Review: A Fragile Enchantment

 

Title: A Fragile Enchantment  

Series: N/A

Author: Allison Saft

Publisher: January 2, 2024

Publication Date: 

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Reading Source: NetGalley

Length: 384 pages

Format: e-book 

Cover Art: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

 In this romantic fantasy of manners from New York Times bestselling author Allison Saft, a magical dressmaker commissioned for a royal wedding finds herself embroiled in scandal when a gossip columnist draws attention to her undeniable chemistry with the groom.

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland.

But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young nobles attend candlelit balls and elegant garden parties, unrest brews amid the working class. The groom himself, Kit Carmine, is prickly, abrasive, and begrudgingly being dragged to the altar as a political pawn. But when Niamh and Kit grow closer, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more—until an anonymous columnist starts buzzing about their chemistry, promising to leave them alone only if Niamh helps to uncover the royal family’s secrets. The rot at the heart of Avaland runs deep, but exposing it could risk a future she never let herself dream of, and a love she never thought possible.

Transporting readers to a Regency England-inspired fantasy world, A Fragile Enchantment is a sweeping romance threaded with intrigue, unforgettable characters, and a love story for the ages.

Review:

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has magic to stitch emotions and memories into fabric but it comes at a steep price, it will kill her sooner rather than later. In order for her family to live comfortably she agrees to design the wardrobe for the royal wedding of the neighboring kingdom. She won’t have an easy time in Avaland though. Niamh and Kit Carmine, the groom, get close. Turbulence is on the horizon, strife within the common laborer rises. An anonymous columnist starts to whirl because Niamh and Kit’s fondness for each other grows from friendship into something more. Niamh is blackmailed into exposing the royal family’s secrets. 

I really enjoyed this book, it was slow to begin with but it quickly picked up. I liked the characters even the unlikeable Kit, he grew on me. 

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader editions, in exchange for my honest opinions. 

 

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Review: Crown of Starlight

 

Title: Crown of Starlight 

Series: Duology 

Author: Cait Corrian 

Publisher: -

Publication Date: 

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Reading Source: NetGalley

Length: 560 pages

Format: e-book 

Cover Art: 5/5

Overall: 1/5

 Greek mythology takes to the stars in this steamy, sci-fi reimagining of the tale of Ariadne and Dionysus—the first book in a snarky, queer, lushly romantic duology set in a galaxy of monstrous mortals, bloodthirsty gods, and love fierce enough to shatter the cosmos.

Raised amongst monsters, Ariadne Tholos, Crown Princess of the interstellar Cretan Empire, fears nothing more than becoming one herself. But trapped within the labyrinth of imperial politics and the puritanical restrictions of her father, King-Emperor Minos—and his totalitarian regime of militarized death cultists—she might not have another option. When the chance arises to take her fate into her own hands, Ariadne seizes it, only to find herself on the run—injured, alone, and in desperate need of a miracle.

Enter Dionysus—the exiled god of wine, madness, and revelry. He needs a Cretan royal to join his cult in order to end his banishment and return home to Olympus. Their meeting is the opportunity he’s been waiting for, but there’s just one problem: the Cretans are heretics, and Ariadne is no exception.

With a vengeful Minos closing in, Ariadne strikes a bargain. She’ll marry Dionysus and “join” his cult. In exchange, he’ll hide her away in the only corner of the galaxy beyond Minos’s reach: Olympus itself. But while Ariadne can handle the deadly politicking of the Olympians, a life of repression has left her unprepared for how powerfully Dionysus’s uninhibited debauchery will call to her darkest desires, and make her question parts of her identity she’s kept locked away her entire life.

Review:

Greek mythology revision of Ariadne and Dionysus. Steamy, queer, vicious gods; that sounds fantastic, but unfortunately it was not all that good. The writing style was jumbled and abrupt to say the least. It went from one thought to another, very contradictory. I couldn’t keep the characters straight and they entered the storyline with no real explanation. I didn’t get a real reason for most of what was going on.  

My review is based solely on the book itself not the author or their behavior.  

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

 

 

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Review: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

                                         

Title: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

Series: N/A

Author: Shubnum Khan

Publisher: Viking

Publication Date: January 9, 2024

Genre: Adult, Horror, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Reading Source: NetGalley

Length: 320 pages

Format: e-book 

Cover Art: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

 

 Rebecca meets Fatima Farheen Mirza in this sweeping, gorgeously atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous

Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Now, nearly a century since it was built, it stands in an isolated boardinghouse for misfits, seeking to forget their pasts and disappear into the mansions dark corridors.

Until Sana. She and her father are the latest of Akbar Manzil’s long list of tenants, seeking a new home after suffering painful loss. Unlike the others, who choose not to look too closely at the mansion’s unsettling qualities—the strange assortment of bones in the overgrown garden, the mysterious figure seen to move sometimes at night—she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion. To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the locked door at its end, unopened for decades.

Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time, with faded photographs of a couple in love and a worn diary that whispers of a dark the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, the original owner’s second wife, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the room’s shadows is a grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who once loved Meena and has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Obsessed with Meena’s story, and unaware of the creature that follows her, Sana digs into the past like fingers into a wound, awakening the memories of the house itself—and dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil.

Sublime, heart-wrenching, and lyrically stunning, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twined beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging.

Review:

The manor Akbar Manzil has been sitting and rotting, built over a hundred years ago, it stills plays host to a boarding house for misfits to forget their pasts and try to move forward with their lives but soon they disappear in the many grim passageways. Soon Sana and her father move into the manor but instead of leaving things be, she gets curious and decides to look into the sinister history of Akbar Manzil Manor.

 Sana finds a room long locked and forgotten. After poking around Sana discovers that the room belonged to a woman named Meena, the second wife to the original owner of the manor. Meena ended up dying a century ago under mystifying circumstances. Sana is preoccupied with Meena’s diary that she has found in the room, Sana doesn’t notice the Djinn that stalks her from the shadows. 

Sana digs up secrets that will forever change both the living and the dead at Akbar Manzil. 

The cover is what caught my attention, and I’m glad it did. The cover is beautiful, and making this review I just realized the shadow hands on her. It did take me quite some time to exactly get into the book though but after a few chapters I was invested in the story. I look forward to reading more from this author. 

Thank you to Viking and NetGalley for the e-arc, in exchange for my opinions. 

 

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Review: My Darling Dreadful Thing

 Title: My Darling Dreadful Thing

Series: N/A

Author: Johanna Van Veen

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: May 14, 2024

Genre: Adult, Horror, Mystery Romance

Reading Source: NetGalley

Length: 384 pages

Format: e-book 

Cover Art: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

 

 

In a world where the dead can wake and walk among us, what is truly real?

Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the only good thing in Roos’ life, which is filled with sordid backroom séances organized by her mother. That is, until wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop attends one of these séances and asks Roos to come live with her at the crumbling estate she inherited upon the death of her husband. The manor is unsettling, but the attraction between Roos and Agnes is palpable. So how does someone end up dead?

Roos is caught red-handed, but she claims a spirit is the culprit. Doctor Montague, a psychologist tasked with finding out whether Roos can be considered mentally fit to stand trial, suspects she’s created an elaborate fantasy to protect her from what really happened. But Roos knows spirits are real; she's loved one of them. She'll have to prove her innocence and her sanity, or lose everything.

Review:  

Roos Beckman works with her mother on seances with a little help from Ruth, Roos’s spirit companion. When Agnes Knoop stops in for one of the seances and asks Roos to move in with her in the crumbling estate that she inherited from her late husband. 

The book starts with an interview to see if Roos is mentally stable to stand trail for a crime that she may or may not have committed. 

The cover is great, the relationship between Roos and Agnes is wonderful. This is an adult novel. 

 

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

 

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