LOVED this book. It was so well done I could not put it down. Great book if you need a story to fall headlong into. It keeps you fully immersed in the world the author has created.

Received an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and its publisher <3

Could not finish unfortunately. I just couldn't get in to it and continue reading so I had to quit. I think I will try again as the premise sounds so interesting to me.

If you enjoy fantasy (and an accurate representation of the fae folk), don't miss out on this book. With each page, the Underground is constructed around wherever you might be reading. Each character is perfectly fleshed out, and your heart will experience swelling and piercing as you read. I haven't been this enamored with a book since I read the Harry Potter series for the first time. A definite must for everyone's reading list!

I unfortunately forgot to download the e-book on my kindle before it was archived and/or lost interest in the book because it’s been on my tbr for way too long, so I wasn’t able to read and review it (on time). Since I Must give a star rating, I’ve given it 3 stars to stay neutral/in the middle. Sorry to the publisher for not having gotten around to actually read it. I never request a book without the best of intention to read it and review it, since I know how important it is to the authors in particular. But sometimes life happens and/or reading preferences change so much that you just don’t always get around to read a certain book anymore, even though at the time of requesting I was definitely planning to actually read it of course.

An enjoyable delve into the classic selling points of fairytales, with some added fae elements! An enjoyable read, with intriguing characters. Easy read, simple,

“𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚, 𝐅𝐚𝐲𝐞. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐭𝐨𝐨. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐖𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐤 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝. 𝐒𝐨, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫.” 𝐀 𝐩𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬. 𝐇𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞. “𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭?”
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I think that this story had elements of fantasy stories we all know and love, with characters that are messy and complicated. This story was not something that was cut and dry, there were trials and tribulations that the characters had to go through that I think really made them who they are. I think the author did a really good job of creating a world and characters that felt real and flawed and I think it was overall a strong start to the installment.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

This story has so much promise. I am looking forward to the rest of the series to see how the story plays out.

You can tell Kelsey Kicklighter spent a great deal of her childhood hidden between the spines of a good fantasy. This book has everything: fae, seelie queens, changelings, knights, INTRIGUE. I both enjoyed and was surprised by the bisexual representation in this book and wish it had been more prominently advertised, and while I'm not a huge fan of love triangles, it was still enthralling to be apart of the never ending chaos that is love both-ways. While the story was good and the premise had more than I could have asked for, I felt the character development wasn't where it needed to be for me to feel truly connected in the end. For that reason, I'm giving this book an unseelie 3 out of 5 stars.

I absolutely love when a full cast of characters captures my heart. This one is no different! The love triangle felt unbalanced, but that's probably my only complaint.

Thank you for approving me for this title! However, I unfortunately was unable to download/read this book prior to it being archived on Netgalley. I hope to read and review this book on my own soon, and hope to read other books from this author and publisher. Thanks again!

I received this book for free from netgalley for an honest review.

Really well thought-out book with amazing characters and excellent setting.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy of the book
Beast and Burden isn’t a story made for me. I wasn’t enjoying it much and it was a typical fantasy storyline that you would find everywhere. It took me too long to finish this book because I was disinterested as the story went by. They don’t have any special characteristics to make the characters better and memorable to the reader. They had the cliche characteristic that you could find in any story. Faye being an unseelie fae had this dark side of her that she discovered throughout the story. But what I read about her dark feelings wasn’t that dark. I assumed the darker side will include a selfish desire, psychopathic trait, lust for killing but none of it described her dark enough. They were a bit of a dark side like killing but it didn't reach the expectation. The climax wasn’t climaxing, if that is even the right word. It felt dull and expectable. I was like, really this is a twist? It was disappointing to me.
One thing more is how the relationship works. I wont say who Faye chose at the end. But I felt like I could read the author's thoughts like ‘I want to make a love triangle or two love interests. But we won’t make it cliche so we put one woman and one man. She would have a conflict between the two of them. Ooh we need to have one more to stir up her relationship with putting up another man to make an offer she couldn’t reject’ this is just how it felt. Let's just say their relationship wasn't impactful either. It lacks an element to make the story and the relationship works better.
Above all, this book might not be for me but not all of the readers feel the same as me. There’s a lot more who enjoy reading your book, so keep giving joy to their life and thank you author for your hard work writing this book!

This book had me at fae royalty. It's a slow-burn romance with three love interests, so a bit of a packed triangle. Reminiscent of the Cruel Prince and Holly Black's writing. This is a debut novel with all the challenges that come with an author's debut, but I am excited for the next book in the series.

I really loved Faye and her journey to claim her place in the fae kingdom. Lots of world-building and magical systems.

This book was really interesting! I was intrigued by the storyline and that's what initially drew me to this title. I also really love the cover artwork.

AHHH a fae book that satisfied my cravings!!

What a fun treat this was. I will always and forever love fae, even if it’s hard to find a fae story that brings something new to the table, but Of Beast and Burden was such a fun mesh of all the things I love about the genre. It read like Holly Black’s Elfhame stories (all of them) meets The Iron Fey, and I was here for it. The fae courts had some fascinating subversions, and I was a huge fan of the magic system and the political intrigue. Gage was fabulous, and I shipped him and Faye from the start (dark-haired broody love interest, hello). The banter was fun and witty, and I can’t wait to pick up the second book.

My only frustration was the love square—a love triangle is one thing, but did we really need THREE love interests for Faye? Since the book was trying to establish plausible attraction for each one, they felt a little spread thin, except for Gage (who I’m convinced is end game and am very pleased about). The other thing about that is that one of the love interests was another female. Thankfully, Isla and Faye’s interactions really did read as just friends, except for a couple of weird moments, and I really did love Isla as friend for Faye. But the book leaves off with something more maybe starting between them, which is such a bummer. I’m pretty sure that Isla is not end game, though, so hopefully that’ll be really minor in the sequel.

So—I’m a little unsure where the next book will lead, but I did highly enjoy this read, and would recommend it to lovers of fae stories.

So grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

-A

This seemed to be right up my alley! It has elements of many fairy tales that I enjoy and seems like a promising new series! The only thing that gave me pause is nothing very exciting happens until the very end.

First off, this cover is gorgeous. That was my initial draw but this story is gorgeous as well. If you’re a The Cruel Prince fan, this will be right up your alley.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for a free review
*3 stars*
This was a great debut story. Anything that includes the fae or fae royalty will always suck me in immediately. The world-building was well done and it really dove into the history of the fae and the world they live in. The last 5 or so chapters are what really pulled me in and brought my rating up to 3 stars. The pace of the book was really slow and that is my biggest complaint. It felt like the plot was progressing but also not at the same time and this made it hard to finish. I also felt confused at times, maybe because I do not know enough fae lore but at certain points, I felt quite lost for several pages. I have seen several people comment that they didn't feel connected to the characters and I can agree with this. Besides Gage, I wasn't really fond of or felt connected to the characters. I may be biased though because Gage reminded me of Cardan a little... and we all know how I feel about Cardan.

As I said above, the ending was the best part of this story. Action-packed, slow-burn romance, and plot twists. I couldn't put the book down for the last 10 chapters. I thought this debut was well done and I am grateful for this addition to the YA fae community. I will be looking forward to the second book.

Of Beast and Burden by Kelsey Kicklighter is a fairy tale type fantasy full of Fae and magical kingdoms. Faye is an interesting main character who develops well over the course of the story. She finds herself in a love triangle with to remarkable creatures as she journeys to claim her place in the Fae kingdom. The world building is Nice! And I like the relationships that Faye has with different characters. The book has bi representation which is cool too.