Book three in the Fae Out of Water seriesAs far as rock star Gareth Kendrick, the last true bard in Faerie, is concerned, the only good Unseelie is . . . well . . . there’s no such thing. Two centuries ago, an Unseelie lord abducted Gareth’s human lover, Niall, and Gareth has neither forgotten nor forgiven.Niall O’Tierney, half-human son of the Unseelie King, had never lost a wager until the day … lost a wager until the day he swore to rid the Seelie court of its bard. That bet cost him everything: his freedom, his family—and his heart. When he’s suddenly face-to-face with Gareth at the ceremony to join the Seelie and Unseelie realms, Niall does the only thing inhumanly possible: he fakes amnesia. Not his finest hour, perhaps, but he never revealed his Unseelie heritage, and to tell the truth now would be to risk Gareth’s revulsion—far harder to bear than two hundred years of imprisonment.
Then a new threat to Gareth’s life arises, and he and Niall stage a mad escape into the Outer World, only to discover the fate of all fae resting on their shoulders. But before they can save the realm, they have to tackle something really tough: mending their own broken relationship.
Word count: 77,000; page count: 301
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I have to admit to dreading the major series hangover I’d have after completing the last book of the Fae Out of Water series beautifully narrated by Joel Leslie! In ‘Bad Boy’s Bard: Fae Out of Water Book 3’ Naill O’Tierney, is the lover from Gareth Kendrick’s past that was lost to the Unseelie lord two hundred years ago. Gareth had believed him lost all this time then come upon him at the joining ceremony for the Seelie and Unseelie realms and escapes with him to the outer world where he thought the human Naill belonged. But Naill has been keeping one secret from Gareth–he is the half-human son of the Unseelie King and knowing Gareth’s negative feelings towards the Unseelie court, he was understandably reluctant to admit it. Gareth is understandably horrified when he discovers Naill’s fae heritage yet he is even more shaken when he discovers Naill was imprisoned and whipped by his own father for failing to kill Garreth, the Seelie Queen’s Bard. Making amends enough to join forces, they look to discover which current villains want to revert back to the Fairie days of old. Such a change will destroy the earth as we know it and Gareth and Naill’s escape to the outer realm may have made a bad situation worse! Or does it? In this last of the Fae Out of Water series, we see the demisexual Bard Gareth regain a lover he thought lost so long ago. His disinterest in other lovers over the period of two centuries is remarkable and very touching. I wanted so desperately for Gareth to forgive Naill and he does. Once again the pacing and balance of the narrative are wonderful. The world-building, character development, and cohesion both within the book and throughout the series are awesome. The writer included enough information from the previous books for the reader to stay fully grounded in the universe and committed to the resolution of the major conflict in the series. Narrated by the simply incredible Joel Leslie, this series is one of the best EVER!
The Bad Boy’s Bard is the third book in the Fae Out of Water trilogy, a contemporary urban fantasy with fantastic world building. This book should not be read as a standalone – the first two books should be read first in order to fully understand and appreciate the plot and characters.
Gareth is the last Fae bard, but his unique position has come with many hardships, the greatest of all was losing his only love, Niall. Unbeknownst to Gareth, Niall is not as lost as Gareth once believed, and soon their paths will cross again. With this plot setup, there was, of course, a lot of angst, drama, and suspense. At the same time, there was also a lot of tenderness and love, and this balanced out all the angst and drama nicely. I truly enjoyed this series, and thought this book was a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy. I hope there will be future books that will feature these characters, because I really enjoyed reading about them and hope that they will appear in more stories.
Final instalment of a great trilogy (an audio review)
Gareth has been moping around the first two books in the series – the younger brother with an understandable chip on his shoulder. Or an ache in his heart. He’s the last true bard – taught by an undead bard no less – and although he’s in a rock band in the Outer World, he is sometimes summoned to Faerie to perform. He’s decided he’s hanging up and giving up the whole gig when he sees the one man he never thought he’d see again. Because he believed him dead.
Niall has been imprisoned for 200 years, believing the love of his life was gone forever. When he sees Gareth, he pretends amnesia so he won’t have to admit the truth – that’s he’s not human. Gareth spirits him back to the Outer World where Niall has a whole bunch of problems that fall upon him – not the least is his physical injuries of daily whipping for all those years. The reason for it was heartbreaking. Some of the details difficult to hear. Just as Gareth and Niall are starting to put things back together, it becomes clear something is very wrong in Faerie. Gareth’s older brothers – Alun and Mal – were due back and haven’t come. There are tremors in the Outer World. Collapse of everything appears on the horizon.
Only Niall, with Gareth’s help, can save everyone. But that means going back to his location of torture and seeking help from his tormentor. Not an easy thing to do. Then they have to save the Seelie court – the high Fae, the low Fae, the Unseelie and…OMG, life is complicated. I tried to follow, but I don’t read a lot of paranormal, so things didn’t always make sense. But the adventure and drama were loud and clear – those kept me engaged. And, of course, there was a happy ending – to the love story, the book, and the series.
I’m sorry to see these characters go. I’ve become quite attached to them. And after having loved the series, I think I’m more likely to pick up more paranormal books – especially those by Ms. Russell. And, of course, I can’t end this review without mentioning Joel Leslie’s brilliant narration of the book. Truly wonderful. I highly recommend the entire series.
Not gonna lie…I nearly DNFed this book as I could not stand the MCs for at least the first 50-60% of the book. I really enjoyed the first two books in the series which is probably the only thing that kept me going as I figured it had to get better at some point.
Neither of the MCs is at all likeable. They both have horrid backgrounds but instead of engendering sympathy or empathy I found them stubborn, arrogant, self-centered, self righteous, whiny, and eminently annoying. There was virtually nothing redeeming about them in the beginning of the book.
But when push comes to shove just after the mid point and Niall bucks up and grows a pair (thanks mostly to David and Bryce) things start to turn around. Gareth climbs down from his high horse and realizes he’s been a complete jerk and Niall realizes what he needs to do in order to do the right thing even if it costs him what he wants, or more. There’s a great deal of character evolution in a short time and it made me heave a sigh of relief and think “finally!”
There’s a lot of clever social commentary and some not so subtle political digs that I enjoyed immensely. The overall messages of the series are ones we all need to pay more attention to.
The ending is a great wind up to the story arc. I’m looking forward to how these characters fit into the rest of this universe in further books.
Great resolution to the trilogy. Occasionally annoying, but nice redemption. Full review to follow.
** 3.75 stars **
Out of the three Kendrick brothers I liked Gareth the least. Some of his behavior could be chalked up to his artistic temperament but his judgemental attitude is completely out of line, especially after he reunites with Niall. No wonder Niall was scared of telling him the truth about himself! Gareth reacted exactly as Niall expected. I think that being THE BARD went into Gareth head a little too much. He did redeemed himself in the end a bit but still.
I loved Niall from the start. I know that the whole debacle with Gareth started badly but he realized that early enough to try and fix it. What happened to him was truly horrible, and I just wanted to hug the stuffing out of him. He returned from exile a humbled man. He changed a lot and for the better while the same couldn’t be said about Gareth. But I think Niall was a good influence on Gareth during their travels through Underworld.
I loved the mystery of Fae, the magic and the power of Gareth’s song. I am glad to say Gareth was able to let go of his preconceived notions about the Unseelie Fae. As the bard who can inspire or incite people it was really a wonderful thing for both King and Queen of the Fae. The relationship between the brothers is on the mend, they all finally found the love they didn’t know they needed. There was a bit less humor and more angst than in previous books that made me tear up a bit. I am a sucker for secretly tortured heroes! Overall, this was a series worth reading and talking about! I recommend it!