Showing posts with label pride and prejudice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pride and prejudice. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft

Title: 
A Fragile Enchantment
Author: Allison Saft
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Series: N/A
Hardcover, 384 pages 
Publication: January 2, 2024 by Wednesday Books
Source: Personal library 
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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.

MY THOUGHTS

A Fragile Enchantment was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. I’ve been wanting to read it since it was first announced with its beautiful cover of soft pastel colors and intriguing synopsis. A Fragile Enchantment was the perfect blend of Pride and Prejudice and Bridgerton with a dash of magic. The story is narratored by Niamh, a Divine Blood Dressmaker. Niamh is able to stitch her feelings into the garment she creates; allowing the wearer to feel all types of emotions. With the household and financial responsibilities on her shoulder, Niamh accepts a deal of a lifetime; to dress the Duke and future Duchess of Avaland. Except things become complicated when she meets the young Duke himself, the groom, Kit Carmine.

 I’ve been reading a lot of heavy or intense fantasy fiction lately and A Fragile Enchantment came right on time to lighten the mood. The book incorporated my two loves which are period pieces and magic. The whole book was very sweet and wholesome. I absolutely adored Niamh. She was just incredibly kind and pure-hearted, even when the nobles were being cold and snarky. However, there were times  when her innocent nature created unnecessary drama. And oh how perfect was Kit, the complete opposite of Niamh. The epitome of the popular trope grumpy and sunshine. I love their interaction and banter. The plot was very straightforward, the world building interesting enough to engage the reader without being overly complex. I would say this book leaned more on the younger side of Young Adult as everything was very PG-13. But that didn’t take away my enjoyment of the story.

The only con for me was The Tattler in the newspaper. It was pretty much a straight copy of Julia Quinn’s gossip column, Lady whistledown. I couldn’t read it without my mind drifting to Quinn’s books or the TV show, Bridgerton therefore it pulled me away from the story  more than I liked. 

Overall, I am happy to have read A Fragile Enchantment, it lived up to my expectations. And it was exactly what I needed at the moment; something quick and easy to read with wonderful characters. Bonus it’s a standalone, so everything wrapped up nicely.  This was my first Saft book and it surely won’t be my last. Looking forward to checking out more of her work. 



 

 

 

Monday, December 28, 2020

The Most Anticipated Books of 2021



There's so many amazing books coming out next year! Here are a few that I am looking forward to (excluding some continuous series I follow).

 

 

 
Aurelia Ryder #1
January 12, 2021
Purchase | Amazon
 
 Atlanta was always a dangerous city. Now, as waves of magic and technology compete for supremacy, it’s a place caught in a slow apocalypse, where monsters spawn among the crumbling skyscrapers and supernatural factions struggle for power and survival.

Eight years ago, Julie Lennart left Atlanta to find out who she was. Now she’s back with a new face, a new magic, and a new name—Aurelia Ryder—drawn by the urgent need to protect the family she left behind. An ancient power is stalking her adopted mother, Kate Daniels, an enemy unlike any other, and a string of horrifying murders is its opening gambit.

If Aurelia’s true identity is discovered, those closest to her will die. So her plan is simple: get in, solve the murders, prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled, and get out without being recognized. She expected danger, but she never anticipated that the only man she'd ever loved could threaten everything.

One small misstep could lead to disaster. But for Aurelia, facing disaster is easy; it’s relationships that are hard.
 
 
 
January 5, 2021
Purchase | Amazon
 
 As a fussy baby, Anne de Bourgh’s doctor prescribed laudanum to quiet her, and now the young woman must take the opium-heavy tincture every day. Growing up sheltered and confined, removed from sunshine and fresh air, the pale and overly slender Anne grew up with few companions except her cousins, including Fitzwilliam Darcy. Throughout their childhoods, it was understood that Darcy and Anne would marry and combine their vast estates of Pemberley and Rosings. But Darcy does not love Anne or want her.

After her father dies unexpectedly, leaving her his vast fortune, Anne has a moment of clarity: what if her life of fragility and illness isn’t truly real? What if she could free herself from the medicine that clouds her sharp mind and leaves her body weak and lethargic? Might there be a better life without the medicine she has been told she cannot live without?

In a frenzy of desperation, Anne discards her laudanum and flees to the London home of her cousin, Colonel John Fitzwilliam, who helps her through her painful recovery. Yet once she returns to health, new challenges await. Shy and utterly inexperienced, the wealthy heiress must forge a new identity for herself, learning to navigate a “season” in society and the complexities of love and passion. The once wan, passive Anne gives way to a braver woman with a keen edge—leading to a powerful reckoning with the domineering mother determined to control Anne’s fortune . . . and her life.

An extraordinary tale of one woman’s liberation, The Heiress reveals both the darkness and light in Austen’s world, with wit, sensuality, and a deeply compassionate understanding of the human heart.
 
 
 
January 12, 2021
Purchase | Amazon
 
In 1897, a fiery British aristocrat and an inept US spy search for a stolen invisibility serum that could spark a global war.

Miss Constance Haltwhistle is the last in a line of blue-blooded rogue inventors. Selling exotic firearms under her alias, the ‘Brass Queen,’ has kept her baronial estate’s coffers full. But when US spy, Trusdale, saves her from assassins, she’s pulled into a search for a scientist with an invisibility serum. As royal foes create an invisible army to start a global war, Constance and Trusdale must learn to trust each other. If they don’t, the world they know will literally disappear before their eyes
 
 
 
Everleigh Sisters #2
February 9, 2021
Purchase | Amazon
 
  In this game of seduction, the rules don't apply...

As owner of the most scandalous club in London, the last thing the notorious Marquess of Roth wants is a wife. Keeping up his false reputation as a rake brings in the clients with the deepest pockets—money he needs to fund a noble cause. Even though everything inside tells him not to leave his beautiful, innocent wife behind at his country estate...he must.

But three years later, tired of her scoundrel of a husband headlining the gossip rags, Lady Isobel Vance decides enough is enough. She is no longer a fragile kitten, but as the anonymous author of a women’s sexual advice column, she’s now a roaring tigress...and she can use her claws.

Isobel decides to go to him in London, channeling her powers of seduction to make him beg to take her back. But she didn’t expect her marauding marquess to be equally hard to resist. Now the game is on to see who will give in to the other first, with both sides determined like hell to win.
 
 
 
A Dark and Hollow Star #1
February 23, 2021
Purchase | Amazon
 
Choose your player.

The “ironborn” half-fae outcast of her royal fae family.
A tempestuous Fury, exiled to earth from the Immortal Realm and hellbent on revenge.
A dutiful fae prince, determined to earn his place on the throne.
The prince’s brooding guardian, burdened with a terrible secret.

For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world.

Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a war brewing between the Mortal and Immortal Realms, and one of these teens is destined to tip the scales. The only question is: which way?

Wish them luck. They’re going to need it.
 
 
 
June 1, 2021
Purchase | Amazon

Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society―she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.

But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.



Wilderwood #1
June 15, 2021
Purchase | Amazon

The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.


As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole.
 
 
 
July 20, 2021
Purchase | Amazon

Brie hates the Fae and refuses to have anything to do with them, even if that means starving on the street. But when her sister is sold to the sadistic king of the Unseelie court to pay a debt, she'll do whatever it takes to get her back—including making a deal with the king himself to steal three magical relics from the Seelie court.

Gaining unfettered access to the Seelie court is easier said than done. Brie's only choice is to pose as a potential bride for Prince Ronan, and she soon finds herself falling for him. Unwilling to let her heart distract her, she accepts help from a band of Unseelie misfits with their own secret agenda. As Brie spends time with their mysterious leader, Finn, she struggles to resist his seductive charm.

Caught between two dangerous courts, Brie must decide who to trust with her loyalty. And with her heart.