Kenna Heron is best known in her village for being a little wild—some say “half feral”—but she’ll need every ounce of that ferocity to survive captivity in the cruel Fae court.
Trapped as a servant in the faeries’ underground kingdom of Mistei, Kenna must help her new mistress undertake six deadly trials, one for each branch of Fire, Earth, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood. If she succeeds, her mistress will gain immortality and become the heir to Earth House. If she doesn’t, the punishment is death—for both mistress and servant.
With no ally but a sentient dagger of mysterious origins, Kenna must face monsters, magic, and grueling physical tests. But worse dangers wait underground, and soon Kenna gets caught up in a secret rebellion against the inventively sadistic faerie king. When her feelings for the rebellion’s leader turn passionate, Kenna must decide if she’s willing to risk her life for a better world and a chance at happiness.
Surviving the trials and overthrowing a tyrant king will take cunning, courage, and an iron will… but even that may not be enough.
Content Warning (from the author): Servant of Earth deals with emotionally difficult topics, including violence, murder, torture, gore, sexual assault (secondary characters), sexual harassment, self-harm, death of a parent after prolonged illness, grief, explicit sexual content, and explicit language.
(from the reviewer): I’ll only add that there is also some foul language and emphasize that there’s a lot of blood spilled.
Picking up this book proved to be an emotional rollercoaster. First, to be honest, I don’t love romantasy. Yes, I love romance. Yes, I love fantasy. Romantasy therefore seems like a natural combination, but so far, it isn’t my cup of tea (the ones I’ve read are more like espresso with chili powder). Still, I’ve only tried a few ‘big’ romantasy series, definitely not enough of an experiment by which to judge an entire genre, or to dissuade me from giving this book a try.
But the rollercoaster ride only starts with the genre. Next comes Sarah Hawley’s list of previous publications. These include her Glimmer Falls Series: A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon, A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch, and A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire. How awesome do those sound? And surely with titles like that, they must be funny. I do love humor in a book.
Then I reached the author’s notes…
Servant of Earth deals with emotionally difficult topics, including violence, murder, torture, gore, sexual assault (secondary characters), sexual harassment, self-harm, death of a parent after prolonged illness, grief, explicit sexual content, and explicit language.
Now, aside from the oxford comma, which promises a certain sort of writing of which I approve, I am taken aback. Have I decided to read one of Hawley’s books and inadvertently selected the only one with no humor at all? Quite possibly, it seems, and I should have known. Fae romantasy leans into dark places.
Still, I press on, and while the opening line does nothing to alleviate the fear of a semi-traumatic read, it’s a beautiful line that both successfully orients the reader and sets a tone.
The winter solstice crept in cold, wet, and heavy with dread.
We quickly learn this story is (no surprise here) told in the first person. We far more slowly learn our main character’s name is Kenna. That said, not knowing Kenna’s name isn’t a problem, since we’re in her head. It’s more a game of, “How long can the author actually go without revealing our character’s name?”
Servant of Earth pulls you in quickly as Kenna, the quite poor daughter of a now-deceased herbalist, and a woman who has a penchant for the medieval swamp equivalent of dumpster diving (or, more kindly, driving around on trash day to see what people put out on the curb), heads into the village to meet her best friend on this very special solstice, Beltane, a celebration that takes place every six years.
The wood-and-stone buildings and thatched roofs of Tumbledown stood against the lightening sky like crooked teeth, and smoke began drifting from chimneys as the town woke.
Aside from being a top-notch description, calling this dilapidated little village Tumbledown is rather amusing, so there is some humor after all. But we all know Tumbledown isn’t the setting of this story. No, we’re bound for a fantastical Fae court, Mistei. The village and Beltane are simply the vehicles to get us there, while ensuring we learn that Kenna is steadfast, brave, determined, independent, and does not care for the Fae or their kingdom one bit.
Thus, the stage is set, and we move into the main storyline, Kenna’s subjugation in the Fae court. We join her on her dual quests for freedom and to aid her new mistress, and, of course, in her love life, all three of which are great storylines, and nicely intertwined. If you’re looking for a well-written Fae romantasy novel, Servant of Earth checks all the right boxes. You will thoroughly enjoy this book.
But what if you are not looking for that?
Frankly, Servant of Earth is worth reading either way. Where this book really shines is the effortless and glorious worldbuilding. Any lover of fantasy novels will appreciate how seamlessly the author draws you in and crafts the Fae Kingdom of Mistei. The various peoples, the politics, the physical locations, all rendered beautifully and seamlessly. Servant of Earth is a masterclass in worldbuilding.
But what if you don’t want to read a book with, well, steamy Fae sex?
You know what, you’re still good. That is to say, there are some steamy Fae sex scenes. No doubt about that, but they’re well placed in the story and very skippable. (We could definitely have a whole debate on if skipping parts of a book is ‘acceptable,’ but instead, let’s all pretend we agree that people should be allowed to enjoy their books however they like.) Plus, this being a proper modern romance, the sex scenes involve consent, so they don’t sneak up on you.
“That wasn’t a yes, which means if you can’t go, I need to.”
So you see, you don’t actually have to read the steamy Fae sex if you don’t wat to. You can just move to the start of the next scene and pick right back up with the story.
Which is in contrast to the frequent acts of cruelty and violence. They’re smattered throughout, they’re frequently designed to sneak up on Kenna, and therefore you, and the details of them are often important to the plot. That said, the author keeps us just back from Game of Thrones or Outlander levels of torment, more via the way she crafts the scenes than the content.
“I can’t afford to have a problem with that,” he said. “None of us can.”
So, what did I like about this book?
First and foremost, and in case you didn’t notice, the worldbuilding.
The tourists who flocked to our faerie festival made up the majority of our town’s economy, though, so we let them gawk all they wanted.
Secondly, it’s well written (you probably gathered that as well) with many of those ‘truths’ that make a novel truly worthwhile.
I knew from losing my mother that grief has countless small traps like this—not just the big ache of missing someone, but the small cuts and memories or wishes. People vanish all at once, but the things you wanted to tell them or do with them or show them didn’t.
Thirdly, the cover. I cannot say enough good about the cover of this book. It does everything a cover should: It’s attractive, fits the genre, and makes you want to pick up the book, but it’s so much more than that. What appears to be a lovely genre-appropriate image is actually every author’s dream: a true homage to the story. The more you read, the more you realize each detail on the cover, from the placement of the gems to the lining of her gown (it took me a third of the book to realize the truth behind the clever color choice), pays tribute to the details and worldbuilding contained within.
To the cover artist, Erion Makuo, bravo!
Lastly, the ode to friendship contained herein. Kenna is a good friend, which is a driving force of the plot, and that friendship is wonderful to observe.
We kept each other’s secrets like treasures, and if I had never quite managed to dream for myself, I could sometimes do it for her.
Also, I would definitely rate this book as LGBTQIA+ friendly. The Fae in this world seem to have a lot of rules about who can do what with whom, but they’re along social and political lines, not constrained by ideas about gender.
What didn’t work for me?
This is another of those novels where ‘didn’t work’ is going too far, but if I have to pick apart something…
One little thing is you sometimes get that horror movie feeling where you want to tell the character, “Don’t go into the creepy old barn!” What I mean is, you can see things coming in Kenna’s life that she can’t. That said, she is completely believable as a character. She doesn’t know she’s living inside a Fae romantasy, so she doesn’t get a heads up about these things.
Plus, when you have readers who have read a lot of books, it puts authors in a weird place. The author wants to fulfil your expectations for the story, so you feel satisfied with the experience of reading (which Servant of Earth does, and does well). However, that leads to a little bit of predictability (like if you’ve watched a thousand murder mystery TV shows and figured out the order in which the writers introduce the real killer in each episode). That said, the writing and worldbuilding are such that any minor predictability is far outweighed by how enjoyable the reading experience is.
And lastly, a me issue. I love this book, and it actually improves my outlook on romantasy (that’s how good it is), but I still don’t love steamy Fae sex. It’s just not my thing. When I read romance, I’m in it for the (admittedly unreasonable, unlikely, and manufactured) true love. The Princess Bride, not Outlander. I’m not saying there aren’t any Fae romance books like that, but I’ve yet to find one. When I do, I’ll worry about its wider appeal. Fae romance is meant to be steamy and wild. It’s the genre, and fulfilled in Servant of Earth admirably.
[His kiss] was like drowning in melted chocolate.
Can you read this book alone, or do you have to read the whole series?
While Servant of Earth is the first book in the Shards of Magic Series, it comes to a satisfying conclusion. You can definitely pick it up and read it. If you do, you will undoubtedly want to read the next book, Princess of Blood, but Servant of Earth is its own satisfying reading experience.
Summary
In conclusion, Servant of Earth is an excellent book and decidedly worth reading. Most importantly, the main character, Kenna, is someone you’ll enjoy spending time with. You’ll want to root for her, and you’ll appreciate where her journey takes her.
“A lot of things in life aren’t fair, but all we can do is get through them as best we can and try to make the world a better place.”
