Love, Treachery, and Other Terrors by Katharine Campbell
Fausta, the middle daughter of the Kalathean king, decides she wants to be in charge of the country. Her older brother, Justin, is a drunken bully who likes to wage war and terrorize their younger brother Alexander. To help her out, she finds a pair of fairies who use their magical power to manipulate the kingdom. They spread rumors that Justin is a good guy and then have Fausta stab him with Alexander's knife, thus making her younger brother look guilty. Alexander has no regal ambitions and, as third child, was destined to go to a monastery and paint icons. He doesn't really understand what's going on. Fausta has pity on him and orchestrates his escape from execution (against the fairies' wishes). He flees to the kingdom of Kaltehafen. He becomes a beekeeper and a painter, though soon enough he's drawn into the royal court (and love) by Ilona, a local princess. Meanwhile, back in Kalathea, the twin fairies are wreaking havoc on the locals by brutally oppressing them. Word reaches Alexander, who has matured quite a bit in the meantime. He wants to go back but is unsure about tricking the tricksters.
The book is fairly lighthearted. Alexander is a guy who just wants to get by, keeping his head down. He can't live that way, even after his exile from Kalathea. Seeing him grow as a person is gratifying. His romance with Ilona is charming and follows a more bookish, smart-alecky path than the typical fantasy romance. The fairies make interesting villains. They have grown bored of a life where they test the moral fiber of people by pretending to be poor (to see if people will help them out). Now they use their magic and their wiles to trick people into hurting each other or get stuck in difficult circumstances. They do execute some horrible schemes, so this book is not for the youngest readers, though it does read like a typical YA fantasy.
The book has a very strong Catholic tone, which makes it less like a typical YA fantasy. At first, I thought it was set in a fantasy realm (i.e. not this world) but then there's mentions of the Liturgy of the Hours, the division between Eastern and Western Christianity, Greek and Latin, and real world cities like Paris and Constantinople. The combination takes a little getting used to but seems natural by the end. The romance is very chaste and the morality is solid. The happy ending feels natural, not forced, which is also a big plus.
Recommended.
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