The Faerie Path [Hardcover]

Frewin Jones (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Faerie Path | Publication Date: February 6, 2007

Swept away into a court of magic and beauty, she discovers she is Tania, the lost princess of Faerie: the youngest daughter of Oberon and Titania. Since Tania's mysterious disappearance on the eve of her wedding five hundred years before, Faerie has been sunk in darkness and gloom. The courtly Lord Gabriel Drake, who Tania was once to marry, has found her and brought her back.

With Tania's return, Faerie comes alive again as a land of winged children, glittering balls, and fantastic delights. But Tania can't forget Anita's world, or the boy she loved there.

Torn between two loves and between two worlds, Tania slowly comes to discover why she disappeared so long ago. She possesses a singular magical ability and she must use it to stop a sinister plan that threatens the entire world of Faerie.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up—On the day before her 16th birthday, Anita's life starts to change. She has a vision of flying, receives a mysterious and magical book as a present, and travels from modern-day London to the world of Faerie. She discovers that her boyfriend, Evan, is really Edric, servant of the scheming faerie lord Gabriel Drake, and that he has been sent to bring her home. Anita is really Princess Tania, the seventh and youngest daughter of King Oberon, and she has been lost for centuries after experimenting with her power to travel between worlds. Anita/Tania comes to accept her true identity and the joy she has brought to her father and his realm. However, all is not well in Faerie. Queen Titania has disappeared, and Gabriel Drake is somehow involved with her loss. He claims to love Tania and wants to marry her, but is actually interested only in her magical power. While the conclusion resolves Tania's immediate problems, there is ample room for a sequel. This fairy tale meets "Princess Diaries" clearly shows Anita/Tania's confusion about her identity. She is a strong character, and her sisters and their varied powers and personalities are also well drawn. The teens' romance, foreshadowed by their starring roles in their school's production of Romeo and Juliet in this world, develops as the story progresses, and frequent quotes from and allusions to the play add depth to the story.—Beth L. Meister, Pleasant View Elementary School, Franklin, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

On the eve of Anita's sixteenth birthday, her date with her new boyfriend, Evan, is interrupted by an accident that lands them both in the hospital. After a series of dreamlike visions, she awakens in Faerie as Tania, the seventh daughter of King Oberon and Queen Titania, who has been missing for 500 years. Anita doesn't know what to think, and while she is trying to figure things out, she uncovers a plot that could destroy both worlds. The writing is occasionally awkward, and the book's setting and characters are typical fantasy fare. Even so, there's enough mystery, suspense, and romance to carry readers to the inevitable happy ending, and girls fond of magical princess stories won't be disappointed. Krista Hutley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060871024
• ISBN-13: 978-0060871024
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Diversion, Better than I expected, February 22, 2007

By 

Anne-Marie Gilliland (Near D.C., USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Faerie Path (Hardcover)

More enjoyable than I expected. Anita is a pretty typical teenager, she has just turned sixteen as the events of the novel unfold. She and her boyfriend, Evan are on a boating trip when things go awry. The boat crash is the catalyst for all of the rest of the events.

Anita find herself transported/lured into a world that mirrors her own in many ways, but is also very different. Though she suspects that these are the hallucinations of her mind--due to the accident, she tries to cope as best as she can. In the world she is told she is the long lost seventh daughter of Oberon and Titiania (yup).

Antia/Tania suspects there is more to the story than that, and the rest of the book unfolds. It was sweet and attention grabbing. Though the book is about an older girl it would be appropriate for any age really, while Anita and Evan kiss and so on there isn't any overt displays of affection in the book to be worried about.

This is the begining of a series it looks like, as there is a second one in the works, one I wouldn't be unwilling to read.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faerie Path is interesdting!, March 26, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Faerie Path (Hardcover)

The story is about a fifteen year old girl. The day before her birthday her boyfriend takes her on a ride in a motorboat, they hit a bridge, and both of them of them are taken to a hospital. She has a strange dream and wakes up on the floor. Before her dream she is given a magical blank book. Her boyfriend goes missing after the dream. She has another dream, or so she thinks. From then on she is in the magical land of Faerie. There she finds her six sisters and her true father. The rest of the book is a whirlwind as she finds out who she truly is.

It is a bit confusing as to who is good and who is bad. Her few travels to the "Mortal World" are very brief and cause a little more confusion, but the story and detail are wonderful. That fact that a few of the characters are from Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer's Night Dream," is really cool. This book is very exciting and descriptive. I look forward to book 2 in this series.
Rachel, under 13 - south plains

29 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Eye-crossingly boring..., June 24, 2007

By 

Luna Eclipse "Changeling" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Faerie Path (Hardcover)

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I love books about fairies, and after just finishing Holly Black's Ironside, I was on the lookout for something equally as engrossing, entertaining, and moving. Unfortunately, I was barking up the wrong tree when I took this tripe off the shelf.

Let me start off by saying that the characters in this book are the flattest, most uninteresting lot I have ever encountered. Not a single one had any depth at all, with Anita/Tania being the worst. She wasn't so much a heroine as simply a cardboard cutout, just sort of propped up there and barely taking part in her own story. Although I guess I can't really blame her, as being bland and cliched seems to run in her family. Just look at the boring stock characters her sisters are comprised of...there's the nerdy bespectacled sister who just sits in the library all day and only wears drab dark clothing, there's the silly sister who likes to joke around, etc. Oh, and Lord Drake? He was such a generic, run-of-the-mill badguy, I'm surprised he wasn't twirling the end of his mustache around in typical villain fashion. The poor, downtrodden little assistant being the one who truly loved her? Wow, totally never saw THAT before *rolls eyes*

as for the storyline itself, it was weak, predictable and trite. Seriously, there was not a single surprise or twist to be had in this whole boring mess. And what I found to be especially irksome was how silly some of the scenes were. Like one of the previous reviewers pointed out, the story kicks off with Anita and her boyfriend driving around in a boat. How're these two 16-year-olds even allowed to be operating a boat without any adult supervision? Yeah, I know you're supposed to suspend disbelief and all, but that's just dumb. And when Anita is finally reunited with her fairy sisters after about 500 hundred years, what do they do? They immediately go out and order dresses. Yeah, they really missed her, eh?

There are far better YA fantasy and paranormal romance books out there, such as The Modern Faerie Tales trilogy by Holly Black or Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. Try those instead, you won't be dissapointed.