The Absinthe Earl by Sharon Lynn Fisher – Review

Published: October 15, 2019

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Series: The Faerie Rehistory #1

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 288 (Paperback)

My Rating: 2.5/5.0

Synopsis:

They crossed centuries to find each other. Their love will shatter worlds.

Miss Ada Quicksilver, a student of London’s Lovelace Academy for Promising Young Women, is spending her holiday in Ireland to pursue her anthropological study of fairies. She visits Dublin’s absinthe bars to investigate a supposed association between the bittersweet spirit and fairy sightings.

One night a handsome Irishman approaches her, introducing himself as Edward Donoghue. Edward takes absinthe to relieve his sleepwalking, and she is eager to hear whether he has experience with fairies. Instead, she discovers that he’s the earl of Meath, and that he will soon visit a mysterious ruin at Newgrange on the orders of his cousin, the beautiful, half-mad Queen Isolde. On learning about Ada’s area of study, he invites her to accompany him.

Ada is torn between a sensible fear of becoming entangled with the clearly troubled gentleman and her compelling desire to ease his suffering. Finally she accepts his invitation, and they arrive in time for the winter solstice. That night, the secret of Edward’s affliction is revealed: he is, in fact, a lord in two worlds and can no longer suppress his shadow self.

Little does either of them realize that their blossoming friendship and slowly kindling passion will lead to discoveries that wrench open a door sealed for centuries, throwing them into a war that will change Ireland forever.

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If you’re looking for a book heavy on Irish mythology and sexual tension then this is probably the book for you. I ran out of Audible credits and desperately needed something to listen to and picked this up. I vaguely recalled seeing some positive reviews for it from fellow bloggers and figured I’d give it a shot. It wasn’t a terrible book, it just wasn’t quite my cup of tea though it had so many individual elements that I usually enjoy.

Ada Quicksilver is in Ireland searching out evidence of faeries for her thesis when she meets the dark and handsome Edward Donoghue, Earl of Meathe. The earl is enchanted by her aethereal appearance, but he also happens to be on his way to inspect some ruins on his cousin the queen’s orders. Edward has a dark secret – he often sleepwalks if he doesn’t drink absinthe and will awaken dirtied and covered in blood with no memory of the events. He fears for Ada’s safety even as he is drawn to her.

This seems like standard romance with a touch of fantasy at first and then WHAM, FAERIES EVERYWHERE. I mean, there are fae appearances and it’s clear from early on that Edward Donaghue may become possessed by one of the fae when he sleepwalks but then they get transported off to Faerieland. And then suddenly they’re fighting for Ireland, uniting the disparate supernatural groups against the Formorians who want to begin the Irish potato famine. Not to mention that Ada is also the distant relative of a fae woman who was loved by the fae that possesses Edward. I’ve totally brainfarted on their names, but it’s not that important and I probably couldn’t spell them correclty anyway.

This was an entertaining read, though as it progressed further I found myself waiting for the end to arrive. It seemed to drag out a bit and I began to lose interest despite all the action. This wasn’t quite the faerie-filled fantasy for me.