Author: Lana Pecherczyk

Series: Fae Devils

First Published: 26 February 2024

“Catch our falling star, give her your heart, and she will guide us home.”

I will start by saying that I wI will start by saying that I was given an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank so much Lana for sending a copy my way!

When winter comes to the Court of Dreams, the war against the Subterranean of Nightmares freezes. To celebrate, the faerie queen holds a tournament where mortals compete for the prize of a dream come true. For outsider Willow Nightstalk, it’s the only way to break the curse making her as ugly as she feels.

But the deadly tournament has a darker purpose—to flush out flawed mortal blights on the perfectly pretty fae society… and to kill them. Any left alive are conscripted when war returns in spring. When the coveted prize can give you anything your heart desires, allies are likelier to stab you in your sleep than save you.

Surviving means securing the highly contested patronage of the powerful fae nobility. But when the notoriously recluse House of Shadow is the only option left, the odds are stacked against her. Especially since it’s led by the six beautiful fae boogeymen who rejected her, robbed her of magic, and ruined her life. She would rather let terrors drag her to the beneath.

But then the unthinkable happens.

For the first time in years, the House of Shadow chooses a protégé. Her.

Forced to live in their rundown castle, Willow starts uncovering secrets about the war, the oppressive queen, and the tragedy behind the Six’s forbidden obsession that left her broken. Soon, she doesn’t know who to trust, blame, or befriend. What’s worse is that sabotage is in the air, and bodies start dropping like flies. Safety means choosing between trusting her eyes or her battered heart. But if she chooses wrong, no dreams will come true—she’ll be dead.

Nothing is as it seems in the Court of Dreams, least of all the Nightmares.

Oh my god! I am completely in love with Castle of Nevers and Nightmares. This is the perfect why choose, fantasy romance. The ending left me in tears! I need to know what is going to happen to Willow and the Six. I have so many questions!

This is the start of a new series but it is a spin-off series to Lana Pecherczyk’s Fae Guardian series. Lana has done a fantastic job of providing enough content to Willow and her history with the six Fae Devils that you can jump right in here. But the Fae Guardian series is incredible so highly recommend that you also read that.

Willow Nightstalk is on a revenge mission to kill the Six, the dark Fae Guardians, who destroyed her life and left Elphyne without a trace. Willow finds a portal into the Court of Dreams after getting cursed by the faerie queen, Tatiana, on her mission to find the Six. The Court of Dreams is hosting a tournament, in celebration of Tatiana, where mortals compete for the prize to have a dream of theirs come true. For Willow, it’s the only way to break her curse and complete her revenge mission. When the prize is to give you whatever your heart desires, this tournament is deadly and not all contestants survive. Any mortals who survive are conscripted into the faeries’ war against the Subterranean of Nightmares. The only guaranteed way to survive the tournament is to secure patronage from the powerful fae nobility. However, the fae nobility’s covert beauty and with Willow’s curse gruesomely twisting her features things aren’t looking good. The reclusive House of Shadow is the only option left. However, seems unlikely, especially since the house is ruled by the six beautiful Fae Devils who ruined her life. But the unthinkable happens. For the first time, the House of Shadow does choose a protégé. They choose Willow. As Willow is forced to live with the House of Shadow, she slowly realizes that maybe the Six are prisoners just like her. And maybe the only way they all can survive is to lay down their swords and join forces.

Willow is thrown into the deep end when she arrives at The Court of Dreams. The rules here aren’t the same as they are in Elphyne and she can’t hide behind her parents’ position of power. I adore that Willow refuses to bow down to the fae’s ideal of perfection. A mortal’s privileges are granted based on a person’s beauty. She does all she can to help protect the humans, called the Nevers, who are not aesthetically beautiful, despite the risk it causes her. She is still struggling with the trauma of the battle, which caused her to lose her magic and is where the Six helped to ruin her life.

The Six operate under a hive mentality. They need a queen to help control them. They are looking for their prophesied queen who will help free them from the darkness. Currently, Tatiana is their queen and has chained away dark, soul-eating desires so she can better control them. This has diminished their power and corrupted their memories. One of the Six, Varen, is a seer and has managed to ensure that Fox isn’t trapped under the same spell so he can keep a lookout for Willow. I adore that even though they don’t have the same hive-mind connection, they still take care of each other and operate under the same hierarchy. Varen is adorable and a little scrambled after taking Fox’s portion of Tatian’s spell. He communicates entirely in bee facts, which is super endearing and I adore him. My heart goes out to Fox, who is doing all he can to keep them all alive and stay undercover. He has completely captured my heart and rocketed his way to my top book boyfriend list.

The romance in here is a slow burn. This might just be my favourite brand of enemies to lovers, as Willow is fully convinced that she hates them and in fact, wants to murder them. As Fox is the only one who remembers Willow, he is the one to slowly explain to her their side of the story and try to convince her that she is their fated queen. We still have a handful of steamy scenes, which were worth the wait as the sexual tension between Willow and Fox is through the roof. I can’t wait to see how the relationship with Willow and the rest of the Six progresses.

I adore that the Court of Dreams is so different from Elphyne and what we have seen in the Fae Guardians series. This world feels like the traditional Celtic stories about the Fae. I’m completely besotted. The faeries seem harmless and charming but have a sinister undercurrent. I cannot wait to see more of this world as the series and the tournament progresses. Also, we have dragons! Each of the noble houses has a dragon they control. The House of Shadow has this adorable baby dragon called the Wild Hunt. He is so cute and I want one. 

We have so many questions about what is going on in the Court of Dreams, why Tatiana took control of the Six and what happened to Willow’s magic all those years ago. I am counting down the days to the sequel. If you love fantasy romance, which has an equally story intriguing fantasy plot with a well-developed romance, Castle of Nevers and Nightmares is for you. Truly, I’m obsessed and this is hands down my favourite read of the year!