The Faerie Path

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A cute series of young adult novels written by Frewin Jones, The Faerie Path follows the adventures of ordinary teenager Anita Palmer, after she discovers that she is the fairy princess Tania. The story then follows her various adventures in the immortal realm of Faerie.

The books are:

  1. The Faerie Path
  2. The Lost Queen
  3. The Sorcerer King (also published as The Seventh Daughter)
  4. The Immortal Realm
  5. The Enchanted Quest
  6. The Charmed Return

The series also contains a manga adaptation, and the same author also writes other series, including the Warrior Princess series.

Tropes used in The Faerie Path include:

The entire series contains examples of

  • Action Girl: Most of the princesses at different times.
  • Badass Bookworm: Sancha.
  • Badass Family: The entire royal family of Faerie. They also qualify as Royals Who Actually Do Something.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Zara, Sancha and Tania. Also, Rathina/Hopie (brunettes) and Cordelia.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil: Subverted. Despite being blonds, both Connor and Edric are officially on the side of 'good' although the latter seems to be closer to the dark side than much of the cast.
  • Character Development
  • Cool Big Sis: Six of them. The Immortal Procreation Clause doesn't seem to count for the royal family.
  • Cold Iron: Faeries call it Isenmort. It's poisonous.
  • Dark Chick: Rathina.
  • Dark Is Evil
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Tania, Rathina, Zara, Hopie, Eve, Cordelia and Sancha all qualify.
  • The Evil Prince: Gabriel Drake
  • Eyes of Gold: Gabriel has eyes of silver. So does anyone who uses the Dark Arts often enough, including Edric and Raphael Cariotis, aka Prince Lear.
  • Fiery Redhead: Tania, at times.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Cordelia and Bryn.
  • Green Eyes: Tania and Titania
  • Generation Xerox: Tania is "the very image and reflection" of Titania, which is odd considering how many human incarnations she's lived through.
  • Hair of Gold: Zara.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Tania is half human and half Faerie, which is both her greatest asset and a source of endless internal conflict as she struggles to decide where she belongs.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: Subverted. Although many people in Faerie are excellent fencers, this Troper can't recall one instance where their skills are actually implausible.
  • Love Martyr: Rathina, so very much.
  • Lucky Seven
  • Magical Girl: Again, all the princesses. And Titania.
  • Magical World: The immortal realm of Faerie.
  • Magic Music: Zara's gift.
  • The Medic: Hopie.
  • Mindlink Mates: Part of a Faerie marriage ceremony is to hold hands and pour a magic potion over them, which gives the couple a temporary ability to read each other's minds. It makes sense - since faeries are immortal, they'd better make darn sure that getting married is the right decision.
  • Mordor: Ynis Maw and Ynis Borealis.
  • Muggle Foster Parents: The Palmers. They have trouble adjusting to Anita/Tania's identity, especially Mr. Palmer, but are very kind and supportive throughout.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tania always acts with the best of intentions, but sometimes ends up just making the situation worse. Before the start of the series, experimenting with her powers was what got her lost in the first place. The sword she uses to free Edric, and then forgets about, is later used by Rathina to free the Sorcerer King. Bringing Connor through to cure The Plague accomplishes nothing, beyong making him miserable. Luckily she always manages to fix her mistakes somehow.
  • Nightmare Fuel/And I Must Scream: The Amber Prisons. A case of Fridge Brilliance in that what Tania loves the most is to travel and explore; it's even a magical gift for her. No wonder the idea of eternal stasis is so horrible.
    • Also Gabriel - one look into his silver eyes, and he can skewer you with a sword and make you think he's doing you a favor.
  • Not Good with People: Cordelia is a mild case, being somewhat brusque with other faeries, but much more at ease with animals.
  • Older Than They Look: Well, most of the cast are faeries...
  • On Again Off Again: Tania and Edric, with faint shades of The Masochism Tango. Really, the hurt those two inflict on each other makes you wonder why they bother coming back.
  • The Prophecy: Lots of them.
  • Shout-Out: To Shakespeare.
  • Villain Pedigree: The Big Bads just keep getting bigger: Gabriel, the Sorcerer King, Prince Lear.
  • Will Not Tell a Lie: Seems to be an Aurealis family trait, except for Tania (and presumably Titania) who need to keep up The Masquerade. Tania does have a hard time lying, though. Rathina, who spends the first book pretending to be Tania's best friend while secretly plotting to force her marriage to Gabriel, becomes the most brutally honest of all after her return to the good side.
  • The Worf Effect: For such a powerful king, Oberon does need a lot of rescuing: first from his depression in book 1, then from an Amber Prison twice: once in book 3, once in book 6.

Book One

  • Ambition Is Evil: Gabriel Drake
  • As You Wish: The quote from Romeo and Juliet that makes Tania finally realize which of her suitors truly loves her.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Only some of them. Gabriel Drake for sure, and possibly his father.
  • Armor-Piercing Slap: Tania wallops Edric hard for lying to her, which silences him immediately. Which looks bad when you find out he's been telling the truth all along.
  • Bertha in The Attic: Eden in her tower. She gets better.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: The entire ending with Tania's attempt to defeat Gabriel and save Edric is just amazing and made of win.
  • Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: On Anita's 16th birthday, she almost dies in a boat crash, gains mystical faerie powers and discovers she's a lost princess.
  • Fisher King: Oberon.
  • Heel Face Turn: Used interestingly with Edric. At first, it seems as if Edric had done this to Tania, but then, it turns out Gabriel Drake made the real Heel Face Turn.
    • There's another example later when Rathina is revealed to have betrayed them all.
  • Kick the Dog: It's seeing how harshly Gabriel treats Edric that makes Tania realize he's the villain.
  • Lady of War: Again, all the princesses.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Tania has forgotten all her memories of the Faerie Realm.
  • Living MacGuffin: Tania, at first.
  • MacGuffin: the soulbooks
  • Prince Charming: This is the reader's initial impression of Gabriel Drake.
    • Also Edric from Tania's perspective, even though he's technically not a prince.
  • Redheaded Hero
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Gabriel implies that Eden has turned into this. He's lying.

Book Two

Jade: What really happened to you while you were missing? Come on, I want the truth.
Tania: The truth? Okay. The truth is I went to another world and found out that I'm a Faerie princess.
Jade: Good one!

  • Smitten Teenage Girl: Tania's parents see her as this in regards to Edric, and even forbid her from seeing him because he's a "bad influence". To be fair, from their point of view it does look like Tania's sudden mood swings and disobedience are caused by him.
  • Terms of Endangerment: Gabriel's "My Lady" sounds much less romantic this time around.
  • The Quest
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Edric gives Tania a thorough telling-off when he finds out she's been to see a fortune teller, in spite of knowing that Gabriel can reach her through a medium. She doesn't take it well.

Book Three

Book Four

  • The Atoner: Rathina.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: For one troper, it was the part where Tania, Rathina and Edric fight off those thugs.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Connor.
  • Fantastic Racism: Lord Aldritch and Hollin call Tania a "half-thing" and accuse her of bringing evil to Faerie just for being who she is.
  • Fish Out of Water: Poor Connor. Also Clive Palmer; they're both scientific, logical types, who don't deal well with the Faerie Realm at all.
  • Fourth Date Marriage: Cordelia and Bryn. Tania, due to her 21st-century upbringing, strongly disapproves of this. Especially when Edric suggests following their example. She turns him down hard, triggering one of their "off again" periods that lasts far into the next book.
  • 100% Adoration Rating: Surprisingly subverted, especially for such an ordinarily optimistic and cute series.
  • Light Is Not Good: Hollin, who dresses in bright yellow and claims to be a famous healer, but is really just an Ax Crazy charlatan out for Tania's blood.
  • Mood Whiplash: Cordelia and Bryn's wedding becomes the site of a gruesome epidemic. Worse yet, Cordelia herself becomes ill during what is implied to be Their First Time.
  • The Plague
  • Took a Level in Badass: Edric
  • Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Tania had a crush on Connor when they were younger, which he ignored. Now that She's All Grown Up, he falls for her, but since she is irrevocably in love with Edric, he doesn't stand a chance.

Book Five

  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Divine Harper.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Edric has a hard time giving up the Dark Arts.
  • The Fair Folk: Ashling dar Dair.
  • Immortality Immorality: Connor makes a deal with Lord Balor, who is searching for the secret to immortality: in return for handing over Tania and Rathina to Balor to experiment on, Balor will let him take the secret back to England and become rich and famous. It ends badly for both of them: Balor dies, Connor is mind-wiped.
  • Kid with the Leash: Lord Balor and his chained Salamander. Once the Salamander is freed, it takes gleeful revenge and is glad to help Tania in return.
  • Mind Rape: Edric to Tania, taking on eerie shades of Gabriel Drake. Somewhat understandable, since he was Gabriel's adopted brother and sidekick for more than five hundred years. Some of his influence is bound to stick. But really, hypnotizing your ex-girlfriend into dancing with you when she clearly doesn't want to? Not nice.
    • When Ashling does the same thing to him later on, you can't help feeling as though it's Laser-Guided Karma.
  • Mind Screw: The land of Erin. There's one region of endless night, another of endless day, one where the voices of dead loved ones call to travelers from the trees ... you would not want to live there. Connor perceives the entire Faerie Realm as this.
  • The Mole: Connor.
  • Pirate: Lord Balor.
  • Shapeshifting Squick: What Ashling does to Edric, as a test of Tania's love and loyalty.
  • Sour Supporter: Connor, whose grumbling gets on everybody's nerves.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Hold on to your boyfriends, girls. Even when they mind-rape you, dump you for another woman, forget your name, turn into a wolf and try to kill you. That's true love.

Book Six

  • Arc Words: "Do not listen to the hooves ... "
  • The Chessmaster: Lear, to an extreme degree. Even Tania doesn't notice until it's almost too late.
  • Friendship Moment: Jade comforting Tania, who's had yet another case of Laser-Guided Amnesia.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Dead. Birds. Flying.
  • I Know Karate: Jade, who turns out to be quite the Badass Normal and surprisingly helpful.
  • The Ophelia: Cordelia, who is assumed to be dead but is actually locked in Eden's former tower. By the time Tania and Jade find her, though, she's just Obfuscating Insanity to protect herself from Lear.
  • Pair the Spares: Rathina and Titus, who was one of Zara's suitors before she died. Also, Titus is their step-cousin.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Lear puts an entire country under mind control.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: After all her experiences with Prophetic Dreams, Tania worries about whether her latest set of nightmares means anything or not. It does.
  • My Future Self and Me: Tania travels back in time to recruit six of her previous human incarnations to help her save Faerie, which she finds somewhat horrifying - especially since she needs to fetch them just before their natural deaths.
  • Save Both Worlds
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Most of the Faerie population.
  • They Do: Tania tells Edric to 'ask her again', and when he does (in much less flowery terms than before, and being careful to call her by both names) she finally says yes.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Lear, disguised as trusted advisor Raphael Cariotis.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Hollin, who was magically banished to an unknown location by Edric and never heard from again. Also Oberon, who leaves to renew his bargain with the Divine Harper; the price he needs to pay is left unknown, but it is implied in a few parts of the book that he gave up his life to save Faerie.
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