Early Review: The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

The Treachery of Beautiful Things
by Ruth Frances Long

Expected publication: August 16th 2012 by Dial Books

The trees swallowed her brother whole. And Jenny was there to see it. Years later, when she returns to the woods where Tom was taken to say good-bye at last, she finds herself lured into a world where stunning beauty masks the most treacherous of evils, and strange and dangerous creatures await—creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with allegiances that shift as much as his moods. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack’s help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where nothing is what it seems, no one is who they say, and she’s faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice—and not just her own.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publication Date: August 16th 2012

Publisher: Dial Books

Format: eARC, 300 pages 

Series: no

Source: Netgalley


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My Review

When Jenny was 10-years-old, her older brother Tom decided to take a shortcut through the forest on the way home from their music class. Tom, a very talented fourteen-year-old was joyfully playing his flute when Jenny started to notice the earth moving slightly... and then, out of nowhere, a strange man made of bark, moss and dirt appeared and tried to grab her. Her brother stepped in front of her and was taken in her stead, screaming for her to run while the earth swallowed him up. He was never found again.

Seven years later, Jenny is tired of being treated like a mentaly-ill person. Nobody ever believed her when she spoke of the bark man or about how the earth swallowed her brother. Her parents sent her to all the doctors they could think of, and eventually sent her away to a boarding school, because they could barely look at her, who looked so much like the son that never returned home. The talented one.

Jenny has been trying to convince herself for years that trees cannot hurt her, that the forest is harmless, even if she keeps hearing them call to her... so she returns to the forest where everything happened, where the pull is even stronger. She has a bouquet of flowers to honor her brother. She's looking for some sort of closure... but then she hears his flute, his beautiful music. Without even thinking about it, Jenny follows the sound until she finds herself far, far  away from home.

She's in Faerie land. There, she's considered sport to any fae who can get her... but Jack o' the Forest, the Guardian of the Edge, is responsible for her well-being and with the help of the famous Puck, tries to send her back to where she came from... but Jenny is to close to give up, now. She discovers that the man she heard playing, the one she suspects's almost sure to be her brother, is the Queen's piper. And to meet the Queen Titania would be a very, very dangerous thing to her. But almost everything in that place is dangerous. Beautiful, but two-faced and treacherous. Jenny now needs to learn whom she can trust and to what point.

The book is beautifully written, with such an enrapturing style of narration you can't help but just want to fall into it, and in love with it. I mean, look at that cover! It's to die for. Well, I have never been much of a faerie fan, but Jenny is such a very nice female character! And she's not blond.(Nothing against blondes, but I am starting to get tired of so many blond heroines in YA, ok? And redheads.). Oh, and I just went nuts for Jack! Wretched, bewildered and completely torn between duty, love and his own survival. How can someone NOT  love him? The story did drag a bit at some parts, but the plot was so interesting I just kept going, dying to know what would happen next.


I can't say the ending was incredibly creative or at least surprising. Not at all. But it was cute and satisfying nonetheless.


If you enjoy paranormal Young Adults with faerie stories and forbidden romance, then The Treachery of Beautiful Things is your book.

*I received an eARC from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.*