I found that Derailed was not the book for me. I found myself feeling bored and not that into it. I think the writing is pretty good but the story line was lacking for me.

I don’t know why I read this… I didn’t like the first book in the series, why did I think I’d enjoy the prequel?

I’m sorry, I’m really trying but it’s not for me. I find the characters super annoying and I always just want to shake or slap them…
The writing really isn’t my cup of tea.
I can’t even root for the lesbian couple and that’s just not ok.

Just… Not for me...

Derailed was nice, it was good to see how the story between Syl and Rouen begins.
It was short but you can read book one and two if it's already done.

The narrative of this book is a bit intense and emotional.

Goodreads Synopsis:
Syl Skye. Rouen Rivoche. Star-crossed lovers who should be mortal enemies. This is the story of how they met.

A nightly excursion to DC. A goth-rock show. One innocent train ride. That’s all it takes for high school sophomore Syl Skye’s perfectly normal world to come crashing down.

Because unbeknownst to her, she’s a sleeper-princess of the fair Fae—a vessel of Fae power that has yet to Awaken—and there are dark Fae who want her dead, dead, dead.

Rouen Rivoche is one of those dark Fae. Bound to Agravaine the dark Fae Huntsman who is dedicated to wiping out all sleeper-princesses, Rouen has no choice but to hunt Syl down and spill her blood.

But a chance meeting in a nightclub, a brush of their hands, a lingering look… Despite herself, Rouen is attracted to Syl. And when she lets Syl get away…that’s when their troubles really begin.

After all, every couple has their issues, right?

Find out how Syl and Rouen met in this new prequel novella to MORIBUND, Book 1 of The Circuit Fae...

My Review:
I received a copy of Derailed from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

After reading the first book in the series and thoroughly enjoying it, I was delighted to see that I had been auto approved for the prequel to the series as well and almost immediately started on it, and was not disappointed. I also really liked the cover and couldn't wait to see what I was in for.

The story begins with Syl and Fiann and the rest of their squad at a Euphoria show, before the first book starts. Although she spends a lot of the book being ditched by her friends, Syl enjoys herself and falls more in love with her favourite singer/songwriter than she is already. It also switches to Rouen's viewpoint, just like the first book. I like how consistent everything is and I'm glad I read it, it's exciting and only adds more depth to the story. This tells of Syl and Fiann's train accident that's mentioned in the first book.

Overall although this was a prequel that I read after the first book in the series, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters better. I definitely want to check out more of the series in the future, and you should check out this series if you haven't already.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon, and another link to the authors Twitter.

https://www.amazon.ca/Derailed-Genevieve-Iseult-Eldredge/dp/1945723327/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516660366&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Derailed+%28Circuit+Fae+0.5%29+by+Genevieve+Iseult+Eldredge

https://twitter.com/GirlyEngine

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

'Derailed' is an interesting first glimpse into what's to come once you pick up the actual trilogy(?). In itself 'Derailed' is a short, 100 page novella that introduces us to the two heroines of the Circuit Fae trilogy (?) that's taking a spin on the 'chosen one' and 'forbidden lovers' tropes by adding interesting fae lore and a LGBT aspect, which I very much appreciated.
In itself 'Derailed' felt very much YA with a young voice when it comes to Syl and a slightly darker one for Rouen. We see Syl's high school 'squad' (who seem awfully mean to her in the first chapter as for the fact that they are supposedly the best of friends but I guess that's high school for you), sneaking out to a concert against your parents rules (#relatable), and a goth violin rockstar, plus the conflict between fair and dark fae in a urban fantasy setting.
It was quite an enjoyable read, even though it took me a minute to get into it since I'm usually not that big on fae, but I am sure that fans of YA urban fantasy, and fae, will love his f/f forbidden lovers story and crave more after finishing this novella. Luckily there are currently two full books out with a third one to come so plenty of story to read!
The only thing that seriously irked me about this was the severe case of insta-love between Syl and Rouen because it's simply not a trope I personally enjoy, but I know plenty of people who don't mind it at all.

This is a prequel to Moribund and it makes the story of Syl and Rouen complete. There is definitely chemistry between them - but at this point the reader (if you read Moribund already) knows where the story is going and you are familiar with the characters. I enjoyed this book just as much as I did with the first one.

Derailed is actually a prequel novella in the Circuit Fae series, which I haven’t read yet, but it did not make much of a difference for this book. The events of this novella supposedly take place before the plot of the first book Moribund, and it is about the first time that the princesses of the two faery courts meet. Syl is a sleeper princess of the fair Fae, and Rouen is of the dark Fae and bound to the Wild Hunt to hunt down sleeper princesses. Syl’s power has been contained by her grandmother so she passes as mortal, but a chance encounter happens when Syl meets Rouen at the latter’s concert. For her part, Syl has had a crush on her favorite musician but Rouen feels a lingering connection from a single touch of Syl.

Most of the novel is devoted to Rouen being puppeteered around by the leader of the Wild Hunt, who apparently did not get the notice that Rouen is a lesbian and couldn’t care less about him. He wants to use her power to break the circle of iron around Syl’s town; neither of them know Syl is the sleeper princess but they know she is in the town. Now, while Rouen’s parts are about causing the mayhem asked of her, it is also quite repetitive - she constantly lingers on how Syl made her feel, the innocence she sees in her, and how they can never be. (Geez, you met her for like 5 hot seconds) Syl, meanwhile is feeling low because Rouen blows her off and her best friend is being a creepy homomisic bitch. What the book does have going for it, though, is that even in the limited space of a novella, it establishes the world enough that you don’t feel lost despite never having read Moribund. What kind of ruined it in the end was the weird rushed ending.

Overall, a good novella but I am still on the fence if I want to continue onto the main books. I am certainly intrigued by the f/f romance in the novel, but Rouen mostly comes across as a female stand-in for the tortured bad boy trope in this one.

It took me a bit to get into this honestly and I still didn’t entirely. I should probably acknowledge that this was my first experience with this series and this author because I received this early on NetGalley, so I don’t have any knowledge of this world or these characters past what was given to me. So if I’m missing something, my bad. I mean, it is a prequel to the first book, so.

Anyway, I actually almost just left it behind and probably would have if it were a full book, but because it was only about 100 pages, I decided to grind it out to see if it got better or worse or stayed the same. Which is to say kinda lackluster and a bit annoying both because of Syl’s narrative—something that bordered on ‘trying a little too hard to be “hip” (or quirky) with all my slang and #relatable moments’—and what seemed like a very intense case of insta-love in the beginning that I still didn’t... really totally understand by the end, but it made an ounce of more sense considering the circumstances. Still didn’t like it though.

However, it did get a little better after the first few chapters. When the trash crash happened, it started picking up speed and I was definitely more interested in the events happening to the point where I could finish it. The entire thing between Rouen and Agravaine, and the whole sleeper-princesses thing was strange, as well as the entire notion of how fae work in this world, but it was unique enough to motivate me to finish.

The thing that bugged me the most about the entire thing was Syl. I wanted to connect with her and relate to her attitude and personality because she had a couple of amusing lines of narration or dialogue, but for the most part, it felt… fake and forced, like the author was trying to fit as much current slang and quirky things as they could in there. At one point, Syl actually uses the word ‘obvs’ in her narrative in all seriousness.

I didn’t dislike her, per say, but I didn’t like her either. I guess there’s more to her in the actual series? To be fair, there was one part that actually made me snort out loud but that was because of what it was parodying and the delivery.

“I know what you are,” I tell her, hoping to buy some time.
“What’s that?”
“Fangs, glowing eyes.” This is my worst stall tactic ever, but I go for it. “You’re a vampire.”
“Wha—no.” She looks insulted, maybe a little amused. “Vampires aren’t real. I’m a dark Fae.”


Nevertheless, I’m not sure if it’s the writing style or the characters or what, but I don’t care enough to read the books that follow this honestly. It was an interesting concept, but considering I wasn’t 100% invested into it, even at the climax of it all, I doubt the actual books would be able to hold my focus. That’s not to say that it was a bad because I could see how a lot of people would love this, but it’s not really for me.

This was a great prequel. I say that because it made me want to immediately go and read the first book in the series, which I hadn't even known existed until I read this. It's a great teaser to what I can tell will be an epic journey between Syl and Rouen, filled with a lot of Fae history and adventures.

I do have to say that since I went and started reading the "first" book in this series, Moribund, now that this prequel has come out some of the beginning of that one needs to be updated. It fits enough, but not exactly, to the point where I could tell some things had been adjusted in the prequel.

Overall this was a great start to a series I now want to blow through!

On the one hand this series just PAINFULLY YA, but which I mean we've got insta-love, catty high school cliques, the chosen one [tm], and a host of other things I generally hate ...but also that insta-love is a cute lesbian faerie couple featuring an awesome goth violinist which is 500% My Jam [tm] so it all kind of evens out. This story did a nice job of fleshing out some of the details on things that were mentioned in the first book and while I have already read Moribund, I think you could easily read this one first if you wanted to start the series that way. It's got the same general style and layout as Moribund and while I still think a lot of the names for their magical stuff are absolutely ridiculous, I do love the song lyric samples at the beginning of Euphoria's chapters so ...again it all kind of evens out. I think if you just set out to enjoy this series for what it is you'll have a good time, but it definitely falls into a lot of YA pitfalls so just be prepared for that I guess.

This is a small prequel to a novel I’ve already read, in which a “chosen one” teen had to fight dark forces to save the world. . . stop me if you’ve heard this before. This story tells about the first meeting between the probably doomed lovers, events that were mentioned in the previous book. Syl has a huge crush on violin-playing Rouen, going to her concert and then heavily involved in the train crash that brings them together and separates Syl from her friends.
Gotta admit, it feels kinda weird reading this after the main event. What I most liked about the main book was the humor, and that’s as evident here. It does explain why the dark fae can’t sense her, but I would have liked more on Glamma. More than anything, I wasn’t able to really picture the train crash and its aftermath, which made it difficult to follow.

Kind of a short book but with plenty of action, definitely leaves you wanting more...

Syl Skye sneaks out with her best friend Fiann and their squad to go see her favorite goth-rock star Euphoria perform. Syl has a crush on Euphoria and will risk her mother’s wrath to see her play.

After the show is over they catch the train back to their hometown. Syl wakes to people screaming and yelling and the screech of the train as it is turning over and over and falling down, down, down. After the train finally stops Syl realizes that Euphoria is responsible for wrecking the train by using magic. What Syl doesn’t know is that Euphoria didn’t have a choice she was forced to do what she did.

Euphoria is hunting the sleeper-princess and she keeps asking Syl if she is the sleeper-princess but Syl has no clue what she is talking about. Euphoria was sent to kill all the sleeper-princess.

Derailed is filled with so much action that it will grab a hold of you right from the start and you will be lost in its depths from beginning to end. I have fallen in love with the world of the Moribund, the Circuit Fae and the Sleeper-Princess and can’t wait to devour more from this world.

I am so glad that I got this opportunity to read about how Syl and Euphoria met and how the sleeper-princess awoken. Come join Syl and Euphoria on their epic journey through the world of the Moribund and Circuit Fae and watch them as they light up the world together.

Excellent prequel to the first novel, the writing is clean and the characters well defined and well voiced.

This prequel was super cute and the writing was above average, but insta-love makes me frown. The characters were likable and I loved reading about them, though!

Urban fantasy fans will likely enjoy this LGBT take on the traditional urban fantasy forbidden romance, but personally, the tropes were played too straight for me to take the story seriously.

Syl Skye has the "different from other girls" attitude down to a tee, spending much of the book complaining about how her friends are mean girls and she's just too weird to fit in. Honestly, this trope is no fault of this book/author in particular, but it's just one I've long learned to be wary of. I've been in several schools in multiple countries myself and have yet to find an environment that actually supports the petty sniping that goes on with Syl, Fiann and the rest of the "squad", who for that matter don't behave like a squad at all and have the personalities of cardboard. I hate it when stories include girl-on-girl hate just because, especially if the protagonist acts like she's above it all while continuing to sling mud at her supposedly stuck-up rival.

Bear in mind that during this entire time, Syl is the Cinderellaest Cinderella who ever Cinderella'ed. Daddy's no longer sending her money so she's broke and can't go out for concerts and drinks with her douchebag "friends" anymore. What a horror. To add insult to injury, after she makes her friends, a party of at least five other people, wait for her for half an hour so that she can try in vain to meet up with her idol, they decide they're done and ditch her to catch the last train of the night home. What terrible friends. I mean, I was just kind of incredulous reading that. Sorry, but they indulged your obsession for 30 minutes (x 5 people = 2.5 hours wasted) and then do the smart thing and leave so that they can goddamn make it home, and you have the gall to frame it as their fault for being selfish bitches? Really?

Then, when you get down to the writing, Syl is simply annoying in that her voice reads like a ten-year-old on her first crush. An example:

'Ugh, no. She'd think I was out of my mind.

No, she wouldn't because...Because she felt it too, my heart whispers.

Stop it, heart, ya darn traitor!

Being obsessed and acting all crazy bananapants over a goth-rock star isn't my jam, no matter what passed between us in those few moments.'

...Inner Goddess, anyone? Bellastasia say hi.

By far the best parts of the novella are the scenes between Rouen/Euphoria and Agravaine. Those are the only times where there's conflict, both internal and external, that I feel like I should care about. Part of it is the darker, more earnest tone necessary for Rouen's situation, which I think Eldredge works much better with than the forced "fellow kids" style used for Syl. To be fair, if that style of writing doesn't bother you, Derailed as a whole probably won't. It does get bonus points for portraying lesbian heroines who stand up for themselves and their identities (yay!), but other than that it doesn't work as a piece of fiction.

In the short span of a book and a half (As Derailed is just a Novella) Syl and Rouen a.k.a. Euphoria have quickly become one of my most favorite couples.

They're the perfect good girl, bad girl duo, and together, they're absolutely one of the cutest couples I've ever met.

Derailed was just as awesome as the Book One, Moribund. There was just enough amount of action, destruction, fantasy, evil, good and the butterflies.

Now, I'll excitedly wait for Ouroboros, the book two, and maybe re-read Moribund in the time being.

Derailed was absolutely beautiful and I loved every part of it. It has made the wait for the next book even more unbearable!

It failed to grab my interest at this time and I don't think I'll be getting back to it