Castle of Dusk and Shadows: A Fae Pride and Prejudice Retelling (Fae of Brytwilde)

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A long time ago, her parents had agreed to allow their eldest daughter, Grace, to marry the Fae crown Prince, Fitz.

This a loose retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and the author does a good job of being faithful to that story. The day of Grace's wedding, Ellie makes a split-second decision to save her older sister from marrying the dark and broody crown prince, Fitz and hides herself under the magical veil, marrying him instead.As any good character inspired by Darcy should be, Fitz is equal parts broody and devotedly fierce to the ones he loves.

This book did have ghosts and spirits in it, but it was done in a way that was spooky without being weird.There is a lot of Elle’s internal angst that isn’t very poignant and so comes across repetitive and dull. Which I personally am a big fan of because a lot of fae in books are very civilized and nice (not that I don’t enjoy that as well) but it was great to see the more brutal/savage side of the fae. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. This FMC is a truly distasteful person, in both her behavior and character, and combined with the single-sided POV, the writing was hard to stay focused on.

While her mother and sisters reconciled themselves to a future among dangerous immortals, Elle and her father studied forbidden magic, hoping to find a loophole.

World-building was decent and always clearly portrayed, but I do wish it had been more evocative and more present in the storytelling. Fitz is absolutely murderous, both figuratively and literally, when it comes to protecting those he cares about, including his new wife and soon to be queen. It is loosly based on Jane Austen's masterpiece but adds some non-spice gothic Fae and spooky ghosts.