Ash is part of the Fianna people, human yet able to see the Fair Ones. She was separated from her clan after an argument with her mother, Cara Breen, ruling matriarch of the Breen Clan. After 7 years, a banshee appears to Ash, signalling death, and Ash finds her mother murdered nearby. By Fianna customs, she is now clan matriarch. She accepts at the insistence of her brother and new friend Tiernan, despite the fact that most of her clan wishes her to relinquish her title. Tiernan wants Ash to continue looking into the caillte, a group of Fianna that went missing years ago, and Ash agrees to help look for them as she suspects her mother was also looking for them. So now she must prove her worthiness as matriarch, find out what happened to her mother, and try to find the caillte.

There were a lot of moving parts in this story. But things did eventually come together and I enjoyed it. The main characters are likeable and the mystery is good. The only real complaint I have is there was some repetition that occasionally took me out of the moment as well as some odd sentence structuring from time to time. But I was reading an ARC and those things could have been fixed by publication. And they didn't affect my enjoyment. Also, I like a bit more closure in a book before the cliffhanger but I'm still looking forward to the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the advanced copy.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I found that the storyline was fascinating and my original assumptions about love interests were not correct (which is always exciting). The world was slightly hard to follow, but it was an interesting world to learn. I appreciated the Irish folklore basis and the intriguing lives that the characters were living. I like when I can learn about other cultures (fictional included). I did find the story to be long and slow in some parts, but I did get attached to the characters that way. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what happens after that ending. I need there to be so remediation for the trauma I have been caused.

I was so excited for this title. The Irish lore aspect is what drew me in.

I struggled with this one. The pacing felt so off in the beginning and I felt like I was forcing myself to read it. The multi POV was the wrong choice here I believe. It felt so long for something to actually happen. I’m very sad that this did not work for me, but I would love to try Claire Wright again in the future.

I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of this book, I loved the Irish folklore and enjoyed how mystical it felt. Loved it so much I would love to re read again!!

Mystery meets Irish folklore.  I loved this debut novel.  The characters are well drawn and the use of Irish folklore was done with a deft hand.  You cared a lot about the character as they were introduced.  Aisling Breen steps into her birthright with all the self consciousness that comes with being thrust into a position too young but grows into her position with power and grace.  It's worth the wait when they finally get to the land of the fae and the mysterious and tragic deaths are revealed to be the work of someone you never suspected.  It leaves you with a cliffhanger that makes me want the next book to come out tomorrow!

2.5 🌟 I cannot express the relief I feel after FINALLY finishing this book. I started reading it in September on NetGalley, and at first I loved it. Then we got into another point of view, then another one, and so forth. This book had tremendous potential, but just missed the mark for me. To be frank, it was a mess.

Ash leaves her clan to live in the human world and is doing just fine until *no spoilers* something happens that causes her to return to her clan. She returns as matriarch of her clan and enrolls them in The Cath- a competition to decide the next High King's guard.

Here's where things start to decline. Did the Cath actually happen yet? As far as I could tell they weren't participating in it yet by the end of the book. They received a side quest from the current high king and they went off to do that and while they did that they found out who had been killing people along the way. Oh yeah, and some of them have powers. That's important for the next book.

It's obvious that there was a lot of research that went into this book, but we didn't get the world building that we could have. There are a lot of loose ends (which can be tied up in the next book!), so I would hope to see the next book flesh out characters more and really edit edit edit because it just dragged. There wasn't enough action, and when there was it just didn't end. Everything happens in the last 30 pages, and it was probably 25% longer than necessary. If you've read this book, what did you think? I have mixed feelings because I was SO excited in the beginning.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review, this title is available now.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it through 'Realm of Lore and Lies'. The story seems very intriguing and I might give it another shot in the future but I had to stop halfway through... Personally, I felt that there were too many POVs very early on in the story, and I didn't have time to ground myself. Especially considering that each POV had its own set of information. I just don't think I have the attention span for it. As a result, I ended up being confused and couldn't focus on the world itself.

Thank you for this ARC!

In a land that harbours two realms, magical creatures and dangerous games are a way of life and death for the travelling Fianna clans. It is an honour to visit Tír na nÓg, even if the price is pretending Fair Ones don’t hunt humans for sport.

Give me ALL the Fae fantasy books! Realm of Lore and Lies is a fun adventure. I enjoyed the uniqueness of the writing, characters, and storyline. Overall, Realm of Lore and Lies is atmospheric and it will take you on a RIDE!

I really wanted to love it, I really wanted to give more than 4 stars but it disappointed me so much. The book is well written, and all the story is nicely following and it gives good detail but the whole middle of the story is lacking of action. You could remove it that it won’t be too traumatic for the rest.. yes the story is well explained and you get to know the characters but it is boring in my opinion. I didn’t necessarily like the instant romance especially because it doesn’t bring much to the story itself. I will say read it to forge your own opinion on it as it is not a bad read at all, just not for me I guess. Overall the story had great potential and it is an interesting plot, but as I mentioned above the middle of the book don’t bring much to it and it could have been cut in some part to go to the interesting part.
I liked it and didn’t at the same time..

Thanks for this eARC. The idea and the setting were really unique and interesting. Although I have to admit that somehow something didn't click. And this is why I wasn't really able to get into the story.

3.75 stars

The ages in this book read really weird to me. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Ash is living with her foster parents and acting/being treated as if she is 16. There was never a point where she felt like an adult to me. Because of that, no one else really felt like an adult to me. Conor seemed like he was 12 one minute and 20 the next.

It felt to me like there was too much time spent establishing each character. When you have 4 character perspectives, it's a bit much right at the beginning. We have 4 chapters with Aisling and then start shifting perspectives, but after 4 chapters you're a teensy bit invested, and switching perspectives to 3 new characters at this point started to make my attention drift.

The characters were also quite flat. The only ones who stood out to me as memorable were Tiernan and Maebh. Ash is just bland porridge. Set was semi interesting but not enough. Conor was deeply traumatized but I could not with his fucking goth kid misery. He came across as petulant.

There were too many times that I wondered why the characters did not do something that they should have obviously done. Questions were not asked. Truths were not told. And it was nonsensical to me and frustrating to read.

The setting was lovely. It's obvious that Claire Wright loves her country. The lore was very interesting, and I actually think that the plot of the book is good in its bones, but it was long and meandering, and trudging through all those perspectives really slowed things down and made it drag.

Still, it was a relatively enjoyable read, and I would be interested in reading the next one. The author's skill seemed to improve a bit as I read, with the first quarter and last quarter feeling quite different to me, and I'm sure it will continue to improve with each book.

(Thank you to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)

I really wanted to love this book. The summary and title drew me in but I was left disappointed and slightly bored.

The main reason being the pacing, it's all over the place. Nothing really happens for the first 50% and I did find myself having to push through chapter after chapter. But then when things actually did start happening, everything felt so rushed and underdeveloped.

The other big negative for me was the characters. They all had a lot of potential but with so many, they lacked development and all ended up feeling very surface-level. And as this is definitely a character-driven rather than plot-driven book, it just made everything feel kinda dull. Also, the main romances felt very forced. Don’t get me wrong, I love the books I read to have romance but there was just no chemistry between any of the characters and again, it all felt very rushed.

I do have to say though, the lore and world-building were fantastic and are definitely the strongest part of the book. All the Irish legends and lore that is built into this story are so interesting! You can tell the author has done so much research and had a real passion for her culture.

I feel like this book had so much potential with the plot and all the lore but was let down by the pacing and bland characters

There is a lot of Irish folk lore and mythology woven in which I really enjoyed. The fair ones themselves are, tritonal. As in not nice, mischievous and pick on/ harm humans, I like seeing them less watered down. I hope in the next book we get to see more of the fair ones.
Over all I liked the book, I will look into the sequel when it comes out because it does leave of on a heck off a cliffhanger. I'm just hoping that it will be a bit easier to get through knowing about the world from the first book.

I loved the setting and feel of this one but the characters were not all that good. I think this one would have been better if we would have just had one POV vs all four which really made me feel like I was taking out of the story. It didn't flow from one POV to another. The pacing was too slow for the story and the start of this was just boring.

<b> <I> Thank you so much to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of “Realm of Lore and Lies” by Claire Wright in exchange for an honest review. All of the following opinions are formulated on my own. Any quotes in this review should be cross-referenced with the final copy for any possible edits.</I> </b>

<b> Overall rating: </b> 4 out of 5 stars

<b> My review: I really liked how Irish mythology was included in this. I really loved the characters and it reminds me of the books I was fond of in high school. I loved the found family trope in this. </b>

<b> If you liked the following, you will probably like this book: </b>

<I> Switched by Amanda Hocking</I>

<b> Will I finish the series?: </b> I plan to!

What an absolutely stunning book. I can't explain how magnificent it is. This is a wonderful debut novel set deep in Irish mythology! Claire weaves a fantastical tale of finding yourself, your roots and determining whether or not to step into the roles you’ve been given.

I could not put this book down!! I read it all in less than a day because the story had me wanting more and more! The world building and the story line was so fun and unlike anything I had read lately! The author is 100% going on my must buy list and I can not wait to read more from her in the future!! Also totally need more books in this as a series!

I enjoyed the story but the pacing was a bit much for me. The characters were also very interesting but I feel like they could have been developed further. There wasn't much depth once you tried to delve beneath the surface level.

I'm also not a fan of the insta-love trope, I find it unrealistic and I love it when a couple gets to develop their relationship throughout the story.

2.5 -3 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. :(

This is one of those books that makes me wish I were an editor or co-writer or beta-reader or something, so I could edit and switch things around, there's so much potential here! Sadly, it didn't really work for me.

The 3 stars are for the world-building (a lot of research went into this clearly and I appreciate that, I've always had a soft spot for this type of fae lore -hello, KMM!) and the concept overall, the setting... But I didn't quite connect with the writing, characters and the plot felt a bit all over the place.

*review copy provided in exchange for a honest opinion. I really don't like giving bad reviews to debut novels, but there is potential here, like I said, and I hope others will enjoy it more.

There is action, various POVs, strong connections, mystery, magic, all good things for a Fantasy book.

Aisling was once an active member of one of the travelling Fianna clans but following a disagreement with her mother she walked away from the lifestyle. However she could not walk away from her heritage and her abilities to see what also lurked within the human realm.
When her mother is murdered, Ash has to step up to her heritage in order to even stand a chance of discovering who killed her mother.
This book is written with a wonderful mix of traditional rich folklore and modern mystery. I loved the world-building and strength of character development. I felt that the encyclopaedia of the Irish terms would help many readers get more out of the book, if it was moved to the front as many digital readers would not know about it until completing the story.