Sophy Landon lives in the little village Tilby.where her father is the reverend.He spends most of the time since her mother died eating and only occassionally remembering he has a daughter.

The opinion of the villagers is that he is slowly eating himself to a bad end,along with whats left of his money. Its not like his daughter will recieve any proposals of marriage when things are as they are.

Shes plain and quite bad at housekeeping and cooking and with no fortune to speak of its likely she will remain a spinster. But Sophy does has a something she is good at - her needlework is excellent and she uses this talent to make nice things for her friends be they fey or human.

Her friend the bridge troll Balli decides its not right a fine woman like Sophy should be without suitors and hatches a scheme to send her and her brownie friend Thundigle off to the faerie realm and the Town of Greenlow.



She is amazed by everything she sees there and when she is suddenly bumped into a wall by a man chasing a large cat she rushes after the two of them wanting an excuse but also because she is curious.



The man is an Ayilry (elf I guess) who introduces himself as Aubranael and is a bit peculiar but charming so she accepts his excuse with pleasure.But she recieves a shock when the cat knocks off the large obscuring hat he wears and reveals his face wich is heavily scarred.



This temporarily catches her off guard and Aubranael is ashamed.




His expression changed as hers did. All his sunny merriment drained away, and he looked stricken.



‘Apologies,’ he said quietly, bowing his head to hide his face, once more, behind his hair. ‘I should not have asked; now I have made you uncomfortable.’ He spoke without a trace of bitterness or resentment, or even self-pity, and he made no attempt to chastise the cat.



His apology seemed sincere, and Sophy cursed herself for her reaction. What could it possibly matter, when he was such congenial company? ‘In England,’ she said, summoning back her smile, ‘it is considered

impolite to withdraw an invitation once given, especially to a lady. Here I had taken you for a gentleman!’ Aubranael studied her for a moment, perhaps weighing the sincerity of her words. At last, his smile returned; faint, but growing stronger. ‘And you, Miss Landon of Tilby, are every inch a lady, I am sure,’ he said. He offered her his arm,



So they go off and have a pleasant time together but in the she has to leave even if she secretly wish she could stay just a little bit longer.Likewise Aubranael cant stop thinking of her but how could anyone want someone with a face like his. There is a prejudice in the faerie world against ugliness



Dejected he wanders around with Felebere the Purple cat

She leads him through the forest until they come to the home of Hidenory who first appears as an old crone but turns into a Young Beautiful woman. She tells him her speciality is in glamours.

He strikes a deal with Hidenory who gives him a beautiful unscarred face and sends him off to the mortal World to her associate Grunewald or as he is known there -Frederick Green and after a makeover Aubranael is renamed Aubrey Stanton and the two set off for Tilby.



He will have one month to Court Sopy in his magical disguise as Mr Stanton but with his new persona he finds that his marked attentions to her drives her away and people ridicule his interest in her.



‘I have never seen a woman so absolutely without countenance!’ he declared. ‘And not a penny to her name, either! I must say, you do have the most extraordinary taste.’



But nothing go as planned.



While reading this book I found myself smiling several times throughout.



The setting is regency era but an alternative one where there are brownies in every house and no one is suprised to see a bridge troll. Scared maybe but certainly not surprised.



A book like this could have come across as overly cutesy but I would describe the story as sweet, not saccharine and with just enough of the ugliness of the world in it to make it interesting.There was also some subtle humor in the writing style wich I appreciated very much.



This book further has charming illustrations but with a different style from the cover.



I found Aubranael in Aylfenham a delight it was a bit diminished when he was pretending to be Mr Stanton in Tilby probably because he was pretending to be someone else than he truly was.



When he is not pretending Aubranael is bit naive and earnest while Sophy is more levelheaded. I found myself thinking that this books Sophy was a little bit like Sophy from Howls moving castle.



Aubranael and Sophy doesnt spend much significant time together romantically but you dont find it hard to believe that do have a chance at love with each other in the end.

It is like a fairytale,you dont question the why and hows of a fairytale. It is just so.


Mix together the regency era,elves,Howls moving castle and Alice in wonderland what you get is "Miss Landon and Aubranael"



Its author promises there will be more tales from Aylfenham in the future and I know I want more. Its the perfect read for a day when you need cheering up. :)

If you like this
[b:Swynmoor|23388530|Swynmoor|Joelle Mellon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413566325s/23388530.jpg|42946530]
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Absolutely enchanting. ( )

Interesting story, complex characters - but not quite rich characters, they're just a little too...wooden? I find that Regency manners and Elves (by another name) and magic are a bad fit to my mind. The fact that the rules of Fairyland here are very much not what I'm used to in countless other books was also surprisingly disruptive (thanks are given and accepted many times, for instance, and while there is a warning about eating in Fairyland (Aylfenhame), it's quickly ignored). The dance between the two(ish) protagonists is a little too familiar. Of course he pretends to be someone else, of course she avoids this new person because propriety, of course...OK, Hidenory throws some interesting angles on things (and manages to get her way, most of the time). The end, when Miss Landon finally speaks up, is quite pleasant, but a little too long delayed. This was (I believe) her first book, and I've read a couple others of hers that were much better, so I'll go on reading her. But this one - it wasn't _bad_, but it didn't really catch me. ( )

Jane Austen writes Susanna Clarke by way of Georgette Heyer is probably the best way to describe this book. Light, but well-written, and enough to hold my attention while dipping in and out on my daily commute (I've been reading a lot of anthologies lately rather than full-length novels). I liked it enough to move the other 2 books in the series up my TBR pile and to pick up some more titles in the Smashwords sale.

Ayldenhame is reminiscent of Pat Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles but grittier; probably more like Faerie in [[Stardust]].

Miss Landon and Aubranael fell through the cracks, and I regret that. I read it – quite a while ago, in fact – and I enjoyed it – very much, in fact. But somehow I never wrote a word of a review, despite the fact that I received it through LibraryThing's Member Giveaway.

It takes place in a really lovely fairy tale-esque world, in which Miss Landon (Sophy) is the only one who can see her friends Balligumph the Troll and Thundigle the Brownie. She has been having a difficult time, and an attempt to cheer her up by Balligumph goes a little off-kilter when she finds herself (to her surprise) in Faerie, which has hazards she had never anticipated. And there she meets Aubraneal, and Felebre his feline(ish) companion, and while it's not quite love at first sight it's pretty darn close. But she has to return to her own Austen-esque place … and when Aubraneal takes an opportunity to follow her there in disguise, lessons are learned and love is earned.

It's a charming story, with a different flavor of elfland and of a place like Regency era England but not quite. I loved it – and I really am sorry it took this long to find and post a review.

A quote I saved:
She felt that she had been deluding herself for years; hiding from the truths she did not wish to think about, setting them aside in favour of finding some little enjoyment, some small piece of comfort in her life; setting herself up, in short, for the terrible predicament in which she now found herself. But it had not been in her power to do very much more than she had. ( )