4.5 stars - published 28th August 2025.

I really enjoyed this in every way. On the surface and within the opening few pages, part of you expects a story that you have more than likely read before. But thankfully, this was not the case.

Two sisters - Sabrina and Ceridwen - from a small Welsh village, with it's traditional culture at its heart, think that their life has already been set out for them. But, as their childhood dreams of fairies and magical creatures start fine to life, both head out onto an adventure that will change their lives and view on society forever.

As someone with Welsh lineage on my Dad's side of the family as well as currently being a Librarian at an actual Welsh University, I was so drawn to the inclusion of the Welsh mythology and folklore in this novel and it was such a brilliant element that really enhanced the story. It helped create such a unique atmosphere that you really don't see in other fantasy stories (certainly not as explicitly as here) and was so captivating in every way.

The fact this is a debit also has me hugely excited to see what Anna Fiteni does next.

Review of The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire by Anna Fiteni

My heartfelt thanks to Electric Monkey Books for gifting me an ARC of The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. It felt less like receiving a book and more like being handed a key to a secret, rain-dampened gate that opened onto a world of shadowed forests, silver-threaded skies, and stories that will linger in my heart long after the last page.

UNWAITH AR Y TRO
ONCE UPON A TIME


Some stories do not simply invite you in, they call to you, like the distant echo of a harp over the misted hills, the way the wind whispers through gorse and heather. “The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire” is one such tale. It is a dark, glittering, and deeply Welsh romantasy that slips under your skin like the shadow of a half-forgotten lullaby, blending the perilous beauty of Pan’s Labyrinth, the whimsy and world of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal, the yearning of Bridge to Terabithia, and the wonder of The Spiderwick Chronicles and the decadence of Peter Pan but shot through with the heart, hiraeth, and mythos of Cymru.

From the first page, “The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire” had me utterly spellbound, Anna Fiteni’s words weaving an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere that seemed to curl like mist around my shoulders. Every line shimmered with magic, but it was never a safe magic; it was the kind that glints with danger just beneath the surface, daring you to step closer. As I read, I felt that familiar pull in my chest, hiraeth, a yearning for loved ones long gone, and the worlds hidden in our hills and streams. This book is steeped in that same soul-deep Welsh folklore, populated by whimsical, wild, and sometimes frightening beings born from the old beliefs of my people like Mari Lwyd, the Cyhyraeth, Ceffyl Dŵr, and Pwca. And yet, amidst the peril, there is beauty, warmth, and a fierce heartbeat, a reminder that even the darkest tales can hold the light.

Set in a small 1800s mining village, Fiteni’s debut is steeped in the grit and poetry of Wales: the coal dust that clings to your skin, the chapel bells, the stubborn survival of a people whose land and language (iaith y nefoedd, “the language of heaven”) have been stolen and suppressed, yet endure. Sabrina Parry, our prickly and imperfect heroine, has learned to survive with sharp words and sharper wits. Her sister Ceridwen gentle, romantic, with a heart too soft for the world vanishes into the gwyll (twilight) of the nearby woods, leaving behind an iron ring. To save her, Sabrina must cross into Eu Gwald, the perilous realm of the Tylwyth Teg.

And here, Fiteni gives us a fairytale as it should be: beautiful and rotting, intoxicating and dangerous. This is not the softened, modern Fae; these are the tricksters of old tales, the kind my Tad-cu used to whisper about at bedtime. The ones you’d leave milk out for… and pray never to meet. In Habren Faire, the moonlight hides teeth, and bargains are binding in ways no mortal can quite escape.

I cried tears, real, unashamed tears because this world and these characters have a chokehold on me, the kind that leaves you thinking about them long after you’ve closed the book. Sabrina Parry has steamrolled her way into my heart with all the grace of a storm battering the coast. She is everything you’d expect a fantasy heroine not to be, and yet somehow, so much more: spiteful, unflinchingly honest in her lies, a troublemaker who cheats, irritates, and gleefully upends lives when it suits her. She looks the neat little path destiny has drawn for her square in the eye, and probably punches whoever dared to suggest she follow it in the first place. And still, she is fiercely loving, deeply loyal, the kind of person who will knock you out or cut off your finger if it means protecting the people she cares for. Fiteni writes her with the same rough-edged, beating heart as the March sisters from Little Women, and her family — her Da, her sister Ceridwen, her Gran — feel as though they’ve stepped straight out of a literary classic and into this wild fae world. There’s a touch of Alice in Wonderland’s madness here too, all swirled with a Tim Burton-esque shadow, making it both unsettling and utterly irresistible.

Neirin oh, Neirin, the annoyingly magnetic fae prince who barges into Sabrina’s quest and into my thoughts far more than I care to admit. He is cut from the same stardust-and-sin cloth as David Bowie’s Jareth, all vanity and silver-tongued charm, at once dazzlingly clever and utterly foolish. His name feels almost too noble for someone so deliciously self-absorbed, so preening, so obsessed with humanity, and yet dangerously unpredictable. There’s something slick in the way his brown eyes catch the light, his lashes casting shadows like spider legs across his cheek. His wavy black hair is streaked with silver, gleaming as if someone dipped a brush in moonlight, and he wears black velvet embroidered with constellations, stars, moons, and planets stitched in silver thread, like he’s wearing the night sky itself. Fiteni infuses him with an edginess that reminds me of Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream; indeed, the whole Ellyllon court has that Shakespearean blend of mischief, beauty, and lurking peril. Neirin is both a lovable rogue and playful trickster, and the slow-burn tension between him and Sabrina is a quiet thread woven into the greater tapestry all the more intoxicating for its restraint. With betrayals twisting in the dark and their banter crackling from irritation to something far more dangerous, I found my heart racing every time they shared the page.

The LGBTQ+ representation in The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire is woven as seamlessly into the fabric of the story as the silver threads in Neirin’s velvet coat, natural, unforced, and all the more beautiful for it. Fiteni doesn’t treat queerness as a spectacle or side note; it simply exists here, alive and unashamed, as it should in any world worth escaping to. Among the Tylwyth Teg and all their tricksy kind, selkies are slipping between sea and shore, and mermaids, morgens, whose songs curl through the waves with love and longing for more than one kind of heart. In a tale so deeply rooted in Welsh folklore and history, it felt like a quiet, defiant act of reclamation a reminder that our stories, like our people, have always been more varied, more complex, and more wondrous than the narrow paths history tried to confine them to.

Thematically, Fiteni captures something I rarely see done so deftly in fantasy: the bittersweet ache of growing up, of leaving home, of returning to find it altered, and knowing you have been altered too. She threads in grief with quiet grace: grief for the dead, for the selves we leave behind, but also for the loss of stories and traditions under the weight of colonisation. As a Welsh reader, I felt my heart clench at the way she honours the mining communities their sacrifices, their stolen labour, their resilience and at the way she refuses to sand the edges off Welsh identity.

“The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire” feels, to me, like a love letter to Wales, a celebration of everything that makes my homeland what it is. Too often, romantasy novels borrow from Welsh myth and landscape without ever acknowledging, let alone interrogating, the roots of their inspiration. But Fiteni does not just nod to Wales; she treasures it, honours it, and breathes life into its heart. Giving us, the reader the relentless rain that slicks the slate roofs, the forests that seem to go on forever until they spill into the mist, and the ancient stone castles that rise from the hills like something out of a dream. This is a Wales that is both real and mythical, where the grit of the coal seams lies alongside the shimmer of faerie light, and where every page feels steeped in that aching, longing for home.

There is hiraeth in these pages that deep, untranslatable longing for a place, a time, a feeling that can never be fully recaptured. And yet, there is hope too. Hope in the fierce, messy love between sisters. Hope in the idea that even bargains with the Fae might be survived, if not won. Hope in the survival of the story itself. Fiteni’s prose is lush without being overwrought, laced with the cadence of a fireside folktale. She balances whimsy with peril, tenderness with sharp teeth. The ending is as it must be bittersweet, leaving you breathless, a little bruised, and aching to walk again among the shadowed groves of Eu Gwald.

There are books that you finish and remember for their plot, and then there are books that leave you with words that root themselves deep in your bones. “The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire” gifted me more than one such line, the kind you carry like talismans. “Even when you’re as old as me, if you’re not happy, then you’re not at the end,” is a quiet, defiant reminder that life is not a straight path to some fixed point, and that joy no matter your age is worth chasing until your last breath. “People love us for our efforts” spoke to the marrow of my being; that we are valued not solely for success, but for the trying, the striving, the reaching beyond our limits. Fiteni’s reflection that “our lives are small… a speck of dust on an old coat or a mayfly at the start of its first and only day, but from them spring a thousand stories” is both humbling and electrifying a reminder that even the smallest existence can be a universe to someone. The notion that “we’re all being used by a big house somewhere” is a bitter truth dressed in whimsy, hinting at the invisible powers be they political, economic, or fae that shape our lives without consent. And beneath it all is the warning: “All the best lies sprout from a seed of truth.” It is a lesson in discernment, in knowing that what feels real may only be the bait, and that when you have less, the things you do hold, love, trust, and belong matter infinitely more. These quotes did not just shape my reading experience; they shaped me.

For me, “The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire” was like finding the path to the worlds I used to dream of as a child listening to my grandad speak of the Tylwyth Teg worlds I thought I’d outgrown, but which were only sleeping. This book woke them, giving me back my sight and for that, I am grateful.

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire will step into the mortal world on August 28th, 2025, and I wholeheartedly recommend letting it sweep you away the moment it does. This is a tale spun of rain and starlight, of hiraeth and heartbreak, of cruel fae bargains and the kind of love, fierce, messy, unyielding that can outwit even the oldest magic. It is a story to lose yourself in and to carry with you, like a secret charm tucked in your pocket, long after you’ve left the woods behind.

A spellbinding debut - dark as slate, bright as starlight, and full of hiraeth.

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire is an enchanting dark fairytale that pulls you into a world steeped in Welsh mythology and folklore. From the very first page, you'll be captivated by the eerie atmosphere that the author crafts so beautifully.
You can feel the magic, tinged with danger, lurking just beneath the surface.

Follow a compelling heroine, Habren, who is flawed and quite frankly not that likable at times but who is as brave as she is determined. Driven by her fierce love for her sister, she throws herself into the wicked world of the Fae. A realm filled with dangerous creatures, cruel curses and cunning Fae princes. It's this depth of character that makes her journey all the more engaging.

The story balances whimsy with a real sense of peril. With it's twists, betrayals and darker themes, it'll keep your heart racing as you eagerly keep turning those pages until you reach the most bittersweet ending, perfectly wrapping up the journey in a way that feels just right.

If you're in the mood for an eerily beautiful tale that captures the essence of magic and folklore while exploring the complexities of love and bravery, then pick up this book! Dive into this magical world, it's a fairytale that will linger long after you've turned the last page.

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire is a beautifully written YA fantasy that feels like a dark fairytale. Perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince trilogy or readers with an interest in Welsh mythology.

It took me a while to feel fully immersed in the world, but once it settled, I appreciated the richness of the folklore and the slightly eerie tone that ran throughout. The fae are dangerous and manipulative, and the magic feels old and unknowable in a way that really suits the story and gives it a timeless quality. The atmosphere is definitely one of the book’s strongest elements!

Sabrina Parry is a compelling heroine. She’s flawed and not always likeable, but she’s brave, determined, and driven by love for her sister. (Heavily reminding me of Jude from The FOTA books) I really liked how her relationship with Neirin developed slowly and subtly. It made it feel like the romance is more of a thread than a focus, which I appreciated. It never overshadows Sabrina’s personal journey.

There’s also some gentle LGBTQ+ representation woven into the story that felt natural and thoughtfully done! I just wish the ending had been a little more fleshed out. It felt a little rushed, and it left a few things unresolved that I was curious about. I also wanted more clarity around certain characters.

Overall, this was a beautifully written and atmospheric debut I recommend to fans of The Cruel Prince books.
It didn’t fully land for me but still had a lot to admire. A solid 3.5-star read!

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire is the type of book that reminds me just why I love fantasy and in particular YA fantasy, it was rich in Welsh folklore and is filled from start to finish with whimsical creatures and dark characters and the one thing I loved the most was it had the traditional faerie lore - the lore where the creatures are cruel and wicked and frightening, once I started I completely devoured it.

The writing is so beautiful and it just captures your attention from the very first line, the growing up that the characters go through is amazing.The slow burn romance was perfection and so beautifully written and as for the ending it was bittersweet and the perfect conclusion especially for a book under 400 pages it was fast paced and so very well developed where the plot and characters were concerned.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a fast paced fantasy rich in the more traditional faerie lore and who is looking for those fantasies of dark and dangerous fairytales and most of all the emotional stories about family, love and loss.

Thank you so much to Publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book before publication, these are my honest thoughts and opinions.

Fantastic and such an important read, we need more books with Cymru in them, I really enjoyed reading Welsh myths and getting to know the characters- i wish I could know more about Gran and her sister rekindling and what Sabrina does with her life - we must never forget the sacrifices so many families made to mining without wanting to and how Britain took so much from Wales
Here are some of my favourite quotes:
She’s always watching me in moments like this – when I become little more than Ceridwen’s shadow.

“Dwi’n gwybod sut mae’n teimlo i gael dy anwybyddu,” says Gran. “Paid â’i gymryd at dy galon.” I know how it is to be overlooked. Don’t take it to heart.

‘All neb fy anwybyddu. Mae fy llais yn rhy uchel.’ No one can overlook me. I’m far too loud.

‘that people don’t try to cage you. You’re born in the cage , and no matter how hard you fight, you aren’t fighting for freedom, not really. You’re fighting for a better view between the bars.’

This is for all my The Cruel Prince fans.

I binged this.
It was addictive, funny, spiky, and filled with Welsh history.

In 1842, Habren follows her sister into the Land of the Fair Ones seeking to rescue her by entering into a partnership with a trickster Fae, Nerin, to become the King’s champion.

<b>Imagine what magic smells like to you (we can't all love wisteria and cooking bread) then picture wonders to rival the ocean. Imagine the place where the fairy tales of your childhood took place, when your mother lay beside you in bed and whispered stories in your ear.
You're halfway there.</b>

This is I-hate-you-so-much-I-will-cut-your-finger-off.
Habren is spiky, constantly compared to her soft, beautiful sister. She is the shadow.
Spiteful, jealous, but loyal.

<b>How strange. How lovely.
How awful.
"You used me, I say. "I hate you.”
“I missed you too,” he replies.
</b>
Great familiar relationships.
Morally grey epitomised.
History about the sordid Welsh mining past and the English incursion.
Great snappy back and forth.
LGBTQ representation.
Disability representation.
A very satisfying standalone that could expand into a sequel.

Physical arc gifted by Electric Monkey.

Some books are just 5-star reads, and there are books like this one that alter a part of your brain for the better.

When I tell you this book was perfection, I truly mean it. I have no notes on this book, and I could cry from how much I love it. Well, I tell a lie (how very Sabrina of me), I've cried twice already and have no regrets. I don't think I can describe what a joy and at times a heartbreak it was to read this; words are simply leaving my mind as I write this review.

If you loved the sharp wit and banter dynamic between Jude and Cardan from The Cruel Prince and Emily and Wendell from Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia. In that case, you are going to love Sabrina and Neirin's dynamic very much.

For the book lovers who enjoy the tropes below, this book is also for you!
- Faeiries
- Sisterhood
- Welsh folklore
- Morally grey characters
- Sharp and witty banter
- Betrayal
- The realities faced by Welsh Miners

Anna Fiteni, your writing truly moved me, and I genuinely can't wait to see what books you create in the future.

Thank you, Electric Monkey and Netgalley, for an E-Arc of this book. You are absolute babes for giving me early access to reading this masterpiece!

“𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙙, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚.”

What an enchanting read! I am awestruck.

Remember the scene at the end of Bridge to Terabithia, where the young girl finally steps into the fairytale world she has longed to visit? That was me while reading this book. I felt giddy, charmed, emotional, and completely carried away to a place I didn’t even know I have been pining for.

This story is deeply rooted in Welsh folklore and is filled with whimsical creatures and characters drawn from old beliefs—some are frightening, which I hope to never encounter, while others I’ll be dreaming about for weeks. (I’m looking at you, Neirin.) I couldn't get enough of it, and the author's writing style made the experience delightful.

I really connected with our main character, Habren (Sabrina, if the Teg aren’t listening). She reminded me a lot of myself when I was her age, and learning about her challenges and strengths really moved me. While I loved her, Neirin truly captured my heart. He has that lovable, playful energy while also being a bit of a scoundrel! The slow-building romance in the story was beautifully written, but that ending... bittersweet and perfectly concluded.

The world and the story were both remarkably well-crafted, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who misses the feeling of dark, emotional, and wonderfully strange fairy tales about love, loss and family.

Thank you Anna Fiteni, Electric Monkey and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You know the book is going to be good when it has a long title and beautiful cover art, and this one was no exception!
Honestly I think I would have dived into this one just because of those two things, but the rest of the details just made this irresistible. Cruel prince vibes 👌🏻 rescuing family 👌🏻 adventuring through the fairy realm 👌🏻 meeting snarky characters 👌🏻

You should definitely pick this one up if you enjoyed The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, because it was so similar but focused more on the story telling and the mythology and the ‘fairytale’ itself! But add it a little twist of the Brothers Grimm because there were so many dark and twisted bits thrown in too!

It was just so lyrical and magical to read, and through every moment I was just filled with this childlike sense of longing and wonder, and it was so clear that the author had filled this book with attention to detail and love, and I think that they should be so incredibly proud of what they’ve created within this book!

There was so much more to this than our main character Sabrina going on an adventure through the fairy realm in order to rescue her sister. Obviously this is what makes it a fun read and a really interesting place to visit, but it does really feel like the author was trying to highlight the weird passage of time between being a child and an adult, and how hard it can be to navigate the loss of something.
All of this is lightly covered over by the rich storytelling and a huge host of weird and wacky characters from mythology and folklore.

Rating:♾️/5 ⭐️

Wow, what a book, what a debut: The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire has made me cry. I’ve never read a book that conveyed the emotion and familiarity of the bittersweet moment in our lives that is growing up (and it is in itself an ever changing process throughout our lives). Of leaving home and that yearning, wishful missing of it and knowing that if when you do comeback, it’ll be a slightly different home because you too have changed.

Sabrina is stubborn, charming and utter a sense of familiarity and nostalgia that we can all identify with. She is as complex and organic as we can be, and her loyalty, duty and love towards her family and sister is beautiful. She runs straight after her sister into the woods and into the fairy world because for once, she cannot stay put and watch herself lose someone else. In fact, this book is also a love letter to sisterhood.

I particularly adored the fairytale vibes in this book. In fact,t he whole story is told based on fairytales and welsh folklore which I initially thought I was very i the dark about but as I go, I kept finding out that I do know those creatures and it was honestly such a delightful experience! I went into this book expecting a fun and thrilling read with scheming heroines and wicked fairies and folks, to come out of it feeling like this book too, has changed me a little bit. Anna’s call to weave fairytales as a way of self discovery is truly magical.

There was also this very particular aspect to Anna’s storytelling that I want to mention: during the story and as the plot goes along, we have Sabrina directly talking to us, readers, and I felt that the moments Anna picked for it were just perfect. I felt even more connected to Sabrina and the story and a sense of being part of it. The moments were so familiar, hopeful and honestly everyone needs to pick up this book now!

This book is so Welsh and it's utter perfection.

I practically drank the ink Anna used because this was incredible. I had to take a break half way through because I didn't want this to end, four hours with these characters really wasn't enough.

Sabrina is an incredible protagonist. She's so inperfect and has the weight of her family on her shoulders. She is strong and resilient and I adored her. She made this story so easy to read and to root for her, because yes, she's headstrong and prone to anger but she's also achingly human with an unending love for her sister - to the extent she follows her to the land of the tylwyth teg.

Now, I am no stranger to Welsh mythology. I have done my own research over the years and loved seeing them come to life in Anna's writing. And the writing! Maybe it's because I know exactly the Wales she is describing but I could imagine everything so clearly it was like I was staring at a painting rather than words. Descriptions ranged from sparkling to horrorifying to making me laugh.

I wasn't expecting the 1800s Wales but it worked so well to show the strangeness of time in the land of the teg. I had so much fun with this and am so lucky to have been gifted an early copy.

There were minor issues with the text that I'm sure will be picked up with publication, though the double the made me laugh. E. G. The y ceffyl dwr (since y also means the). To be honest my Welsh is very limited but I loved how Anna embedded it into the story and made it accessible to everyone.

Also if you told me on Saturday I would enjoy 4th wall breaks in a book, I'd have laughed. But this was so good