Rating: 3⭐️🌈
🌈 for Bisexual main character
I really wanted to like this story but issues just kept creeping into the narrative that stopped me from being fully invested in the characters, their relationships and motivations as well as the mythology that Linde insists on using as a framework for her storyline.
It’s not the dark fantasy, because I’m a true fan of the genre, it’s in the manner that the author is constructing the characters and storylines.
Kierse, the damaged thief with the abusive background from her criminal mentor is the Belle substitute here. She’s the thief who’s caught in the Holly Library the “Monster” (it’s in the description) , also known as Grave .
Their relationship is part of the issue. Or maybe her treatment is. There isn’t much chemistry between them and the romance just seems to appear, albeit with Kierse making the obligatory resistance response.
She’s got a bisexual background with a missing ex girlfriend that is part of an underdeveloped storyline. As well as a well described traumatic history that gives her the realistic, raw foundation her character would require.
But how the dynamic plays into the physical abuse and the future degradation that is inflicted upon her as part of her “roles” with Grace starts a strange division and changes her past/current personality and the new narrative path of the author’s without the needed context.
Grave, the mage “Monster “ , is a person who has an otherworldly framework around him that’s easily recognizable ,as is the other main enemy MC. This aspect of his character and storyline is primarily due to the many hints and story Easter eggs the author has scattered throughout the book. Grave just isn’t someone who is an engaging personality. Again, Linde works against the story romance by having every single character (Kierse’s friends and frenemies) repeatedly telling Kierse exactly how untrustworthy Grave.
After a while we have to figure this is a major plot point.
Then for me it’s the mythology and underdeveloped magic which didn’t really make sense. Linde chose to use certain snippets or aspects of certain myths of Irish or Celtic culture but it’s not clear or successful. Especially with her usages of wrens. She’s partly using St. Stephen’s , a tale of unfortunate timing, as well as some Druids mythology that includes wrens, none of which translates well to a North American continent where our numerous species of wrens do just fine in winter and this aspect of the book would have not context. So without going beyond the surface or substance or making the material adjust accordingly ( as other authors have in great detail and depth), this just doesn’t work.
This came very close to a DNF but I wanted to see where Linde was going with the characters and story. Disappointing and not sure I’m going forward with the series. Too bad because it had such potential.
Cover art and design by Bree Archer Deluxe Limited endpaper illustration by Melanie Korte Deluxe Limited case design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes
The Oak & Holly Cycle series is best read in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 The Wren in the Holly Library
Book #2 The Robin on the Oak Throne
Buy link
The Wren in the Holly Library (Oak & Holly Cycle Book 1)
Blurb
Can you love the dark when you know what it hides?
Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.
Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.
In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce…of sorts.
But tonight, Kierse—a gifted and fearless thief—will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library…not knowing it’s the home of a monster.
He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.
Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.
But he’s been playing a game across centuries—and once she joins in, there will be
no escape…
The Oak & Holly Cycle series is best read in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 The Wren in the Holly Library
Book #2 The Robin on the Oak Throne – June 17,2025
- Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books (June 4, 2024)
- Publication date: June 4, 2024
- Language: English
- Print length: 495 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 