Book 3 of The Folk of the Air series
Jude Duarte has been in the human world ever since King Cardan banished her, she can only return when she is pardoned. Jude is staying with her sister Vivi and step-brother Oak. Vivi is having relationship problems with Heather who is freaked out over what happened to her in Elfhame. Jude is moping around because she misses Elfhame and Cardan. Then her twin sister Taryn appears on her doorstep; Taryn married the faery Locke in the previous book. As it turns out, Locke neglected Taryn and she killed him by stabbing him with a letter opener in the neck during an argument. She is set to be heard about Locke’s murder in a few days and she’ll be under a spell that will make sure she tells the truth. As the twins are identical, Taryn begs Jude to take her place at the hearing. As Jude did not kill Locke, she would not lie if she said that she didn’t kill him. As an added bonus, Jude cannot be spelled to tell the truth either. Jude travels to Faerie, while Taryn remains in the mortal world.
After she gives testimony, Cardan tells her that he knows she is not Taryn and that he worded her banishment so she could return at any time as she is the Queen of Elfhame and could pardon herself…
Holly Black’s fairy stories are so good! It’s not a genre I generally read or like, the only ones I have enjoyed are by Holly Black and Julie Kagawa.
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt 26: Title in a serif font
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️