Every hundred years, a Starfall signifies the arrival of the next queen of Pixie Hollow who will emerge from the embers of the dying star to inherit the crown. Since her fated arrival Princess Clarion, the queen in training, has struggled to learn the teachings of her governing talent and master the magic brimming inside her. Though she inhabits the most renowned position within Pixie Hollow she has never felt more alone, left to spend her days being shunted between meetings and locked inside her bedroom. Not entirely without its charms, Clarion’s bedroom affords a perfect view of the snowy peaks of the Winter Woods – the one season entirely cut off from the other three. No one has seen winter fairies in many years, and the theories of this strange snow-capped world have become extremely far-fetched. When reports of a monster crossing over from winter reach the attention of the palace, Clarion resists the order to remain in place and travels to the boundary between winter and summer. There she meets Milori, the Warden of the Winter Woods and someone just as burdened by duty as she is. Meeting at sunset on the boundary, Clarion and Milori hatch a plan to save their respective worlds but their growing emotional connection could be infinitely more consequential than the nightmares plaguing their lands.
If you watched Secret of the Wings back in 2012 and had your young heart irrevocably shattered, then Wings of Starlight is the book to heal those wounds. When Wings of Starlight was announced a few weeks after I had rewatched the entire Pixie Hollow movie series and dissected at length the plot that should have existed for Clarion and Milori’s love story, it felt like fate and prophecy were working in my favor – not to mention that one of my all-time favorite authors would be writing the love story for the ages. A star-crossed lovers’ plot that resolves in a second chance arc many years later was a job only Allison Saft could accomplish. With her innate ability to give voice to the desperate longing and the callings that connect us across distance, Saft has long been an author I have turned to for romance. No one else could have given voice to a story so full of loneliness and longing, and it’s a wonder that I survived reading this at all. Even if you’ve never seen the iconic films, or stepped into the Pixie Hollow lore, Wings of Starlight is the kind of romance that transcends both things and can be read entirely on its own, although its ending will certainly leave you wanting to experience more from this world and its characters.
Returning to Pixie Hollow, a world that made up so much of my childhood was a comforting slip back into something forgotten, yet indescribably familiar. Allison Saft sweeps you away on a crisp summer breeze into a realm made up of tiny little details down to the colors of the autumn leaves and the sparkling dewdrops on a spider’s web. This intricately detailed world left me wanting nothing more than to sit on the leaves of a tree in the springtime and the overwhelming desire to be a fairy in Pixie Hollow has never been stronger than in reading this novel. Wings of Starlight combines the world of Pixie Hollow against an ardent star-crossed romance between two leaders adrift in a swirling sea of responsibility. With Clarion as queen in training Saft reveals a side of this character previously unseen, someone unsure and alone desperate to master their skills. Clarion’s characterization as someone who feels deeply but has been taught to close off that part of herself to be an effective ruler provides a unique view into leadership and whether or not leaders can retain some semblance of themselves at all. Her profound loneliness as she shoulders the responsibility of her role alone is immensely sad but mirrored in the character of Milori, the Warden of the Winter Woods, her great love. Meeting at twilight on the borders between their respective worlds Clarion and Milori find a similar desire to take action and the borders separating them become insignificant in the face of danger and their growing connection. Containing that quiet yearning that Allison Saft has honed over time, Wings of Starlight pays homage to two iconic characters and the cost of the love that they find with one another. Bringing in dream magic and long-forgotten lore, Saft shapes the mysterious world of winter and all of Pixie Hollow, rounding out this romantic fantasy standalone. Wings of Starlight is a contradiction– a story encapsulating all the beauty in knowing one’s self and the discovery of love, to the agonizing heartbreak in having to sacrifice something you’ve only just begun to call yours. It’s as emotionally devastating as I expected and still, I would not change a thing. Undoubtedly going to return to this one again and again.
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warnings: violence, injury
Literaryrobin 