Book Spotlight – MALL FAIRIES: EXILE by Conda V. Douglas

Novel: Mall Fairies: Exile

Author: Conda V. Douglas

Genre: Fantasy / Teen / Children

How I found this book: I participated in a Facebook giveaway event, where I offered to read and review a speculative fiction novel on my blog as a prize. Conda V. Douglas was that lucky winner.

Amazon book description:

Swoop the fairy lives in the attic of a shopping mall and loves it. She’s terrified of Outside, where fairies can die. But when Swoop finds her best friend One Wing in the company of a human, she determines she’ll do anything to save him from being exiled Outside.

 

What’s not in the blurb: Besides being about Swoop the fairy, it’s also alternates perspectives with a teenage human named Grace who is torn between her love for her grandmother and starting a new life for herself.

As I writer, what I really enjoyed and appreciated: I really appreciated the quirky names the fairies were given (with such a large cast of characters, it was great they had names that described their personality or physical attributes. Besides One-Wing and Swoop, the cast consisted of Shiver, Smoke, Buzz, Grey Wing, Jumper, and I could go on and on.) I also enjoyed the fairy society Conda V. Douglas created in the mall. The fairies had their own quirks, rules, fears, and pastimes that were specific to their species.

Who’d enjoy this book: This book is listed in Amazon under “Children’s books”, but I feel it applies to a larger audience than that. I personally felt it would easily fit in the “Young Adult” category. Anyone who enjoys fairies and contemporary fantasy with a younger cast will enjoy this story.

My overall impression: Mall Fairies: Exile was a fun read with an overarching theme of bonds with family / friends and facing your past.  Told mostly from alternating perspectives between two teenagers (one being a fairy who lives in a mall and the other a girl who’s grandma owns a store in that mall) this engaging story was full of flawed characters who made bad decisions and their struggle to redeem themselves. They are filled with struggles many teenagers can relate too. It’s the great start to a series in an interesting world created by the author.

About the author: Award winning author Conda grew up in the ski resort of SunValley, Idaho. Her childhood was filled with authors and artists and myriad other creative types. She grew up with goats in the kitchen, buffalo bones in the living room and rocks in the bathtub.Now her life is filled with her cat, dog, permanent boyfriend and writing.

Conda adores writing the popular tween fantasy Mall Fairies series. The fairy inspiration for her Mall Fairies came from the sparrows that live in the Boise Towne Square Mall in Boise, Idaho. One day she saw the sparrows nesting high on a window ledge and thought, “What if those were fairies?” The Mall Fairies series bloomed into two novels, The Mall Fairies: Exile and The Mall Fairies: War, a short story A Foodie Fairy’s First Foray and a cookbook, The Mall Fairies Sweet Tooth Cookbook. When not rescuing fairies from humans, cats and themselves, Conda works on the last title in the Mall Fairy trilogy, The Mall Fairies: Destiny.

Where to find this novel:

• Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007NJD1AM
• Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007NJD1AM

You can get the bundle of the entire trilogy here:

• Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QVT6WLK
• Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00QVT6WLK

Other books in the series:

• A foodie Fairy’s First Foray
• The Mall Fairies: War

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My disclosure: I hate star ratings. Honestly, I think these are so subjective and sometimes reflect the reader more than they do the book. Because this is my blog, and I can do anything I want, I’m not using them. I think ANYBODY who puts the time, effort, and dedication to write and publish an entire novel deserves a big KUDOS.