The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door

Parry (The Magician’s Daughter) skillfully weaves together the mysterious and the mundane in this ambitious historical fantasy about hidden magic, dangerous ambition, and familial loyalty. In 1918, the accidental summoning of a fairy during the last days of WWI leaves many dead and a few survivors horribly cursed, prompting the secret magical community to prohibit any further dealings with the fae. Two years later, farmgirl Clover Hill enrolls at Camford, England’s prestigious university for the sorcerous arts, intent on breaking her brother’s increasingly debilitating fae curse. Though she’s scorned as a double rarity­—a woman and a scholarship student—she manages to befriend dashing, aristocratic Alden Lennox-Fontaine, fellow female scholar Hero Hartley, and botanist Eddie Gaskell. This quartet boldly pursues the forbidden secrets of the fae until they finally succeed in unlocking a door into Faerie country. Eight years later, the four have grown apart, haunted by the consequences of their actions. But when one of Clover’s former friends goes rogue, threatening to upset the balance of power, Clover must stop them, in the process discovering Camford’s deepest secrets. Parry paints a picture of a bygone era that is both attractive and subtly rotten at the core, exploring issues of power and privilege, duty and obligation. The results are complex, introspective, and impressive. (Oct.)