Kenna has lived on the outskirts of her village her whole life, and not just physically, but socially as well. For various reasons, she hasn't really gotten along with most of the villagers, and as you might expect, she yearns for the chance to leave the town she knows and become a trader. Among the traits that make her stand out is the fact that she is one of the few people in her village who doesn't want to be "chosen" by the fae to go to their magical city of Mistei. For one, she doesn't believe that anyone can navigate through the bog that supposedly leads to the fae lands, but when Kenna's only friend, Anya, is chosen, Kenna refuses to let her leave and is determined to follow Anya and help guide her through the treacherous land. After all, no one else knows the bogs as well as Kenna does, since she spends many hours sifting through the land looking for lost trinkets to sell or keep in her own personal collection.
Unfortunately, the trip through the bog is just as perilous as Kenna had feared and none of the people chosen by the fae to go to Mistei actually make it across. Kenna does make it to the other side though (thanks to the help of a strange dagger she recently discovered in that very bog). Unfortunately, making it to Mistei is only the first, and smallest, challenge facing Kenna in Servant of Earth.
Upon making it to the fae court, Kenna is immediately assigned to Earth House as the servant of a young fae woman named Lara, who is about to undergo a series of trials that will not only grant her full access to her magics, but also awaken her immortality. Kenna is tasked with helping Lara navigate each of the six challenges so that she can take her role as the heir of Earth House, and it's made pretty clear to Kenna that if Lara fails, it won't end well for the mortal girl.
In order to learn as much as possible about the upcoming trials, Kenna is forced to become embroiled in court politics. She will find herself under the thumb of Kallen, a scion of Void House and King Osric's right hand man. She will find herself falling in love with Prince Drustan of Fire House, and even developing a true friend in Lara. But under the surface events of Lara's trial, there is a revolt brewing. It seems that most of the fae are not happy under King Osric's control, but powerful magics keep the king in power, and given that the last attempt at a revolt resulted in an entire house's destruction, any attempt to move against Osric will be dangerous beyond reckoning.
Over the course of Servant of Earth, Kenna will help her mistress through the trials and not only learn more about the twisted fae, but also herself. By the end of this first book in The Shards of Magic series, the city of Mistei will be rocked to its foundations and everything will be different... well, for those that survive, anyway.
Hawley does a great job of not only explaining the complicated court life in Mistei, but she also develops her fae in an interesting way. In this book, she not only explains the nature of the different houses, but she dives into the world's history to show just why the fae are divided the way they are and why these trials are necessary. Hawley packs a lot of world-building into this novel, but I will say that the book's twists and surprises didn't really catch me off guard. On the one hand, that means that Hawley did a great job at laying down the foundations for the book's revelations and had plenty of foreshadowing, but on the other hand, this led to the book feeling a little predictable when all the dust settled. All that being said, Servant of Earth: The Shards of Magic - Book 1 was still a great journey and even though I figured out the destination, I still enjoyed the ride. I am still very interested to see where this series goes from here.
