Review: The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire by Anna Fiteni

Published By: Electric Monkey
Publication Date: August 28, 2025
Date Read: November 1, 2025
Genre: YA – Historical Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368

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An irresistible dark fae romantasy debut, inspired by Welsh mythology and perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Faebound, Leigh Bardugo and Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince.

Ceridwen Parry has run away with the fairies.

But this is not her story.

For Sabrina Parry, the world is tough, cruel and practical. With her father in prison, her aims in life are: 1. hold onto her job, 2. hold her tongue and 3. set up her sister Ceridwen with a man rich enough to look after her.

Ceridwen is lovely, romantic, timid – everything that Sabrina isn’t. But then Ceridwen vanishes into the eerie woods leaving only an iron ring behind and Sabrina is drawn into a beautiful but decaying world of fairies and monsters of old. And when an annoyingly handsome fairy prince offers her a dangerous deal, Sabrina is forced to put her own freedom at risk to save her sister.

“You’re a spiteful, jealous thing, aren’t you. No plan for your own life, just a burning desire to ruin everyone else’s.”

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire is a book I only became aware of a few days before it released. I saw the author was attending this years YALC and decided to pick it up in preparation. I’m really glad I gave this one a go, as I did end up really enjoying it. It feels very different from other YA Fae romantasy books that are out there in the market. This one definitely had a fresh and unique take on it.

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire follows the story of Sabrina, a young girl from a small mining town in Wales who wakes to find her elder sister has ran off into the forest with the faeries. Sabrina is determined to bring her back, so despite not having the sight, she follows her into the land of the fae to get her sister, and bring her back. But when she arrives in the faerielands, she finds things are not as they should be… and the fae need a human to fix it. With the help of a dangerous faerie prince, she delves deeper into the faerielands to save her sister… and perhaps all of faerie in the process.

I found this book really easy to fall into. I was really into it right from the start. One thing I really enjoyed was the Wales aspect of it. I’ll be honest, I haven’t really read many books set in Wales, so I found the setting and inspiration from Welsh folklore really fresh and interesting. I feel like the majority of fae books I’ve read have been from US authors and so they haven’t really felt very ‘British’. So I was thrilled to get this more British inspired fae tale.

Another thing I really loved was the characters. Honestly our main characters are so different to a typical romantasy hero and heroine. I find in most romantasy books, the characters tend to be quite morally grey… our characters here seemed more morally very dark grey, almost black. Sabrina, our FMC is selfish, self obsessed and honestly just a bit horrid. She’s definitely not a nice character to start with. But I found this very refreshing. She was saving her sister, because she wanted her back, nevermind what was best for her sister. I just found it really fresh and unique to have quite a horrid main character. She does go through a lot of character development and by the end of the book, I found her… slightly more likeable.

One thing that I wasn’t completely sold on was the romance. I didn’t truly believe the bond between Sabrina and Neirin. I knew where there relationship was heading from the start, but when they expressed their love, I didn’t really feel it. I feel like we were being told they were in love and there wasn’t really any evidence to support the fact. I know this book is being promoted as a romantasy, but the romance is very much on the back burner in this one, and isn’t really wholly believable.

The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire was a fresh and unique take on the fae. I really enjoyed it, even more so because it was a standalone. I would definitely read this one again, as it was just a great, fun read. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who is a fan of fae-related books, but just be aware that this is definitely more fantasy with a romantic side plot, rather than a full blown romantasy.

“Our lives are small – we’re nothing more than a speck of dust on an old coat, or a mayfly at the start of its first and only day – but from them spring a thousand stories.”