The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire

This one is definitely romantasy. Specifically it is an enemies to lovers romance featuring a human girl and a fairy prince. You wouldn’t think that from the first few chapters, but it gets there very quickly.

Sabrina Parry is a teenage girl living in a small Welsh village called LLanadwen. It is 1842 and her father is just about to be sentenced to transportation to Australia for his part in the Rebecca Riots, a protest against toll gates. Sabrina’s mother has died recently, and her sister, Ceredwin, is very sickly having barely survived the illness that killed their mother. The only other member of the family is an elderly grandmother, so Sabrina is going to have to be the breadwinner.

A note on names. Sabrina is the Roman name for the goddess of the river Severn. The original Welsh name for the river is Habren. In Welsh adjectives generally appear after the associated noun, so the ‘Habren Faire’ of the title would be ‘Fair Sabrina’ in English. (Well, apart from the fact that Faire is not a Welsh word, but the fairies in the book speak English because otherwise most of the book would be in Welsh.)

Anyway, Sabrina is trying to face up to being the family breadwinner, and hopes that Ceredwin, being much prettier, will find a husband despite her sickly nature. But then Ceredwin runs away into the woods near the house. Sabrina chases after her, and find herself in Gwlad y Tylwyth Teg–Fairyland. Searching for her sister there, Sabrina meets a very annoying fairy prince called Neirin and discovers that the land is suffering from a mysterious sickness than only a human can cure. The fairy king has offered a boon to anyone who can save his people.

Much of what follows is the romance plot in which Sabrina slowly discovers just how duplicitous the Tylwyth Teg can be, and how badly the handsome Neirin is manipulating her. Anna Fiteni handles this part very well. At no point did I feel that the emotions of the characters were being manipulated to serve the required tropes of the plot.

Eventually, of course, Sabrina must save Fairyland, save Ceredwin, and win her prince. Along the way we discover that the book is very much about the mistreatment of the Welsh by wealthy Englishmen.

The history is interesting. There is no such village as Llanadwen, but it is entirely reasonable that it should exist somewhere along the Taff Vale railway which runs from Cardiff Docks through Pontypridd to Merthyr Tydfil, taking coal from the mines to sell overseas, and also to the ironworks in Merthyr. The line was built by Brunel and opened in 1840.

The Rebecca Riots, on the other hand, were more of a Carmarthenshire thing, though 1842 is a year in which the rioters were very active. Also I could find no evidence of a mining disaster in the area in 1842, though there was one in 1844 so that plot element is entirely plausible.

However, despite having done some decent research, Fiteni doesn’t seem that interested in writing an historical novel. Time moves differently in Fairyland and the Fairies have access to future times. Sabrina meets a soldier who has died on the Western Front in WWI, and a girl who entered Fairyland in 1998. This is used as an excuse for the fact that everyone talks and thinks like present day people rather than Victorians.

One example of this is that, when Sabrina discovers that Ceredwin has been visiting Fairyland regularly, and has a lesbian relationship with a mermaid, she’s not particularly concerned by this. Obviously lesbians existed in 19th century Wales, but such things were very much not talked about.

Something else that I would have picked up on as an editor is carelessness with names. Sabrina knows that true names have power in Fairyland, and sometimes this concerns people, but sometimes it doesn’t. Morgen, the mermaid, gives her name to Sabrina unprompted when they first meet.

My guess is that this mostly won’t matter. The people who will be buying the book will be doing so for the romance plot and won’t particularly care about the things that I found weird. I note also that the book reminded me quite a bit of the sort of fairy tale written by that famous person whom we don’t talk about any more. If Fiteni can fill that void in the market, she’ll do very well.

From my point of view I am happy to see someone from Wales write fantasy that is rooted in Welsh culture. There is quite a bit of Welsh language in the book, though it is generally explained. The chapter titles are all in Welsh. Translations are provided for these, and though they are in brackets the publishers have chosen to put them in bigger, bolder type than the actual titles. It is clear that Fiteni is more interested in writing a romance than an historical fantasy, but I’m pleased that she added a lot of Welsh content and quite a bit of feminism.

Title: The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire
By: Anna Fiteni
Publisher: Electric Monkey
Purchase links:
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