A cold winter night, an isolated cabin in the woods and a snowstorm outside… no, it’s not the setting for an horror story, but a fantasy romance. Aerdyn, a seelie knight, is still morning the loss of his unseelie lover, a fae princess. Ellian was beautiful and very much in love with Aerdyn, but someone betrayed them, and Aerdyn is not only unable to remember, he was also forced to leave the magic world and now he is slowly dying.

Then Lian comes literally knocking at his door; he claims not only to be Ellian’s brother, but to “host” his sister’s soul in his body, and he is saying that, if he doesn’t love Aerdyn like Ellian did, then they will both die (they meaning Ellian and him). Aerdyn is not so for the idea at the beginning, but truth be told his reticent is not really due to the fact that Lian is a man while instead his beloved was a woman, but more since he is still mourning the loss of his lover, and even if Lian resembles a lot Ellian, he is not her.

This is only a novella, and more or less there are no big events in the story, so my focus was mainly how the author dealt with his magical creatures. Indeed the feeling was that he has more freedom, as I said, there is no constraints at all with the fact that Lian is a male and that Aerdyn was previously attracted by a female. Actually, there is no highlighting at all of the sex gender difference, like genre didn’t matter in this fantasy world. There was instead a great focusing on the prettiness of Lian and on the fact that Aerdyn, living in the human world, was loosing his splendour. Plus, when there was the chance for them to be imprisoned in the human world, their main worry seemed to be there was the chance for them to age. Now I’m not saying that was the main focus of the story, but indeed I noticed it was an important element of the story, this emphasis on everything that was beauty.

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1321068.html

This novella has a surprising depth to it, and a beautiful romance. A Seelie Fae, Aerdyn, has been exiled to the Mortal Realm for murdering the Unseelie Princess Ellian - his lover. It is a crime he is innocent of. In the snow-bound cabin that has become his prison, an Unseelie has finally found him. He expects death, but Lian has brought love. His sister joined her remaining spirit to his when she died. He loves Aerdyn, but must convince the Seelie. But, Lian has unwittingly led a deadly enemy to Aerdyn - the very man who killed Ellian.

Barnette has cleverly woven enough backstory into this to bring the Fae world to life. Aerdyn and Lian are an enchanting couple, and though there is only one sex scene, it is hot and loving. Highly recommended. I would happily revisit this world in another story. ( )