DNF Review – Sixty-One Nails (Courts of the Feyre, Book 1) by Mike Shevdon (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 528 pages
Publisher: Shevdon Limited
Release Date: February 29, 2016
ASIN: B01CEZZXXC
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the courts of Feyre series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 3/5 stars

“THERE IS A SECRET WAR GROWING BENEATH THE STREETS OF LONDON.

A dark magic will be unleashed by the Untainted…Unless a new hero can be found. The smarter, faster brother to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere has arrived.

The immense Sixty-One Nails follows Niall Petersen, victim of a suspected heart attack on the London Underground, into the hidden world of the Feyre, an uncanny place of legend that lurks just beyond the surface of everyday life. The Untainted, the darkest of the Seven Courts, have made their play for power, and unless Niall can recreate the ritual of the Sixty-One Nails, their dark dominion will enslave all of the Feyre, and all of humankind too.”

There are four books in the Courts of Feyre series; this is the first book in that series. This book started out really cool and reminded me a lot of Gaiman’s “Neverwhere”, unfortunately it never really went anywhere. I was reading this on Kindle and got about 40% of the way through (215 pages) and realized that not much had really happened yet. I finally stopped reading this book at that 40% mark.

Niall basically dies, is brought back to life, and then finds out he is some sort of fae in the first couple chapters of the book. There is discussion that he will need to join one of the Feyre courts in order to survive the awakening of his Feyre powers. From this point on there is a lot of Niall running around as he tries to tie up the loose ends of his old life, this part seemed to go on forever.

Blackbird is an interesting side character that is introduced and I liked her. There are a few other side characters introduced but not much time is spent with them.

I was really disappointed in how slowly this book moved; I really wanted to like it and it feels like the kind of story I would like. However, I finally got fed up with the lack of progress and decided to put this book down and start reading another.

Overall this book has potential if you have the patience for it (which I didn’t). It has a very “Neverwhere” feel to it and if felt like something I would enjoy initially. However, in the first 40% of the book not much actually happens and I got bored with it.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge