Good enough that at some point I'll probably pick up the next in the series. ( )

Alex Bledsoe's Tufa series has entranced me from the start, and this installment was no different. His spectacular writing, too-real characters, and magic-tinted Appalachia are musical and affecting in every way, and each book leaves me wanting more. The haunting quality of this story will, I think, stay with me even longer than the others, he used music to such marvelous effect.

I'd absolutely recommend this series to any readers of contemporary fantasy, though the term doesn't do the Tufa novels justice. ( )

I made a vow that I would finish all the books in this series before the latest one would be released on 10 April and I made it. It was not a hard task, to be honest, I went through the audio versions of the books quite quickly.

Long Black Curl is book three and changes are in store for the two fractions of the Tufas when Bo-Kate Wisby comes back. Years ago she was cast out, and one shouldn't be able to come back, but she has done it and she has found the perfect weapon, Byron Harley, to get what she wants, and what she wants is taking over both tribes of the Tufas. The only one that can stop her is her ex-lover Jefferson Powell, who like Bo-Kate was cast out. However, will he really turn on the woman who was once his true love?

Just as with the previous two books did the story in Long Black Curl engross me. I especially loved the part about Byron Harley, the rockabilly singer that survived a plane crash, but as a result, got trapped in a bubble of feary time for sixty years. As for Bo-Kate and Jefferson, Romeo and Juliet of the Tufa's, well let's say that their love story started off bloody and their return, or rather Bo-Kate's return was just as bloody. If you have read the previous book in the series will a lot of familiar names show up in the story. Of course, you can read the books stand-alone, however, if you want to full story, then I recommend reading from the beginning. ( )

97 points/100 (5 stars/5!)
Alert: Gushing Incoming

The Tufa have only exiled two of their own: Bo-Kate Wisby and her lover Jefferson Powell. They could no longer make music, could never come back, and all because they loved each other and killed some people they shouldn't have. Is that really such a crime? Bo-Kate doesn't think so, and she is back, determined to unite the town under one group and change it forever.

I actually never expected this book. I was loving this series before, now I can't even deal with how much I love it. I just want to crawl inside and be a part of the story. Only, not really, because this series would be terrifying to live in. For real, please don't make me go, I promise I'll die if you try to make me.

This is the tale of a villain. I can tell you on exactly one finger how many series have wrote a villain into the primary character in a book with multiple points of view in it. I've seen it in short stories and novellas, sometimes. I've seen them as secondary characters to add perspective. Yet, I have never before seen the villain be the primary character in a book. It actually took me a while into this book, while I was trying to figure out who the main character was this time around before I finally realised it was actually the bad guy!

This is also the first book in the series where I realised just how dark this series is. The Tufa let themselves get away with quite a lot. The list of crimes Bo-Kate commits prior to the start of the series is extensive and horrendous. And the Tufa just kept letting her get away with it until they went one step too far and got exiled. Then, when she got back, the tally just keeps getting going up and up, and it is bad y'all. We've seen them get away with things before, one or two they didn't want to deal with because of who, and what, they were to the Tufa. Even Bronwyn, our first protagonist, wasn't exactly a person without sin. Now we see just how systemic the corruption goes. It isn't a pretty site. Yet, somehow, it is perfectly fae. I love it.

Bo-Kate is trying to take advantage of the gap in leadership left after Rockhouse Hicks was taken down in the end of the last book. She sees there is a weakness, she doesn't believe Mandalay or anyone else poses a threat to her, and she is going to take it. It helps that she just isn't quite right. She will literally stop at nothing to get what she wants. She'll kill anyone, do anything, fuck anyone. There is no end but her in control or dead.

The other major character in Long Black Curl is a little girl. We've met her before, she is the leader of one clan of the fae. Mandalay is only 12, and she has all these ability and Power, as well as all these memories. Yet, she is still only a kid, with kid desires. She is overwhelmed already, and then Bo-Kate comes along and is making it even harder. I feel for Mandalay. I liked her storyline a lot.

There is also a tertiary storyline involving a human musician that was in a plane crash decades ago and caught in fairy time. He just wants to get down the mountain and inform his family that he isn't dead because he doesn't want them to worry. Of course it is much too late. I was wondering where Bledsoe was going with this character most of the book, since he kept cropping up. This is the one time where I actually don't exactly like where the story went. I'm not certain it added anything that wasn't already brewing in the background already, and I just don't like what happened.

This was such a powerful story. It took me places where I don't actually get to venture often, and for that I can only give it the best of all my praise. I loved this so much, I didn't want it to end, which is why I read it slower than I have read something in quite some time. Absolutely brilliant.

( )

Went through the entire series of these books while vacationing in a cottage on a mountain in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina, so it couldn't have been more perfect. ( )