The Treachery of Beautiful Things [Hardcover]

Ruth Long (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 16, 2012

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-As a child Jenny saw her older brother Tom swallowed up by trees that came to life. At 17, she has struggled for years with what she saw. No one believed her story, her parents have withdrawn into sorrow for their missing son, and she is ostracized by her peers. When preparing to leave for university, Jenny decides to visit the spot of Tom's snatching, and while there she hears music, the kind only her prodigy of a brother could make, and she runs into the wood searching for him-despite her terror. The small stand of suburban trees becomes a gigantic forest as she runs, and Jenny finds herself trapped in Faerie. Full of gorgeous beauty, the realm also holds danger, treachery, and intrigue. Estranged King Oberon and Queen Titania both want Jenny for their own ends, and the creatures she meets on her quest to rescue Tom are not what they seem, especially the Guardian of the Edge, Jack, to whom Jenny is irresistibly drawn. He, too, finds her irresistible and wants to protect her, but he is already torn between two powerful feuding Courts. Also, Jenny unknowingly brings her own kind of power into Faerie-enough perhaps to change the balance of power and free not only her much-changed brother, but even to break the enchantments binding Jack. Vivid imagery brings the lush, dangerous world alive, and the story moves at a brisk pace. The immediate connection forged between Jenny and Jack will melt the hearts of romantic readers and have them rooting for the pair to overcome the impossible odds they face.-Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* When Jenny was 10, her older brother, Tom, disappeared before her eyes into the forest near their English home. Seven years later, Jenny goes to the forest to say good-bye, and stumbles into the fairy realm, where she learns that Tom is being held captive in the Sidhe court. Jenny’s quest to reclaim her brother becomes a fight not only for her life, heart, and soul but also for Jack o’ the Forest, with whom Jenny is falling in love. Jenny attracts the attention of both the Summer Queen and the Winter King, and she becomes a pivot point in their courtly machinations. Led by her heart and purity of purpose, she discovers that there just might be a way to save not only Tom but herself and Jack as well. In her debut novel, Long has created a delicious and wonderfully romantic meld of several legends and fairy tales, including elements of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the ballad of Tam Lin, with plenty of action mixed in. Lyrical prose, along with highly imaginative and descriptive phrasing, makes the forest setting—and its creatures and people—immediately present and sparked with magic. Grades 7-12. --Charli Osborne

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dial; No Edition Stated edition (August 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803735804
• ISBN-13: 978-0803735804
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.5 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

R.F. Long always had a thing for fantasy, romance and ancient mysteries. The combination was bound to cause trouble. In university she studied English Literature, History of Religions and Celtic Civilisation, which just compounded the problem. She also writes for Young Adults as Ruth Frances Long.

Her Holtlands Novella The Wolf's Sister: a Tale of the Holtlands , its sequel The Wolf's Mate and her novels The Scroll Thief: a Tale of Ithian and the paranormal romance novel Soul Fire are now available from Samhain Publishing in print and ebook format. Songs of the Wolf, a print volume containing both The Wolf's Sister and The Wolf's Mate is now available. The final part of the Holtlands stories The Wolf's Destiny is now available as an ebook.

Her dark YA fantasy The Treachery of Beautiful Things is now available from Dial Books.

"Entrapment in a faerie forest has never been so delectable...A worthy, memorable read (with movie potential)."
(Kirkus Reviews )

"A dazzle of strange creatures, unknowable motives, and threat....Each scene is vividly, often horrifically imagined."
(Publishers Weekly )

"A heady atmosphere of folk tales, suspenseful terror, and passionate romance."
(VOYA )

Starred Review - "Lyrical prose, along with highly imaginative and descriptive phrasing, makes the forest setting--and its creatures and people--immediately present and sparked with magic. " (Booklist 15th September issue)

She is represented by Sallyanne Sweeney of Watson, Little Ltd.

She lives in Wicklow, the Garden County of Ireland, and works in a specialised library of rare and unusual books.

But they don't talk to her that often.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A girl gets thrown into a fantasy world of faeries and has to fight for love and freedom. August 17, 2012

By Dark Faerie Tales

Format:Hardcover

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A girl gets thrown into a fantasy world of faeries and has to fight for love and freedom.

Opening Sentence: The streetlights flickered on outside the window and Jenny looked up from her book.

The Review:

FAERIES!!!! My favorite subject in the world of Young Adult Fiction. But not the Tinker Bell type fairies, but evil, beautiful, scheming faeries from ancient folklore. So this makes me a tad biased in how the book was. But even if it didn't have faeries, for creativeness alone, this book is soooo amazing.

After 7 years of psychiatrists and reproachful looks, Jenny has finally decided to move on with her life and say good-bye to her kidnapped brother. So after 7 years of being told that what she saw that night wasn't real, she is stunned to find out that there's still hope for finding her brother and putting things right again. But it's not as easy as she thinks. She has to get past Jack, the guardian of the Edge (where the real world and the Realm collide). He has so many allegiances to the rulers that his loyalty to her is swayed almost constantly. But Jack knows something Jenny doesn't know...she's the May Queen and the next possible leader of the Realm. With Titania/Mab hunting her down and Oberon trying to make her his queen, Jenny Wren has little hope for a future with Jack...but hope is the one thing that's impossible to let go.

So, as I said before, this is a book about Faeries. But it's also a rendition of Snow White (that's becoming popular nowadays). Although the Snow White plot is small, it's still cute and original. Every time a characteristic of Snow White's story unfolded, I was all "aww's" and "oo's" (as you can see, I am also a sucker for retold fairy tales). AND! A bit of Norse mythology thrown cleverly in the mix.

The writing of the book is excellent. It has a wide variety of vocabulary (don't worry it's not the SATs) and great descriptions (but they don't overwhelm you so much that you skip them *guilty.*)

Some parts of the book had me a tad confused. Just more explaining would help. The 3rd person POV really helped tell the history of the Fae without going into too much detail, although this also made it confusing at parts because it wasn't explained all the way.

Although the book could have ended the way it was, I'm still hoping for a sequel. According to Long (I ran to twitter the instant I finished) a second book is still up in the air. So, we should beg Dial to turn Treachery into a series so we can have more Jack and Jenny!

FTC Advisory: Dial/Penguin provided me with a copy of The Treachery of Beautiful Things. No goody bags, sponsorships, "material connections," or bribes were exchanged for my review.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Treachery of Beautiful Things August 16, 2012

By Sarah

Format:Hardcover

Seven years has passed since Jenny's brother, Tom, was swallowed whole by the trees. Gone but not forgotten, Jenny returns to the forest for a final closure. The forest calls out to her, with the sound of a flute, his music, and the sound pulls her deep into the forest and she soon finds herself in a place where all is not what it seems. The World of the Faerie Realm.

She meets Jack, the Guardian of the Edge, a mysterious and handsome boy who promises to help her find Tom. Along with Puck, Robin Goodfellow, they must embark on a dangerous journey to save her brother without losing themselves in the process.

The story is magical, enchanting and beautiful written. The cover is beautiful. The Treachery of Beautiful Things shows you just how treacherous beautiful things can be!

For those who liked:
The Iron Witch series
The Iron Fey series

A special thanks to Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for providing a review copy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written but tends to drag during the middle December 16, 2012

By Christina (Ensconced in YA) TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I saw this book mentioned on several people's TBR lists, so I added it to mine. I award this book 3.5 stars.

The Treachery of Beautiful Things (which by the way, I think the title is one of the strongest points of the book-- love it!) by Ruth Frances Long is about Jenny, a girl who has lost her older brother, Tom, a long seven years ago, when the woods ate him. No one believes her, and after many psychiatrists, she has just stopped talking about it. Then one day, she hears Tom play his flute and follows it into the woods, where she has dreaded to set foot in for so long. She meets Jack, a mysterious Guardian, and Puck, his small friend, and she undertakes a very dangerous journey to save her long lost brother.

There are some really wonderful things about this book. The writing is very beautiful and I can imagine this Faery like land. Jenny is a likeable heroine, and Jack is fun love interest. I really loved the ending, which caused me to round this up to 4 stars.

That said, I had some major issues with this book as well. The middle drags a lot as we are waiting for things to happen. There are a lack of plot twists, and a large amount of time is spent on watching Jenny bumble around the forest. While beautifully described, I had to sometimes push forward to get to the end.

That said, I think that Long has promise as a writer, and I think she can only improve from here on out.