by R. J. Anderson
Ivy wants two things in life: to be able to fly, and for her mother to return home. But unlike every other piskey, Ivy was born without wings, so she’ll never fly. And her mother was stolen away by spriggans and it’s unlikely she’ll ever be found again.
When Ivy’s fellow piskeys capture a spriggan, Ivy can’t resist the urge to talk to it and try and find out what happened to her mother and another piskey who recently disappeared.
However, Ivy learns that the prisoner isn’t a spriggan. He’s a faery with a message from Ivy’s mother. And if Ivy helps him escape the dungeon, he’ll teach her how to fly.
With her family falling apart, Ivy knows that she needs to find her mother, even if it means risking everything to free the faery. But Ivy doesn’t know everything that’s at play though. Not everyone is what they seem. Secrets have been hidden.
I love reading books that have fantasy races that aren’t usually in other books. Swift is one of those! I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book with piskeys before, and definitely not piskeys with the culture that Anderson has developed for them!
While the novel doesn’t explore too much of the piskey Delve and their culture, outside of the Lighting and normal life, the worldbuilding still feels very nice and rich.
The plot, while not clipping along, doesn’t drag. It’s paced nicely.
Anderson also keeps the reader guessing at what is going to happen and puts in several twists and turns up until the very end of the book.
I also liked all of the nods and correlations to R. J. Anderson’s other series, No Ordinary Faery Tale, which is also published by Enclave Publishing. While the Flight and Flame Trilogy takes place after the No Ordinary Faery Tale series and mentions the events of the latter series as well as featuring a couple characters, the two series can be read independently of each other. But I would recommend reading both! It’s always fun to see a little bit of a book crossover and get to explore more of the faery and piskey world.
Cautions: a couple instances of brief, non-graphic violence
Hailey Huntington 