ESCALA'S WISH

Escala Winter wants to understand what it is to fall in love. She decides to kiss a mortal man, but when a wolf kills both that man and Escala’s best friend, Rihanna, the blame falls on Escala herself. She’s broken fey law, and her father, the ruler of the Court of Dreams, must judge her and decide her fate. Lord Rowan is torn between duty and love, while his wife, Morvena, plots the destruction of the stepdaughter who stands in the way of her own daughter Audrey’s ascendance. Rowan manages to save Escala’s life, but she’s banished from the court and forced to take on the body of an elf. She’s also condemned to live on the material plane unless she’s able to “remove the boulders from the True Cycle”—but what these boulders actually are remains a mystery: “It’s part of my sentence…I don’t know what it means.” Meanwhile, Morvena still wants the crown for herself and her daughter. She forms an alliance with Victor Graves and plans to kill both Escala and Rowan; Victor’s son, Jonathan, was the man Escala kissed, and Escala’s mother, Teresa, rejected Victor long ago. Escala, meanwhile, forges ahead on her quest and soon meets Harper and Roedyn, who initially believe her to be an elf but agree to assist her. They soon face direwolves and dragons alongside newfound friends Sticky and the Bard Wigfrith, who narrates the story. Later, it becomes clear that only Escala stands a chance of saving the Court of Dreams.

James’ novel is a high fantasy fable that draws from epic-quest myths and fairy tales to tell a story of redemption, duty, and love. Escala proves to be a compelling protagonist—the child of the ruler of the Court of Dreams and a mortal woman who left the Court, for fear that her daughter would never be accepted if she remained. The story’s dramatic stakes are established quite early on, as is the theme of Escala’s quest to understand the nature of love. The framing of the story, in which the Bard Wigfrith retells the tale for patrons at a tavern, adds a layer of narrative complexity that ameliorates some of the storytelling’s more didactic elements. It would have been intriguing if Wigfrith’s character development had a bit more depth, which might have made readers question the reliability of his narration. As it stands, however, the narrative is well paced throughout and evocative of many classic fantasy tales. The threat that Escala faces is also typical of a great many myths, and although a bit more could have been done to add nuance to the villains’ motives and to the lessons that Escala learns, the narrative arc is satisfying overall. Escala’s true quest is to learn to love and, by doing so, to aid the people who are most important to her.