to care much. But Arlo cares, after all she is ironborn herself. She apparently doesn't have much in the way of magic, so the Fae court wants to wipe her memories and have her live as a human...but this is one of those "special snowflake" tales so Arlo will of course be super powerful in the end and everything will revolve around her, even the gods noticing her, and this while the gods are not allowed to interfere in our realm anymore. For what it's worth, she didn't annoy me as is common in some of these tales.
Toss in a Fury who has been outcast into our realm, and a couple Fae princes, the Wild Hunt and some sexual tension all about and it made for a decent story with some pretty good worldbuilding. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but I will definitely hunt down the other books in the series.
May 2024
While Arlo continues to be the naive "special snowflake" we come to realize that pretty well everyone is more than anyone thinks they are, including themselves. A lot of complex things have been set in motion years ago and this group of teens have to figure it out and save...well we don't even know what the end goal is here. Do they need to save the world or is it more than that, something that goes all the way up to the gods? Must admit it didn't hurt there was a titan parading about as a cat while everyone thought it was just a pet phooka. I don't know if its entirely realistic that every character is of some form of queerness, though it was nice to see the variety, including an asexual character which you don't often get to see.
I've grown very fond of the male characters, Arlo is too...naive and trusting. She's grown up around the Fae, she should know better. Guess one could argue it is her human side that tries to see the good in everyone, and to be fair, some of the sidhe have the power to manipulate her into thinking anything they want her to, but it bugged me a bit she just walked into every trap set for her.
Anyway there are a couple more BIG books still to go, can't imagine how this tale will get even more complex but I guess it must!
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