Review--Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli

 

No matter how far she runs, the forest of Edgewood always comes for Emeline Lark. The scent of damp earth curls into her nose when she sings and moss creeps across the stage. It’s as if the woods of her childhood, shrouded in folklore and tall tales, are trying to reclaim her. But Emeline has no patience for silly superstitions.

When her grandfather disappears, leaving only a mysterious orb in his wake, the stories Emeline has always scoffed at suddenly seem less foolish. She enters the forest she has spent years trying to escape, only to have Hawthorne Fell, a handsome and brooding tithe collector, try to dissuade her from searching.

Refusing to be deterred, Emeline finds herself drawn to the court of the fabled Wood King himself. She makes a deal—her voice for her grandfather’s freedom. Little does she know, she’s stumbled into the middle of a curse much bigger than herself, one that threatens the existence of this eerie world she’s trapped in, along with the devastating boy who feels so familiar.

With the help of Hawthorne—an enemy turned reluctant ally who she grows closer to each day—Emeline sets out to not only save her grandfather’s life, but to right past wrongs, and in the process, discover her true voice.

Haunting and romantic, Kristen Ciccarelli's Edgewood is an exciting novel from a bold, unforgettable voice in fantasy.

I finally picked up (the catchphrase of 2025 folks! Lol) Kristen Ciccarelli's Edgewood and was immediately immersed into a strange and alluring fantasy read! I love a good fantasy and when you throw in the fae it can be even more incredible, if executed right. Granted, I know there's always different interpretations of how they are perceived, but I guess I sometimes expect certain things to be standard and when they aren't, I always hope for a little explanation as to why...or close to it. But let's get into the thick of things before I get into that.

Emeline is a nineteen year old girl with dreams of being a singer. She used to write songs all the time, but now she sings the songs her friend writes and enjoys the lifestyle she lives, as she believe it's leading up to her dreams of being on tour and singing professionally. For now, she just sings at little places and occasionally opens for an indie band. But there's something strange that happens when she sings, she starts to see the forest closing in on her.

What forest you ask? She calls it Edgewood and ever since she can remember she's always been able to see it getting closer anytime she sings. No one else seems to see it though, so it can make life harder when she needs to dodge encroaching ivy or jump as a horde of spiders starts coming out of her instrument. But things take a dastardly turn when her grandfather is kidnapped the Wood King. She must venture into the forest of Edgewood itself to find him and rescue him from the king.

When she finally finds the king, she can tell he's not quite well in the head. But she makes a deal with him, she will be his personal singer for the court, if he frees her grandfather. All the while, Emeline plans to find a way out of the deal herself as she was just landing her own deal to open for a famous indie band while they go on tour and she only has a few days until the tour starts. But the king doesn't want her to sing her own music, he wants her to sing the music his favorite court singer sang. So now Emeline must look for the sheet music that is hidden somewhere within Edgewood.

Aiding her, sort of, is Hawthorne, the king's tithe collector. Naturally, there's some heated chemistry brewing between Hawthorne and Emeline, yet I couldn't really get behind this as we learn that Emeline has a boyfriend back in the "mortal realm." I am not a fan of infidelity. Though through Emeline's thoughts and narration, we know she's not serious about the guy. In fact, she admits to just moving from guy to guy, trying to find the right connection with someone and when it doesn't have the right feelings to it, she ends the relationship. Since she's already feeling like it's time to end things with Joel, the boyfriend, she doesn't mind a few stolen kisses, but Hawthorne does.

This. This right here is largely why I could not get into the romance. I know we're supposed to be Team Hawthorne, but since Emeline already had a boyfriend, one she was still with because she hadn't gotten around to ending things, just irritated me. We didn't get much of Joel's character at this point, but he was helping her achieve her dreams of singing and opening for an indie band. On paper, Joel was a standup guy and because she just hadn't gotten around to ending things with him, she thought it was okay to pursue something with someone else. Sorry, but this does not jive with me. It did kind of make it hard to continue to like Emeline when it came to romantic pursuits, but I tried to just push that out of the way.

Hawthorne was an interesting guy as well. He himself was the epitome of mystery. Granted being of the fae, you kind of expect him to hold back on some things. He made for a very intriguing character that I could never really pin down as to what he was hiding and boy was that a doozie!

Despite not enjoying the romantic elements of this story, I will say the mysterious parts were very good! There's something happening to Edgewood. Something permanent and disastrous, but since Emeline is trying to escape it, she's not in a hurry to solve the mystery. But we do learn that there's a dark and evil creature wreaking havoc on the fae who live there. How this mystery elements brought us full circle to other details was done remarkably well. This aspect I really did enjoy! I thought it was the right way to go about tying certain mysteries and questions together.

As I briefly mentioned, I did wish we could've gotten a better insight to the rules of this realm of faery. Was it really even faery? I'm starting to wonder on this, because those certain rules we all know from faery lore were not addressed at all. I mean, yes, we don't always have to follow the same pattern of rules to be abided by when it comes to supernatural creatures, but I guess I felt like maybe some kind of acknowledgement would've been nice. Whether it was to explain how things worked or why they didn't work in the typical way. Or if the realm of Edgewood was even considered a part of faery and its rules and enchantments. I'm not trying to compare this to other authors who write about faeries and the faery realm, but just because there are so many books out there about the fae and the abundance of rules and such that come with the fae, I guess I was hoping for an inkling of that to appear or to explain why it was okay to do one of the things you are to never do when entering the faery realms. But again, that's just a nitpick from me that comes from reading sooo many different books involving the fae! Lol.

All in all, I did enjoy Edgewood. It was a magical story with an intriguing storyline and I loved the mysteries that were buried within the faery realm. I enjoyed Emeline and Hawthorne as well, maybe not so much in the romantic sense as the previously mentioned rant will tell you why. But outside of that scope they made for intriguing characters. This was definitely a worthy read even if I didn't agree with all the elements of it and I thought the ending was very fitting as well.

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars