Tithe (A Modern Tale of Faerie)

Product Information

Later on, her same "imaginary" friends inform her that she is actually a changeling and that she should keep her human appearance because the Unseelie Court wishes to use her as a tithe to hell. Since Kaye is not mortal, the ritual will be forfeit, and the fairies whom the Unseelie Court wants to be bound to them will go free. Kaye attempts to control her newfound abilities by enlisting the help of a Kelpie to teach her how to use magic. She is soon kidnapped by a group of fairies, as planned, and is taken to the Unseelie Court to go through the sacrificial ceremony. At the climax of the ceremony, Roiben manages to free her from her bonds before she is killed and get them both safely away from the Court. In the process, he kills the queen of the Unseelie Court and many of her guards. Kaye ran across the carousel hall and swung her leg over the sill. The bits of glass she’d mostly avoided earlier slashed a thin line on the outside of her thigh as she dropped into the sandy soil and weeds. I ended up reading this book by accident. It was recommended to my 14 year old, Gini. She began the book and then brought it to me saying that she didn't feel it was appropriate for kids and that she, personally, had no interest in a heroine who consistently made such poor life choices. Well! I decided to read it to see what the deal was. This book was recommended for kids 14 and up and Gini has read books that were definitely adult reading level and she LOVES faery. That said, this was sort of hard to rate even on its own merits. It felt very much like something that I would have been in love with had I read it when I was 13 and utterly obsessed with all things fae. I used to read creepy stories from the 1800s about changelings for fun. And this definitely had those creepy faeries I so craved. I also really liked how the characters were kind of all awful people as that was a great element to add to the intended realism of the story. People are multidimensional and sometimes they’re not rainbows and sunshine all the time. Sometimes a mean protagonist works (I’m looking at you, rewritten Corny 👀) To be perfectly honest, I expected just a little better. I was really excited to read this, I mean The Folk of the Air was A MASTERPIECE!!!!! It wasn't as good as I thought it'd be, but I still enjoyed it. And I can't wait for The Stolen Heir AAAAAAAAAH!!! I need it right now!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩

Kaye becomes embroiled in the ongoing feud between the Seelie and the Unseelie court. Turns out that her childhood friends, Lutie-Loo, Spike, and Gristle, are not ‘imaginary friends' after all and they are now in need of her help. If you were cursed like Corny, would you immediately get to the ocean to cure yourself or would you attempt to touch someone or something? Whom or what? In addition to Kaye, we also follow Corny, Janet's older brother, who is gay and a bit of an outsider. He and Kaye team up but soon learn first-hand how dangerous and brutal the faerie world can be. A noble Seelie knight traded to the Unseelie Queen before the beginning of the novel as part of a truce agreement between the courts. He is a strong fighter and feared by many. He has a strong attraction to Kaye for reasons he does not initially understand. Inwardly hating the cruelty he is forced to perform for his new Queen, he thus harbours deep feelings of self-loathing and self-despair.One of Kaye's "imaginary" faerie friends from childhood. Harbours strong dislike and distrust of Roiben. He is killed by Nephamael towards the end of the novel after giving him information in the hopes of gaining his favour. She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.”

Once at her grandmother's house, Kaye begins to look for her old "imaginary" friends who were faeries named Lutie-Loo, Spike, and Gristle. However, she can't find them and begins to suspect that they were simply figments of her imagination. After a failed attempt to receive help from her "imaginary" faerie friends, Roiben and Kaye attend the rave. They are separated, and Kaye successfully locates her friends, but briefly leaves them to apologize to Janet's boyfriend for bewitching him earlier in the novel. However, she finds that the kelpie who lives near the waterfront has taken Janet into the water to kill her. In the novel, it is suggested that Janet went with him out of loneliness and a desire to get revenge on her boyfriend for going off with Kaye. Kaye follows but is too late and she manages to convince the kelpie to relinquish her body. Roiben finds Kaye mourning for her friend and gets her home.Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale" is about sixteen year old Kaye Fierch, a girl who has been moving around with her single mother for her entire life. At a young age she has been able to see and interact with these things called faeries, although no one believed her. Then one day, she enchants a boy into falling in love with her and makes a broken, splintered horse move. Soon after that event she meets a young faerie night named Roiben, and that is just the start of her faerie adventure.

heavy stuff. sort of. the atmosphere of this book is unlike that of the cruel prince. it's almost a complete reversal: instead of a human growing up in a fae you have a non-human growing up in the human world. and i think that's why this was a little bit bumpy.I saw it stand up.” His voice was so low she could almost pretend that she didn’t hear him right. His hand dropped to her thigh and slid upward to the cotton crotch of her panties. Kaye and Roiben spend the day at Kaye's home, and discover that strange events are affecting the mortal world. Odd reports of mauling and kidnappings are reported on the news and Roiben makes Kaye understand that this is a result of the solitary fey being free for the next seven years. Kaye receives a call from her friend Janet, inviting her to come to a Halloween rave held at the waterfront, she tries to persuade her not to go but fails. She also discovers that Janet's openly gay brother, Corny, has followed a faerie knight he became infatuated with to the court. If Valiant was made into a movie, what current film or TV stars would you cast as Val, Lolli, Dave, Luis, Ravus and the others?

Nevertheless, he found himself no longer wanting to punish her for her faith in him. Instead, he found himself wanting to be worthy of it. He wanted to be the knight he had once been. Just for a moment." I had forgotten so much of the plot in this book, and the first thing that surprised me upon rereading it was actually how problematic some of the writing is! If you’re a newer fan of Holly’s and haven’t read her old work, here’s your warning: this book involves racist remarks, homophobic slurs, attempted sexual assault, and some potentially sleazy romance dynamics, most of this going entirely unchallenged as the story unfolds. After one character tries to assault the protagonist, there are even one or two instances in which she talks about feeling flattered by his refusal to take “no” for an answer. How does Tithe compare with other fairy tale books you've read in the past? Did you like the modern setting? Valiant: This is a standalone title, but the storyline in this books lends some color to Ironside so I recommend reading it as well. The betrayed MC, Val, goes through a pretty stunning transformation in this book from a bit of a pushover to a unique, tenacious heroine. We’re introduced to some really cool fae and some really interesting themes around friendship! Val is rough around the edges but understandably so, and she falls in with the fae in the most interesting of ways. Should there be additional books in this series? How would the story continue? Which character besides Kaye or Val would you like to see explored in another book?Although she knew that vampire books were a dime a dozen, Holly felt that she had to tell her own story as well. And there’s never a better time than the present. Her vampire tale is much darker than the usual young-adult stories include, and that makes it slightly different as well.