Verdict: The sapphic instalment of a much-loved fae series, carried almost single-handedly by a chaotic demon readers adore, and heavy going in the stretches where its other lead is doing her healing.
Best for: Readers who want fae court intrigue with a morally ruined protagonist, who like a love interest who is genuinely feral, and who will accept a slow internal arc alongside the politics.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — romance.io rates it explicit open door)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.8/5 — a 3.93 Goodreads average where the praise and the complaints both point at the same character split)
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, former villain, demon love interest, morally grey heroine, court intrigue, redemption arc, healing from abuse, fae politics, dual protagonists, series world.
With Wing and Claw is book five of Lisette Marshall’s Fae Isles series and its sapphic entry, a fae fantasy romance published in late 2024, in which Thysandra — who served the fae empire for centuries and then brought it down by being tricked into treason — has to live in the world she broke, alongside the demon who tricked her.
It holds a 3.93 average across 1,259 Goodreads ratings and 118 written reviews, against 4.2 across roughly 725 Amazon ratings. It is the lower-rated of Marshall’s two books on our Kindle Unlimited list, and the reviews are unusually honest about why: nearly everyone loves the same character, and the disagreement is entirely about the other one. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.
What Is With Wing and Claw About?
This is a post-war book, which is a harder thing to write than a war. The empire has already fallen when the novel opens, Thysandra is already responsible, and there is no victory to work towards — only the question of what a person who spent centuries serving an oppressive regime does once the regime is gone and she is the reason. Fae Isles readers arrive knowing all of this; newcomers get it assembled around them.
Against that, Naxi. She is a demon, she has no morals to speak of, and she has enormous charm — a reader’s own summary is a stabby demon with no morals but plenty of charm. She is the engine of the book’s energy and, by the evidence of the reviews, the reason most people finished it.
What Makes This Sapphic Fae Romantasy Work
- Naxi: Readers crown her — murder-shine queen of chaos is an actual line from a five-star review. A love interest this beloved is rare, and she is doing most of the book’s lifting.
- A protagonist who is genuinely culpable: Thysandra served the oppressive regime rather than resisting it, which is a much more interesting starting position than the usual reluctant-soldier setup.
- Court intrigue with weight: Readers describe lots of deadly court intrigue, and it has real stakes because the political situation is a consequence of the protagonist’s own actions.
- Character work: Complex and well done is the recurring assessment, and it comes from readers who have followed this world across five books.
- It stands alone: Readers confirm it works without the earlier books, while noting certain events land harder if you have read them.
Book Synopsis
Thysandra spent centuries as an instrument of the fae empire. Not a reluctant one, not a secret dissident biding her time — an actual functionary of a regime that ran on cruelty, serving a ruler the survivors refer to as The Mother. Whatever she is now was built inside that, and the book does not let her off the hook for it.
The empire is gone. Rebels have overthrown it, and the reason they succeeded is Thysandra herself, who was manipulated into the act of treason that broke it. The person who did the manipulating is Naxi — a demon of no fixed morals, considerable charm and an apparently limitless appetite for chaos — and the two of them are now in the same court, in the aftermath of the thing they did to each other.
What follows is court politics conducted by people who cannot trust each other for excellent reasons, wrapped around something slower and more internal. Thysandra has to work out who she is without the regime that defined her, which involves admitting what she participated in and deciding whether anything can be rebuilt. Naxi has to decide whether she wants something for once rather than simply causing it. The question driving the book is not whether the court survives. It is whether a person who was on the wrong side for six hundred years gets to have a future.
My Review
Naxi is one of the best love interests in sapphic romantasy and I do not think that is a controversial claim — the reviews are close to unanimous. Readers call her the murder-shine queen of chaos and mean it affectionately. She is amoral in a way books usually flinch from, funny, genuinely dangerous, and she never gets sanded down into someone easier to root for. Whatever else this book does, it produced a character people are still writing love letters to a year later.
The second real strength is Thysandra’s culpability. Romantasy is full of protagonists who served an evil empire but secretly hated it, which costs the author nothing. Marshall does the harder version: Thysandra served, believed enough of it, and is responsible. Building a redemption arc on that is a genuine undertaking, and readers who followed the earlier Fae Isles books arrive knowing exactly how much she has to answer for.
The dominant complaint is that the execution of that arc is heavy going. The most useful negative review says it plainly: a 2.5 rounded to 3 because of Naxi, rage-finished rather than abandoned, from a reader who had high hopes because the Naxi and Thysandra novella was really good. Another reviewer liked it enough to reread it immediately in case their circumstances had been the problem, which is a generous thing to do and also tells you the first read did not land. The mechanism, from the reviews that explain it, is Thysandra’s healing journey — a slow one, in a character who does not trust and can be stubborn. That is psychologically accurate and it is also a lot of pages of someone declining to move.
The expectation to reset is about the ratio. This is sold as sapphic fae romantasy and shelved beside books where the romance drives everything. Here the romance shares the book with a political recovery and an interior arc, and the interior arc is the slower half. If you came for Naxi and Thysandra sparking off each other, calibrate — you get that, in a book that also asks you to sit with someone healing. If the fae politics is what worried you, relax: it is legible and it matters.
My honest note: A great character in a demanding book. If Naxi is the draw, she is worth the price of admission on her own. If you need momentum, the middle will test you.
| Element | In With Wing and Claw |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Thysandra & Naxi — a fallen servant of the fae empire and the demon who tricked her into treason |
| Core tropes | Enemies to lovers, former villain, demon love interest, morally grey heroine, court intrigue, redemption |
| Setting | The Crimson Court in the aftermath of the fae empire’s fall, after the regime of The Mother |
| Heat level | 4/5 — explicit open door, per romance.io |
| Series | Fae Isles book 5 — reads standalone; earlier books make certain events land harder |
| Content notes | Explicit sexual content, violence and murder, aftermath of an oppressive regime, trauma and recovery, court cruelty |
How Spicy Is With Wing and Claw?
A 4/5. romance.io files it as explicit open door rather than in the top band, which fits — the scenes are on the page and unambiguous, but this is a 455-page fantasy novel with politics and a recovery arc, and the sex is a component rather than the structure. Readers arriving from the higher-heat end of Kindle Unlimited will find it more measured.
Nothing in the reviews is flagged as requiring advance warning beyond the general darkness of the setting. For a comparable fae book at similar explicitness, The Fae Queen’s Captive is far shorter and considerably darker, and The Rogue Crown by A.K. Mulford runs court politics at a lower heat with a faster middle.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want a love interest who is genuinely amoral and never softened, you like protagonists who are actually guilty of something, fae court politics appeal to you, and you have patience for a slow internal recovery.
You may want to skip it if: you need forward momentum, you find healing arcs slow going, you want the romance to be the whole engine, or you are looking for top-band heat.
In short: one of the best characters in the genre, inside a book that asks something of you.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)
This is the one book on our Kindle Unlimited list with a genuine pre-existing fandom behind it. Fae Isles is an established series with four books in front of this one, and the reviews read accordingly — people arrive already invested, several say the series is what made them fall in love with reading again, and there is a Naxi and Thysandra novella that a number of readers had already read and loved before this novel arrived. There is no trade coverage, but there is something more useful: a 16-hour-50-minute audiobook narrated by Summer Roberts, which is a substantial production and a sign of where this series sits commercially.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Naxi, first, second and third. She is described as the murder-shine queen of chaos, as feral, as a stabby demon with no morals but plenty of charm, and readers hand her the book. Second, the character work generally — complex and well done is the recurring assessment, from readers who have watched this cast across five volumes. Third, the court intrigue, which reviewers describe as deadly and which carries genuine stakes because the political mess is Thysandra’s own doing. Notably, several reviewers confirm the book works as a standalone while adding that earlier reading makes specific events land harder, which is a more honest version of that claim than most series offer.
What readers argue about and complain about: Thysandra’s arc, and specifically its pace. The sharpest review rates it 2.5 rounded up to 3 purely on Naxi’s account, describes rage-finishing rather than DNFing, and notes the disappointment is worse because the preceding novella about this couple was really good. Another reviewer reread the book immediately, explicitly hoping their circumstances rather than the book had been the problem — a generous act that still tells you the first read failed. The mechanism is named in the more sympathetic reviews: Thysandra’s healing journey is slow, she does not trust easily, and she can be stubborn. Second, and following from that, the balance — readers who wanted the two leads sparking off each other get less of it than the novella led them to expect. The genuine split is between readers who value psychological accuracy and readers who need momentum. Both are describing the same pages correctly.
The series question everyone should ask first: Fae Isles is an established series and this is book five, but it is the sapphic one, which means a lot of readers will want to start here. The reviews say you can, with the caveat that certain events carry more weight if you have read the main series. The more useful warning is a different one: if Naxi and Thysandra are the draw, their novella exists and several readers rate it higher than this novel. Reading it first is a cheap way to find out whether this couple works for you before committing to 455 pages and a slow recovery arc.
Prefer audio? Listen to With Wing and Claw on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.Affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I read With Wing and Claw without the other Fae Isles books?
Yes. Readers confirm it works as a standalone, with the caveat that certain events carry more weight if you have read the main series. It is book five and the sapphic entry, which is why many readers start here.
How spicy is With Wing and Claw?
A 4/5. romance.io rates it explicit open door. The scenes are on the page, but this is a 455-page fantasy novel with court politics and a recovery arc, so the heat is a component rather than the structure.
Is With Wing and Claw slow?
In parts, yes, and it is the main complaint. Thysandra’s recovery from serving an oppressive regime is a deliberately slow arc, and readers who need momentum find the middle hard going. One reviewer rage-finished it rather than abandoning it, purely for the love interest.
Who is Naxi in With Wing and Claw?
The demon love interest, and the reason most readers finished the book. She is amoral, funny and genuinely dangerous, and reviewers are close to unanimous in adoring her — one crowns her the murder-shine queen of chaos.
Is there an audiobook of With Wing and Claw?
Yes. It runs 16 hours 50 minutes, narrated by Summer Roberts, and it is stocked on Libro.fm — a substantial production for this series.
Is With Wing and Claw on Kindle Unlimited?
Yes. It carried the Kindle Unlimited badge on its Amazon listing when we checked in August 2026, as does Marshall’s In Love and War. Availability changes without notice, so confirm the badge before you borrow.
If You Loved With Wing and Claw, Read These Next
Three land closest. The Rogue Crown by A.K. Mulford is the nearest match for fae court politics with a sapphic couple at the centre, and it moves faster. The Fae Queen’s Captive by Sierra Simone is the short, dark, high-heat version if the fae setting is what drew you and the length is what did not. And The Sting of Victory by S.D. Simper is where to go for a morally compromised protagonist and a love interest you should not root for. For more in the same band, browse our sapphic romantasy on Kindle Unlimited guide or the full run of book reviews.
The Bottom Line
With Wing and Claw gives sapphic romantasy one of its best love interests and a protagonist with genuine blood on her hands, then puts them in a court where the politics are a direct consequence of what she did. Naxi is worth the borrow on her own, the culpability is handled seriously, and it works as an entry point into a well-liked series. Against that: Thysandra’s recovery is slow by design and heavy in practice, the couple spend less time together than the preceding novella promised, and readers who need momentum have said so bluntly. Worth borrowing if character is what you read for. Check With Wing and Claw on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, With Wing and Claw ranks as a character-led sapphic fae romantasy — anchored by an outstanding love interest and a genuinely guilty protagonist, held back by a slow recovery arc, and best approached for Naxi rather than for pace.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ 3.93 average across 1,259 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 4.2 on Amazon across roughly 725 ratings
- ✓ Naxi near-universally praised by reviewers
- ✓ Thysandra’s arc named as heavy going
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Enemies-to-lovers built on real betrayal
- ✓ Naxi never softened into someone easier
- ✓ Preceding novella established the couple well
- ✓ Less page time together than readers expected
Characters ★★★★☆ 4.4/5
- ✓ Naxi is the standout character of the series
- ✓ Thysandra is genuinely culpable, not secretly good
- ✓ Complex and well done is the recurring verdict
- ✓ Thysandra’s stubbornness tests readers’ patience
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Five books of accumulated worldbuilding
- ✓ Court intrigue described as deadly and legible
- ✓ Standalone claim holds up per readers
- ✓ Middle stretch loses momentum
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Recovery from complicity is unusual material
- ✓ Aftermath-of-empire setting carries weight
- ✓ Readers reread it hoping to like it more
- ✓ Slow healing arc blunts the payoff for some
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ romance.io explicit open door band
- ✓ Scenes on the page and unambiguous
- ✓ Lower volume than the top-band KU titles
- ✓ Heat shares space with politics and recovery
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Resolves the couple and the court situation
- ✓ No cliffhanger reported by readers
- ✓ Series continues around it
- ✓ Payoff arrives after a long middle
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ 16h50m audiobook offers a second format
- ✓ Naxi rewards a return visit
- ✓ Kindle Unlimited makes re-borrowing free
- ✓ 455 pages plus a slow arc discourages rereads
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