ARC Review: Seven Black Diamonds by Melissa Marr

Seven Black Diamonds 

by Melissa Marr

Source: Huge thanks to Harper Teen and Edelweiss

My Rating: 3 stars

GoodReads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal—she’s half human, half fae, and since the time before she was born, a war has been raging between humans and faeries. The Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of the fae courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir due to the actions of reckless humans.

Lily’s father has always shielded her, but when she’s sent to the prestigious St. Columba’s school, she’s delivered straight into the arms of a fae sleeper cell—the Black Diamonds. The Diamonds are planted in the human world as the sons and daughters of the most influential families and tasked with destroying it from within. Against her will, Lilywhite’s been chosen to join them...and even the romantic attention of the fae rock singer Creed Morrison isn’t enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the familiar world she knows.

***

I’m a huge fan of Marissa Marr. Wicked Lovely was the first books about faeries that I read.  I read the next books in the series years after that and I still loved them. I also adored Made For You, Melissa’s contemporary thrilled.

So, of course I was excited to know she was writing more faeries books.

Sadly, I didn’t love Seven Black Diamonds as much as I hoped.

Let me tell you why.

The book started with Eilidh’s POV. An introduction to The Queen of Blood and Rage (I love that title), the Sleepers (terrorist killing humans for the Queen, aka: the Seven Black Diamonds) and how the Courts are working.

But in the second chapter we are introduced to Lily, the main character, and it was bad. She’s the daughter of a crime lord, and half fae. In that chapter, it’s her birthday party, where she meets a famous singer, Creed Morrison. She’s a huge fan of him because he’s a half fae, like her. And when they meet, it’s almost like love at first sight. They only meet for one night, a few hours but they already talk about a connection. But… I wasn’t able to find even 1 remarkable thing about him.

In the next two or three chapters, there’s a new change of POV, and that was absolutely confusing. The narrators start throwing a lot of names, like if I already knew them all, and I kept wondering: “Wait? So, they already know her?”

It felt chaotic, and the worst what that I was loving the other narrators, except for Lily, and she’s like the center of everything. Add to that the fact that there’s some kind of love triangle. I was about to DNF.

But I don’t DNF ARC’s that I request. So, I kept on reading.

I disliked a lot of things, but while I continued reading, I found some things that I loved. Like the politics of the Hidden Lands, the war between humans and fae, the mentions of The Queen… and a few twists I wasn’t expecting.

Zephyr, the leader of the Sleepers wasn’t that bad. He’s the other one involved in the love triangle. And even though he’s loyal to the Queen I found him better than the others.

So, yes, my favorite character was The Queen of Blood and Rage, and yes, I liked the faeries a lot more than the Seven Black Diamonds.

Marissa Marr’s writing and descriptions are gorgeous and magical, but my problem was that I didn’t care about Lily, and like I said before, even if there are more narrators, she’s the center of everything.

While I don’t think I’ll read the next books in the series, I recommend this book to everyone who loves “bad” faeries. They’re tricky, and beautiful and cruel.

And there might be a chance you also love the Sleepers.