With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan
The latest in Marie Brennan's Onyx Court series sees Eliza trying to get back her friend from the clutches of the fairies and as no one believes they had stolen him it is up to her to prove them wrong. Eliza sells buns on the street for a living making enough to keep her near her father who is an inmate at Newgate Prison, but though she has a friend in to. He cant help her find her friend Owen. When Eliza sees a piece in the local paper about a faerie meeting she decides to go there to find out answers to getting closer to her friend and finding her friend's son.
Iron being the faeries Achilles heel they have no option but to leave in droves as underground railways have been built in the progress the humans live for. Though poor, Eliza has the gift of being able to see ghosts; after seeing her mother long after she had died. She had hoped to be able to use her gift as a way of making her way in the world, but all thoughts of it had gone when her friend had been snatched from her. Going to Cromwell Road, she becomes an under-house maid to Mrs Fowler, hoping to have a roof over her head and enough pay to sustain her. Also she has the chance of finding where Owen is and if he is even still alive. There was still the meeting of the London fairy society where she hopes to find some information that will lead her to the answers.
With fate conspire is separated into three parts that concern the Onyx Court, Eliza and her stay at Cromwell road with Miss Kittering and the stark realisation that she might not be the same as she was when they first met. Both human and faerie mingle unaware on the streets of London and not many are as amiable as others. Some like dead rick can be downright dangerous if riled.
In the first part Eliza finds that Miss Kittering has been abducted and replaced by a faery changeling. Part two has Eliza promoted to upper-housemaid and in charge of finding out what is wrong with Mrs Kittering's daughter. Eliza knows of course,but she has to try and rationalise an explanation in order for her to believe her. Despite the fear Eliza has over trying to find more on the fae who has taken over miss Kittering, readers get to see the story from the point of view of the faerie who possesses her and the plot she plans on behalf of the onyx court. In part three Eliza gets closer to finding where her friend is, but she needs some faerie help.
A fitting and entertaining end to one of the most original trilogies I've read in a while.
