And though I hate to say it, the best scene of the entire book took place in faerie with a cameo character from book one — I say that I hate this because you want the subsequent characters to outshine the ones that came before and yet this was the highlight (though to be fair it is mostly a coincidence as Effie and Jubilee did sparkle by themselves in this particular moment). While I found the plot to be a bit boring and meandering for large parts, and then quite rushed in the end, I still think it accomplished exactly what it set out to do.

But the way this story progresses and makes a point for solidarity between the working class people and how their unity can be a big factor in them being able to change their circumstances, is written in a very meaningful way, and while it may seem a bit too hopeful and fantastical, the message conveys beautifully. I started this via ebook and kind of soft DNFd and then I got the audio and tried to listen as long as I could but I wasn’t interested. From the description, I thought we were heading down much more of a “Rumpelstiltskin” path with an impossible task, but that really wasn’t the case. The book even leaves it pretty open-ended whether Lord Blackthorn, as an elf, is able to feel love at all. The latter had a grain of truth: butlers held the key to the wine cellar, and were therefore capable of sneaking drinks from the good stuff.Ten Thousand Stitches follows Euphemia “Effie” Reeves as she makes her living as a maid in a noble family’s household. Effie is rather angry herself, and she learns that heers is so powerful it affects others around her, infusing itself in the stitchwork she is so well-regarded for. But what the author does with her story is give her the opportunity to see the truth behind the supposed Prince she wants to marry, realize what is it that she values in a partner and what she hopes her future will actually be. For every hour Effie spends as a lady, she must add a stitch to an embroidered jacket for Lord Blackthorn.

I really hope that there will be more Regency Faerie Tales, because these are truly fantastic reads. She blasts Miss Buxley for being willing to settle for being a good wife to a man with enough money to keep her in relative comfort without expecting either love or faithfulness from him and tells her she's not worthy of marrying anyone. The extent to which Effie only seemed to *discover* injustice, anger, and class discrimination within the span of this short story, when she's in her 20s and has been a maid all her life, just strained belief for me. Atwater has a strong writing voice and it meshes perfectly with her light-hearted, but important-issues-focused stories.At around the halfway mark, I decided there was an ending I wanted, which would have felt more satisfying than the one I thought the blurb was setting up, and lo and behold that was the ending I got. I'm so over the edgy, grumpy male love interest: give me a man who's kind, curious, interested in improving himself and learning about the world and the people around him. One is the setup: Effie is a maid in a wealthy household who falls instantly in love with the youngest brother of the family, Benedict. Here’s hoping I’ll get my copy of Longshadow from Orbit soon because I’m even more excited to read it now.