Review: The Last Autumn Fairy
The final book in the Autumn Fairy Trilogy was released a few weeks ago. I've been reading these books since the beginning, so I knew exactly what to expect from this one. Like the rest of Brittany Fichter's work, it was pretty dark for a faery princess story. The main characters were tortured through the entire book until they were ultimately saved by their divine faith in Atharo, who is this world's version of God. For me, the best thing about this series was the beautiful imagery of the magical naturalistic world that the fairies lived in and the elegant floral fashions that they wore. The final book cut back on most of those pleasantries in favor of even more character torture leading up to the final conflict. Therefore, The Last Autumn Fairy was the weakest book in the trilogy for me.
The Last Autumn Fairy chronicles the logical next step in Katy and Peter's star-crossed relationship as well as all of the obstacles that inevitably come with it. Since The Autumn Fairy was about how they fell in love and The Autumn Fairy of Ages was about how they fought off oppression to get married, the final installment in the saga details the challenges of bearing an impossible hybrid child that is also heir to the throne. Many anthologies about princesses who become queen conclude with giving birth to an heir, but in this book, that is only the beginning. A good portion of The Autumn Fairy of Ages revolved around Katy's struggle over whether or not she should marry Peter if she cannot bear a child with him due to him being human. Their relationship has been put through the wringer so many times that by the time I got to this book, their struggles seemed trite and predictable. Of course they would feel obligated to leave each other forever in order to protect their newborn baby. Everything in this story from the very beginning was tailored solely for the purpose of preventing the two lovers from being together.
Speaking of obstacles, I had lost track of how many of their so-called friends had turned against them by this point. It seems like almost every character in the story is secretly evil. Peter and Katy are constantly looking over their shoulders waiting for someone to try to steal their power or rip their family apart. The end of the second book foreshadowed the betrayal of Aisling, the previous autumn fairy, who becomes the main antagonist in this story. Brittany Fichter is a religious writer, and it showed in Aisling's ultimate goal to play God and cleanse the world of sin by killing everyone and starting a new world with Peter and Katy's son, who she intended to kidnap and raise as her own. I am not very familiar with Christianity myself, but I believe there might be some sort of biblical inspiration behind this scheme because a similar plan was attempted by the villain in the Japanese Ah! My Goddess movie, which was also inspired by religious mythology.
One thing I did like about this book was seeing Katy as a mother. All she wanted was to love and be loved, but she must deal with contempt from the human realm in the first book and the fairy realm in the second book while simultaneously harboring with extremely destructive powers that she never wanted in the first place. To see her successfully birth a child with the man she loved and hold and protect him was touching. It seemed like it was the only truly good thing to happen to her after all the torture she went through in the other books. Even being with Peter caused its fair share of hardships due to his own violent nature. As a mother, Katy was finally able to be her true self. That only made it more irritating that the majority of the book was about Aisling and her followers attempting to take Katy's baby away due to the powerful role he was born into.
The Last Autumn Fairy met all of my expectations without exceeding any of them. It was filled with torture, religious metaphors, and impossible odds for the main characters. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had given Katy and Peter some down time to just be happy together with their son. The blissful moments they shared in the fairy realm in the second book were some of my favorite scenes in the series. As far as this trilogy goes, The Autumn Fairy of Ages was my favorite. However, if you are a long-time fan of the series, it might be worth reading this final book to see how everything wraps up.
The Last Autumn Fairy chronicles the logical next step in Katy and Peter's star-crossed relationship as well as all of the obstacles that inevitably come with it. Since The Autumn Fairy was about how they fell in love and The Autumn Fairy of Ages was about how they fought off oppression to get married, the final installment in the saga details the challenges of bearing an impossible hybrid child that is also heir to the throne. Many anthologies about princesses who become queen conclude with giving birth to an heir, but in this book, that is only the beginning. A good portion of The Autumn Fairy of Ages revolved around Katy's struggle over whether or not she should marry Peter if she cannot bear a child with him due to him being human. Their relationship has been put through the wringer so many times that by the time I got to this book, their struggles seemed trite and predictable. Of course they would feel obligated to leave each other forever in order to protect their newborn baby. Everything in this story from the very beginning was tailored solely for the purpose of preventing the two lovers from being together.
Speaking of obstacles, I had lost track of how many of their so-called friends had turned against them by this point. It seems like almost every character in the story is secretly evil. Peter and Katy are constantly looking over their shoulders waiting for someone to try to steal their power or rip their family apart. The end of the second book foreshadowed the betrayal of Aisling, the previous autumn fairy, who becomes the main antagonist in this story. Brittany Fichter is a religious writer, and it showed in Aisling's ultimate goal to play God and cleanse the world of sin by killing everyone and starting a new world with Peter and Katy's son, who she intended to kidnap and raise as her own. I am not very familiar with Christianity myself, but I believe there might be some sort of biblical inspiration behind this scheme because a similar plan was attempted by the villain in the Japanese Ah! My Goddess movie, which was also inspired by religious mythology.
One thing I did like about this book was seeing Katy as a mother. All she wanted was to love and be loved, but she must deal with contempt from the human realm in the first book and the fairy realm in the second book while simultaneously harboring with extremely destructive powers that she never wanted in the first place. To see her successfully birth a child with the man she loved and hold and protect him was touching. It seemed like it was the only truly good thing to happen to her after all the torture she went through in the other books. Even being with Peter caused its fair share of hardships due to his own violent nature. As a mother, Katy was finally able to be her true self. That only made it more irritating that the majority of the book was about Aisling and her followers attempting to take Katy's baby away due to the powerful role he was born into.
The Last Autumn Fairy met all of my expectations without exceeding any of them. It was filled with torture, religious metaphors, and impossible odds for the main characters. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had given Katy and Peter some down time to just be happy together with their son. The blissful moments they shared in the fairy realm in the second book were some of my favorite scenes in the series. As far as this trilogy goes, The Autumn Fairy of Ages was my favorite. However, if you are a long-time fan of the series, it might be worth reading this final book to see how everything wraps up.
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