No Books, No Life

Fairy Keeper by Amy Bearce

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Forget cute fairies in pretty dresses. In the world of Aluvia, most fairies are more like irritable, moody insects. Almost everyone in the world of Aluvia views the fairy keeper mark as a gift, but not fourteen-year-old Sierra. She hates being a fairy keeper, but the birthmark is right there on the back of her neck. It shows everyone she was born with the natural ability to communicate, attract, and even control the tiny fairies whose nectar is amazingly powerful. Fairy nectar can heal people, but it is also a key ingredient in synthesizing Flight, an illegal elixir that produces dreaminess, apathy and hallucinations. She’s forced to care for a whole hive of the bee-like beasties by her Flight-dealing, dark alchemist father.

Then one day, Sierra discovers the fairies of her hatch are mysteriously dead. The fairy queen is missing. Her father’s Flight operation is halted, and he plans to make up for the lost income by trading her little sister to be an elixir runner for another dark alchemist, a dangerous thug. Desperate to protect her sister, Sierra convinces her father she can retrieve the lost queen and get his operation up and running.

The problem? Sierra’s queen wasn’t the only queen to disappear. They’re all gone, every single one, and getting them back will be deadly dangerous.

Sierra journeys with her best friend and her worst enemy -- assigned by her father to dog her every step -- to find the missing queens. Along the way, they learn that more than just her sister’s life is at stake if they fail. There are secrets in the Skyclad Mountains where the last wild fairies were seen. The magic Sierra finds there has the power to transform their world, but only if she can first embrace her calling as a fairy keeper.
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I received this book from Netgalley. This does not influence my rating in any way.

I don't know about you, but reading that synopsis made me super intrigued about the book. Lost queens, irritable fairies... that makes a pretty good book when written right, so I decided to request this book.

A week later, I got an email that said I had permission to view this book. I was really happy and I moved this book to the front of my to-read list. I'm very glad I did.

I really enjoyed this book. There were very good relationships between the characters, and while some of them were strained, they managed to put the past behind them and put up with each other. By the end of the book you could clearly see the friendships between some former enemies and really see their sides of things.

The plot was not boring at all- it really surprised me! I found myself actually wanting to read even when there wasn't as much action.

Even though this book is labeled middle grade, I really believe it should be YA. When I picked it up I thought it was YA, and I didn't find out it wasn't until after I was done and looking at the author's website.

The romance wasn't instant, and you could really see how real it was. It was awkward at times, but I felt that made it more realistic and I think that most teens can relate to that- not knowing if your crush likes you or if you should do anything about it. That's something I feel that everyone goes through at least once in their life.

I would definitely recommend this book! Wow, I haven't given a book more than 4 stars in over a month, but I feel really good about giving this one 5 stars.

Thanks for reading!
~Bri