ARC Review: "Corruption of Faete" by Ligia de Wit ★★★★★

ARC Review: Corruption of Faete (Bradaís Pledge #3) by Ligia de Wit

This third book in the Bradaís Pledge series has me in a chokehold and I am eagerly awaiting more! 🩵 The stakes have risen drastically, the pirates are even more of a threat, and some new characters who are just as eerie and unpredictable. If you thought this was a trilogy and would be finished, you are sorely mistaken; if anything, this is just the beginning. 🏴‍☠️

My heart reacted at her loving smile. Inconvenient, aye, and yet I wouldn’t change it for a brand-new ship.
What an odd sentiment love was, how profound and enigmatic. It was as deep as Davy Jones’s locker, as tempestuous as a raging storm, as calm as my ship sailing under a bright blue sky. Like the sea, it crashed and rolled but peace lay within it.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
Continuing the events from Book 2 Burden of Faete, 22-year-old Ryanne Kelly a human with fae powers and the gift of foresight, and 300-something-year-old Titus Doyle an immortal pirate/bradaí are on the run from the Alpha bradaí Captain Edward, the only one with the ability to kill his own kind and absorb their power. He desires above all Titus’ power. They plan to defeat him hopefully combining their magic together and finding out Edward’s name given to him by the evil god-like being Anord.

Stopping by at Ryanne’s family house, Ryanne receives her grandmother’s locket from her mother Harriet, which helps to ground her. However, Peter and Bricius catch up to them, so they teleport to Rome but a pooka (a changeling) steals her locket, causing Ryanne and Titus to go after it. This unfortunately results in them being at the mercy of The Erlking, ruler of the dark side of Tír D’aois, the fae land. He sends the Wild Jagd (Wild Hunt) after them, hoping to entice Titus into joining his Hunt but he refuses and he gives them a twenty-minute head start. Struggling to find a way out, they stumble across a mysterious prisoner, a boy called Pan who, once freed by them, helps them escape.

Titus and Ryanne search for the leader of the Shadow People, Quintus, but cannot seem to find him. They go to Paris to celebrate Ryanne’s birthday. She becomes very snappish and it becomes clear it is because The Erlking touched her. They meet with Peter and Kara to go to a retreat in the Swiss mountains and manage to successfully remove her coin, but Ryanne is and captured by the bradaí Minho who works for Edward.

With everyone after Ryanne’s powers, Titus must band together with his found family – and Pan who everyone so distrusts – to save her before she is marked by Edward and is too late. But Edward and The Erlking have one or two more secrets and powers up their sleeve that may prove deadly.

I’d finally found someone worth being with, someone who made me feel alive. And yet, it seemed I had to keep fighting to keep her close. So be it. I’d take on the world to stay by her side. Losing her wasn’t an option—not now, not ever.

This is told from the first-person past-tense POV of Ryanne and Titus.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Ligia de Wit never fails to have me on the edge of my seat reading her novels. She has an amazing sense of pacing and ability to mix danger and excitement with sentimentality and humour. So while this makes for a quick read by the way it is written, it is also a profound one. (And she was so real for the quick plot reminder of the other books at the start haha)!

The best part other than our dear Ryanne and Titus is the expansion of the world, characters, and plot. While all the old characters have returned, there are some new faces like Ryanne’s family (Harriet, James, Evelyn), Pan, Frau Engel, Birdie, Cedeño, Ntombi, all of whom served a purpose. de Wit has also covered a lot of Celtic mythology and Irish folklore, and it’s been nice that she has been able to expand on this here even more by the use of the Wild Hunt in The Erlking’s lair. I love all the details about the creatures involved, sitting on “hellish stallions”. The Fomorians, a supernatural race from Irish mythology, featured in this story too which was wonderful. There are also dragons in here. Yes, you heard me right – dragons! And they are super important here.

Titus and Ryanne are as sweet as always! I love Titus meeting Ryanne’s family and how he decides to analyse and judge the worth of Ryanne’s sister Evelyn’s engagement ring. He tries so hard to fit in and omit any details about what he does for a living haha. I chortled when Ryanne asks Titus to bring over the forks and he’s like “Why?” “I had to refrain from throttling him and remind myself again he was a pirate who’d never ever been to a family dinner.” Bless him for learning and trying to communicate with Ryanne because he realised he offended her.

Titus has the best quotes, and his deeds are especially worth noting in this book. So many protective “don’t touch her” and “would let the world burn for her” acts. I was squealing and kicking my feet for this one:

The Erlking lifted a hand and made as if to touch Ryanne.
I placed myself in front of her. “Don’t even try,” I said with a sharp tone. I might not be able to reach my bradaí pocket and retrieve my sword, but the Morrigan can take me if he hurt her, Erlking or not.
Not even the dozens of goblins closing on us would make me move.

Ryanne has been relatable as usual, I too want to tour Europe, be happy with “pastas, pizzas and gelatos” and I also act “like a little girl, excited by the sights of the beautiful medieval towns”. As she should! I’m glad she got to have all that fun and have people believe her stories in the Swiss mountains before things took a dark turn. I like her seer-dream concept where, because she is linked to Edward and can find out what he is doing.

I’m not sure if I like this book the most, I think the second one is my favourite thus far, but it comes quite close. It’s probably because there is that huge cliffhanger at the end and I desperately want to read more!

<< Positives >>
🠚 The reminder of the plot from the previous books at the start was great. And some of the reminders throughout of various aspects, like the markings, the dorcha.
🠚 Having the Glossary at the end was very resourceful. There were some words I forgot what it meant (for example, Mo thiarna means “my lord”) and it was an excellent way to consult this.
🠚 The friendship between Titus and Peter that is finally blossoming is very wholesome to see, as they both care very much for Ryanne. I really like that they have to work together the most in this story.
🠚 Peter and Kara. They were so funny with their allusions to one-night-stands but I also love that they are able to bond with each other over their grief and loss of loved ones.
🠚 So many characters are explored more in this story and it’s nice to have more info of them. Edward’s dynamic is delved into (sometimes almost making you feel sorry for him), and Aghna is talked about more.
🠚 Some very very interesting concepts explored in this book. Pan playing the “flute that was named after him”, Anord having a floating map with the locations of his bradaís and their flags is really cool. The colour of the wind meaning Ryanne can tell the different emotions of Edward in her seer-dream (red being anger, blue being yearning, grey being curiosity). I was invested in the latter especially.
🠚 The cliffhangers. So, so many of them. The one at the end of part 1? Screaming. The one at the very end? Goosebumps!
🠚 THE PLOT TWISTS! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! I did wonder about some of them before I got there, but I gasped.
🠚 Bonus: Scotland mentioned. As a Scotswoman, I approve.

<< Negatives >>
🠚 Repetition. Ryanne snapping and then apologising did start to feel rather repetitive, though I get that it needed to be done. Some words were used a few times in the same sentences too, like “guttural” in Chapter 15.
🠚 I thought the necklace disappeared very quickly, though it serves as a catalyst for the rest of the plot.
🠚 I would’ve loved Titus’ reaction to Ryanne deciding his birthday would be October 5th as this got glossed over. He could decide all of a sudden that 5 is his favourite number too.
🠚 Ivan joins the crew (as we know), but it might have been nice if when Titus saw him, instead of winking and jumping out the window, he could have given him some of the gold he obtained then winked and jumped out the window.
🠚 Sergei telling Titus that Minho has Homkar I think should have been brought up quickly after their reunion rather than some pages in. It felt like an afterthought.
🠚 Bricius offering to make sure Ryanne is safe feels ironic considering he didn’t look after her well earlier in the story in the Swiss mountains.
🠚 I don’t think I’ve understood until this point that Feihnum is to do with Fé Erie’s power until I saw the Glossary.

FAV QUOTES
• She gave me a smile, but her beautiful moss-green eyes darkened. Hell, she’d learned well from me.
• Bloody hell, what a man had to do for the woman he loved.
• Every bloody creature wanted a piece of us.
• “Stay close to me,” I said. | “It’s not like I’m going to scurry away like a brownie,” she said, annoyed. I smirked. I’d rather have her annoyed than terrified.
• “The sea,” I said. “It crashes and sweeps but there’s peace within. Remember that when you feel unbalanced again.” | “You’ve become cheesy, Titus.” Her laughter was present in her touch and her movements. | “As long as you touch me like that, I’ll be whatever you want.”
• The Morrigan take me. Being in a relationship for the first time in more than three hundred years was making me trip like a clumsy lubber on deck. And I wanted to make things right for her. I owed her that, if only because she was in danger with me.
• His eyes shone as they’d been doing since he’d acquired his heart. He felt love, and giddiness took me over. A bradaí feeling love was unheard of. It proved anything was possible.
• I reached for him, for his kiss, for his touch, for the glorious feeling of skin against skin. For that electrifying sensation of knowing you were loved, you were cared for. It was never enough with him. It would never be enough.
• Stupid humans and their guns—they didn’t have the beauty of the clashing blades.
• Hurt. As though it had been chopped by a fierce ogre then stomped on by a dragon and set on fire. I needed her back. I needed her whole or the Morrigan help me, I would set every bradaí on fire.
• “Take a seat.” Edward pointed at a chair. | “I’ll stay here,” I said with intent. Predators only feared other predators. Predators never feared prey.
• His gaze found mine, and here we were, pirate and fae, arms locked, on my ship. The energy in our contact crackled and hissed, oil and water refusing to mix. • Corrupting creatures might be Edward’s ultimate goal. Understanding him was mine. I’d tried before and it’d been stupid. A child’s play. But I wasn’t *caílin* anymore. I was *bean*. Game on, Edward.
• A fae and a bradaí together. Anord must be having a seizure in his dimension.
• Kara sat next to her and decorated Ryanne’s chestnut hair with the flowers. “Look, she’s sleeping like that woman in that kid’s story.” She looked at me, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Perhaps she’s waiting for her pirate in shining armor to kiss her.”
• And it was then I saw it happening. If before both found comfort behind the bedroom door, now their gazes softened in mutual comprehension, of two people going through the same.
• Two bradaís, one dannan dubh, and a fae on a quest to find a godling with a goat’s brain. And said godling was the only answer to cure Ryanne. Morrigan’s crows. • Shadows blurred his face, but like dust after a strong wind, they whipped away.
• I’d seen killer whales attacking a seal. The water takes the form of the whale right before they break the ocean’s surface. Pan’s eyes held that same eerie quality. • I looked up to the sky swarmed with dragons. Not in the many years I’d walked the Earth had one of mine been able to approach a dragon. No one had, in fact. No one but Pan.
• I wasn’t going to become a puppet with no will of my own. I would never go against my friends or my mentors. Against Titus. Never.
• I’d been lost, that much I could remember. My human self being swallowed in a sea of fae power. And now, someone else wanted to do the same, to erase who I was? I would not allow it. I would never allow it. I pushed the dragon outside of me with a defying yell. “I am me! I am no one’s. No one’s,” I repeated.

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Ligia de Wit and BookSirens for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“Corruption of the Faete” is out now!