THE KEY TO ALL THINGS
CINDY LYNN SPEER
ISBN # 9781940076539
July 2020
Dragonwell Publishing
http://publishing.dragonwell.org/
E-book
$6.99
418 pages
Fantasy Romance
Rating: 4 cups
Avriel is one of Queen Maud’s ladies. She is also a double agent who spies for both the human and Fae courts. She is also half Fae, but no one in the human court knows this. Every morning she wakes up to a note written to her in her own handwriting giving her mysterious instructions, but she has no memory of how it came to be there. Every evening for about three hours she remembers a completely different life and has a plan to try to get that life back as well as her husband Edward de Vere.
Edward was a Comte as well as a high-ranking officer in the King’s Guard, but he backed the wrong side when the Fae had a change of Queens and lost everything. His lands, his title, his position and according to the most overplayed ballad by all the bards, his wife Catherine, who is now the Sapphire Queen of the Fae. The song is everywhere, he cannot escape it. He drinks to excess and fights all comers in the attempt to forget and get through another day. The only bright spot in his world is the queen’s lady, Avriel. When he is around her, his misery lifts and he feels the tiniest bit hopeful for some reason.
Avriel teams up with Edward to investigate how the dragon egg held in the human palace as a “peace treaty” was destroyed. They find clues they struggle to make sense of and trust people that have other motives, and some who help in surprising ways in the end. Avriel has a breakthrough when her mystery note directs her to a hiding place where she finds a ring, once she puts it on she remembers everything.
I really enjoyed this book. It is a fantasy romance, but I think it could qualify as a suspense novel as well. Ms. Speer wove an intricate web of a story with layers and twists that keep you wondering what will happen next. Avriel and Edward formed a bond that nothing, not even the strongest magic, could break.
Vicki
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
