The Feywild Job – Review

The latest romantasy novel from C.L. Polk is an enthralling tale about heists, magic, and the price to be paid in exchange for power. Keep reading to learn more.

The Feywild Job is one of those stories that has a little bit of everything: a magical heist, relationship drama, and of course, an adventure in the Feywild. The plot follows the adventure of Saeldian Charmhand, a professional thief and warlock who finds themselves forced into a job with Kell Redsong, their former partner-in-crime and former lover. The job in question? Just steal a gem called “The Kiss of Enduring Love” and take it back to the Feywild. It should be simple for a thief of Saeldian’s caliber.

But between journeying to the Feywild and dealing with a bitter ex, nothing about this job is simple.

The story itself is mostly split between Waterdeep in Faerun and the titular Feywild, with Baldur’s Gate receiving a cameo appearance. C.L. Polk brings the city of Waterdeep to vibrant life, describing the clothing, the shops, the people, it’s so easy to visualize yourself walking down the street next to the characters. But that is nothing compared to when the characters leap through to the fey wild. As beautiful as the city is, the feywild is a mind boggling place of beauty and mystery where none of the usual rules of reality seem to apply, for better and for worse. The author does a good job explaining how the fey wild works and why the characters have to be so careful moving around in it.

There is so much in the story of The Feywild Job that speaks to me. The biggest plot thread deals with toxic relationships—the many forms that can take—and the effect they can have on one’s mental health. Saeldian Charmhand feels like one of the most believable protagonists I’ve ever encountered in a fantasy novel. Saeldian is a warlock, that is, they made a pact with a powerful entity in exchange for magical spells and abilities. That Saeldian would have issues after making a warlock pact seems almost par for the course, especially to those who are familiar with playing warlocks in Dungeons and Dragons. That is…until the author lays bare how all those little traumas created by this specific pact can build on one another over months and years, until the recipient is so used to being in emotional pain they don’t even realize they’re hurting anymore. Saeldian unfortunately gave away something that seemed unimportant at the time. But the more time passed, the more they realized what they had lost, and by then of course, they were too deep into the pact to simply back out.

Then there’s the person Saeldian made the pact with. Without going into too many details, as hinted above, this is the epitome of a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship. This is the type of situation where one can be so desperate for love and attention they’ll blind themselves to every red flag because, for them, attention = love. The author makes this all the more believable by having Saeldian’s companions be the ones to truly see how wrong all of this is long before Saeldian themself puts the pieces together.

Kell Redsong, Saeldian’s ex-partner, is an equally complex figure, though for entirely different reasons. If Saeldian is an example of how one can be emotionally twisted by a toxic relationship, Kell is an example of how refusing to move on from past trauma can be equally damaging. While Kell can certainly have the right to be angry, refusing to believe that a person is capable of positive change is rightly depicted as damaging and immature.

The only part of this story I struggle with comes at the very end. Don’t get me wrong, the denouement is very satisfying, but it almost feels like there’s one twist too many at the end. I also found myself a little confused as to how certain events ended up, to the point where I actually flipped back a few chapters to see if I’d missed something. It’s not a world ending issue, but stuck out a little bit as the various story pieces wrapped up, and left me with a feeling of “how did we get there?”

In closing, I also need to say, as a non-binary person who has struggled with my own self-image for years, it was deeply moving to follow Saeldian’s story. Seeing a non-binary character able to move so freely between different gender identities and having no one around them so much as blink or question it was something I didn’t realize I needed to see until I was reading through it.

The Feywild Job is a gripping story, and one that will leave you thinking long and hard about what we put up with in relationships without realizing it, and the harm that can do if it isn’t addressed. If you have any love for fantasy stories and heists, you will find much to love in this story.