Facade

5⭐️1🌶

I finished my ARC of Facade by Ilissa Busbee yesterday evening.  This was super fun, atmospheric and a twisty turney adventure of deceit.  I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum but its hard to describe this one without divulging some info.  The FMC, Evanee has no memories prior to the last three years.  She's a human serving the Fae Queen at the queen's castle Aurelia.  The Fae King is known to be cruel and once the queen produced him an heir she went to live in her own castle away from him.  Evanee is a bit of an outcast, she keeps to herself and tries not to associate much with any of the other human servants.  She's been bound to the grounds of the castle by the Fae Queen's witch Cressida.  One day the Fae King's Captain of the guard shows up.  Evanee is summoned to the inner portion of the castle and is told she'll be going with the captain and his men.  Cressida moves Evanee's bond from the castle grounds to the captain and it's a two way bond.  The captian will be able to track her if she tries to escape.  Captain Aiden is smoking hot and is seemingly nice to Evanee.  She starts to feel things when he's near but doesn't fully trust him.  This is a multi POV book, although it's primarily between Evanee and Aniah.  Aniah is one of the four sister witches and before it switches to her POV for the first time it's mentioned that she disappeared three years ago and everyone assumes she's dead.  She's traveling with a guy named Ryker and they have been searching for someone for the last three years.  They've been keeping off the main roads and have been in hiding.  There is unrest, poverty and famine in this kingdom.  The humans are lesser citizens and there are various creatures that attack villages and rebels.  The Fae King has more or less just been ignoring the situation outside of his castle Lawryn.  We as readers really only know as much as Evanee.  As far as her memory is concerned she's never been outside Aurelia and only knows what history she's heard in passing over the last three years, so we are given snippets of lore as Aiden slowly divulges information to her.  Aniah and Ryker are searching for Evanee.  They find out she's just departed Aurelia hours after she's leaves with Aiden and his men.  One of the only people Evanee became close to over her time there tips them off and helps them track her.  He's very old and more or less knows who Evanee really is.  Castle Lawryn lies to the north so it gets colder and colder as they travel.  Eventually the carriage they're using becomes too much if a burden so Aiden and Evanee have to share a horse, then they have to share a room at the inn they wind up staying at....  all the usual romantasy tropes except something in the back of her head tells her Aiden is not as he seems.  Spoiler; he's not.  He's a jerkwad from her past.  Aniah and Ryker catch up to her, Aniah is able to break the memory lock and Evanee begins to remember.  It gets even more interesting from there.

There are some intense battles.  Lots more mysteries and power plays.  The history of who everyone is and how they all wound up where they are now is convoluted and complex.  There is banter, some amazing spice and a fabulously told backstory.  This ends on a crazy cliffhanger but it was so fun from start to finish.  I loved all of it!  It comes out September 3rd.