#The Wandering Inn II: Fae and Fare

[sweetvixen1996]

Brief Non-Spoiler Review of Pirateaba's The Wandering Inn II: Fae and Fare (5/100 Books in 2024)

RATING: 4/5; RECOMMENDS: 3.5/5

This series was recommended to me by a friend. It is a very long book and would not be for everyone. However, it worked well for me because, at the time, I was starting a job that allowed me to listen to many audiobooks. Still, be aware of the length going in. However, because of its often slice-of-life nature, starting and stopping it was rarely difficult.

My biggest issues with the first book were the inconsistent pacing and the occasional melodramatic nature of the writing. However, my friend assured me that that gets a lot better as the story goes on, and I can definitely say that it does in the second book. Neither the prose nor the character introspection are as melodramatic, and the pace moves on much smoother. It still has plenty of slice-of-life moments in the first book, but the plot is always chugging along.

The characters are also smoothed out a lot more. Erin isn't as naive here, and her social intelligence is displayed better. Ryoka is far more likable overall. She makes an active effort to be a better person to be around, and the one time she truly loses it, it's after she's been under extreme stress. She also gets her butt kicked for it and is immediately regretful.

The side characters continue to be incredibly fun and colorful. My favorite is still Pisces; Seria and Mrsha are getting up there though. Pisces especially shines in the beginning, where his better nature leads him to make altruistic actions that he probably wouldn't normally do.

The story starts to really branch out on a global scale; we learn more about other lands and people. We also learn more about the earthlings sent to Innworld. Furthermore, thanks to the frost fairies, we learn that there's more bleedover between our world and the world Aaron and the others end up in.

My biggest issue with this book is that, while most of the last book was uneven in quality, it had an incredibly strong and emotionally powerful final act. This one, however, was more even overall yet had a much less impressive climax.