“I knew about faeries. They didn’t,” she protested. She hated the faery inability to lie more and more as he spoke. It would be easier to lie and deny how painlessly she had become fey. It would be easier to say that she wasn’t adjusting to her new life far faster than she’d ever thought. It would be easier to say she was struggling. Because then he wouldn’t be doing this to me.

After Ink Exchange, I was worried. For the most part, Fragile Eternity brings it back.

On one level, it’s a book about Aislinn getting used to her new role as a Fairie Queen–and still refusing to take that role as it was originally meant to be. Instead, she wants her time with Seth.

And that’s the second level of the book. The problem of a (now) immortal falling in love with a mortal. Aislinn refusing to see the problem and Seth refusing to believe it–trying everything he can to be made a Fairie.

It’s a neat story and actually takes the time to deal with some of the fallout of what a choice like that might mean.

All that being said… this is a huge, life changing sort of choice… and they’re literal teenagers. I’m not entirely sure how old Seth is, but Aislinn literally graduates high school at some point in this book (despite no real indication that she’s actually attending school at all–and this was a huge point in the first book).

Seth gave her space, but he noticed when she was upset and she wasn’t sure what she would say if he asked her why. My king, my other half, he’s decided to change the rules. And I barely refused. She wasn’t up for that conversation, not any time soon. She would be. She’d tell him. Just not yet. Not until I know what to say.

They just feel so young. Even Keenan–who is supposed to be 900–feels like a teenager. It’s a problem with this genre of the book and I’m sure I’ve aged out of the recommended audience. So it goes.

As they played, Aislinn thought about Seth—and about Keenan—and she wasn’t sure if she agreed with Denny. Is he right? Is more than a few years too much? Part of her thought he was right. Being with Seth never felt like there was any question of maturity or wisdom or any imbalance. With Keenan she felt like she was constantly stumbling. She pushed aside her thoughts and concentrated on the game. Carla and Grace made a great team, but Denny was more than their match. They all played for fun; he played for money most weeks.

In any case, I like seeing more of Aislinn as a main character again. I like Seth, even if I think he’s somewhat of an idiot. I’m fully waiting for Keegan to go nuts and crack at some point; he’d be a better villain. I like the new Fae. Order and Chaos/War are some interesting aspects to Faeify and both characters are neat.

But still. Not a terrible book. Let’s see where it goes from here!

Edit: On looking up the summaries for the next two books… it looks like Book 4 is primarily another large side story and then mostly ignored in Book 5, which apparently wraps things up in a way that could have been done in the first book.

So, perhaps it’s fine.

But I think I’ll move on for now. Perhaps another day.