Faerie Wars (Faerie Wars #1) by Herbie Brennan

Faerie Wars (Faerie Wars #1)

by Herbie Brennan

It took awhile for me to get into the book, as the first few chapters set the stage for bringing the main characters together. After that, the story picked up, and began to become an enticing story. Faerie Wars is a bit different than the other YA faerie novels and stories out and popular at the moment in that it really doesn’t have any romance happening for or between the characters (though the end of the book seems to suggest this may not be the case for the second book in the series).

There are also some topics that the book covers that kind of came out of left field – like Wahh? – mainly the whole affair with the secretary and…Henry’s Mom. I don’t know, it just seemed a bit odd of a storyline. Why not just make it the businessman/ father who’s having an affair with his secretary?

Anyway, the book is about a boy named Henry who lives in our world, in merry ol’ England, Mr. Fogarty – an old man Henry does errands for/cleans his house and has a secret, questionable past, and Pyrgus, the crown prince to the Purple Empire of the world of Faerie.

After multiple attempts on his life, Pyrgus’ father, the emperor of the Purple Empire decides it is best to hide Pyrgus in the human world for the time being. Things, however, do not go as planned when Pyrgus is sent through the portal to his destination…

Meanwhile, as Henry’s normal life as he knew it is becoming non-existent with the revelation of his mother’s affair and the separating of his parents, Henry continues his work for Mr. Fogarty. Now, it is also good to know that Mr. Fogarty is one of those really paranoid people – aliens are real and have abducted over a million Americans, fairy tale creatures exist – THAT kind of paranoid. Well, he’s actually right about one thing. As Henry is working one day in Mr. Fogarty’s garden, Mr. Fogarty’s cat has caught something that looks like butterfly, but turns out to be a faerie – little man with wings. Capturing it from the cat and bringing it to Mr. Fogarty, they soon are able to figure out a means of communicating with the faerie, who just happens to be Pyrgus.

As Henry and Mr. Fogarty get to know Pyrgus and hear his story, they are also collecting tools to create a portal so that Pyrgus can get back to Faerie. Demonic forces, however, are at work and plans do not go as planned…

While I was intrigued with the Faerie/Demon story combination, I wish we were able to have seen more of it, rather than spending so much time on Henry’s home life. I also wish we had learned more about the other types of magic that faeries had in Faerie. I thoroughly enjoyed Pyrgus’ sister’s story in the book and her spunky character. I was very amused by the storyline that demons from Hell are actually the ones who sparked the alien sightings on Earth.

Rating: 3/5 Stars