I'm a shapeshifter, I'm a spy, and I'm an idiot...
 |
To Ride a Faery Steed
Mallory Dunlin
Monsters of Faery novella
ebook, ~70 pages
Author's website
Free Read from FaRo Society
To Ride a Faery Steed is a fun little romp in the Monsters of Faery universe. Set in the Court of Bones, we get to meet Avalon Hartley, a fresh bondservant from the mortal world being sold at a semi-legal auction–and her soulmate, Ruven Kezorwyn, a shapeshifting spy known as the Harrower of Dreams.
Ruven is only too glad to claim his soulmate, but Avalon is traumatized from her near death, and Ruven wants to ensure that she can live a good life in Faery…even if that means denying them both what they want and using himself as a reward for facing her fears.
Content Warnings: blood, panic attack, paralysis (mention), phobia (of horses), PTSD, sexually explicit scenes
I needed something short, and fun, as I waited for a late January new release to hit the kindle. I received this book from FaRo Society's FaRoDays newsletter event and am not sure how to obtain it otherwise. No Amazon listing. Still listed as Coming Soon on the author's website with no thumbnail.
Avalon has suffered a life altering event: thrown from her horse, fracturing her spine, and left paralized. Fortunately, magic sees to her recovery but, unfortunately, she's left with a debt that only being sold into slavery can settle.
It seems I am far too accustomed to the silent and broody MMC, because when the carriage door closed and Ruven's mouth started moving a mile a minute—
Nope. Not prepared for that.
They've never met. Not even a single time. But from the moment Avalon's eyes meet those of the man standing in the audience of the auction, she knows his name is Ruven Kexorwyn, and she knows his hands are always warm.
He liberates her from the auctioneer's block with a ridiculous bid only to drag her along in a mad dash from those that would seek to kill him.
Shifting forms the whole way as if his entire body were battling to keep up with his mind and mouth.
Once deemed safe from the pursuit, which may or may not have even existed, Ruven delivers his new scent-tied mate to his rather impressive manor. It is here that Avalon spends the next four months being educated in her new role as lady of the estate and daughter-in-law to the princess of the realm. All the while being met with the challenge of conquering her trauma.
This is my first taste of Mallory Dunlin's work and color me delighted.
It was so much fun. Ruven with his yearning, bloated ego, and desperate need to be accepted in his true form, while equally willing to manipulate his body into any form necessary to win his soulmate's affection.
“I lost the war the moment you looked into my eyes, and I would look again, knowing the price,” Ruven murmured, lips brushing my skin. “Kill me or love me, paradise. It doesn’t matter to me. Just don’t ever leave me.”It would be a travesty to never read another book by this author.
5 out of 5 stars.
2026/05