After helping Elizabeth escape the fey realm, Coal finds that he's stuck in the human world. Worse than that, he's been arrested and placed in detention for being a party to Elizabeth's kidnapping. The government agent who arrested him is willing to let him go, but he has a condition. He wants Coal to give up Chalcedony as Elizabeth's kidnapper. It turns out taking a human to the fey realm without their consent violates a long-standing treaty between the humans and the fey. But although Coal already betrayed Chaledony by bringing Elizabeth home, he's wary of saying anything more.

All Coal really wants is to return to the fey realm. It's all he's known and he considers it to be his home. But getting back there isn't as easy as it might seem. And Coal will need to enlist some unlikely allies in his quest. Along the way, though, he learns the truth about his past and it turns everything on its head.

Things aren't all great in the fey realm, either. Chalcedony enlists Queen Tasla to help confront Queen Isis for allowing free traffic through her door. One of the jobs of the queens is to ensure their doors are properly guarded. To do otherwise is ground for other queens to forcibly remove you from power. And it looks like Chalcedony and Tasla will need to do just that. But Isis isn't going to go down without a fight.

With Coal's shocking truths revealed in the human world and war brewing in the fey realm, this book is a game changer for everyone involved.

--

I really enjoyed Coal when I read it a while ago. There's a uniqueness to the world of this story. It eschews many of the YA fantasy tropes, and it does so quite well. I never once thought to myself "Oh, yep, there's that thing we keep seeing in every new YA book." The author brings a a refreshing voice and a vibrant set of characters to life on the page.

There's also a great balance of action and character development in this book. Readers learn more about the history of this world, but you don't have to wade through chapter after chapter of exposition to get it. And, as a special treat, we find out what happened to everyone at the end of Black Beauty--and there are some definite major twists that came out of that.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next book!

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.] ( )

"Chalcedony" is the second book in Burris' Everleaf Series. This book brings back familiar characters from "Coal," as the story continues, following Coal, Chalcedony, and Haline as the main POV characters. Burris weaves a wonderful mystery of a story, using the POV characters to thread the plot, leaving the reader wondering how all the pieces fit together in a complete tapestry. Some questions are answered, especially about Coal, while others are raised. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger. Well, more than a bit, but it should make for an interesting opening to the next book. It definitely left me wanting to know what would happen next and how things would end for the main and supporting characters.

I will say,I found it curious how often Chalcedony, especially with the book named after her, was foiled time and again. While young, I know, she's also powerful and not unintelligent. There were just too many times she was outmaneuvered. Even though other characters were as well they, at least, had moments in which they demonstrated a good deal of competency. Chalcedony and her shadows, ironically, rarely did. They tried-hard. And she's an active and passionate queen, which was great. But I wanted to see her be truly successful in one of her missions. I really hope she gets a chance to shine and show she's a queen of worth in the third book-- a satisfying evolution of the character.

This is an engaging and entertaining book with nice twists I did not see coming. A definite recommended read. ( )