I absolutely loved the concept of the book and truly wish I could have powered through to finish it but I only got about 60% through until I DNF'd. I struggled to understand the FMC and the choices she was making and got the ick a couple times until I just couldn't keep going. I tried rationalizing some of her choices, but just couldn't get there. There was very little world building that took place before being put right into the action of the book and it made it feel like I was playing catch up rather than following along at some points.

I'm obviously biased, because I wrote it, but I do love this book. All the grammar and continuity issues have been fixed and will not be present in the published version!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review.

I struggled getting into this, but pushed through. Ultimately, I found Carra really difficult to believe as a character and this skewed my perception of this book. I think the idea of it was interesting but just needed more thought in writing.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this eCopy to review

I just finished reading Mortal Memories by F. A. Eden, and it was quite an intriguing experience. The story follows Carra, a mortal woman who wakes up in the fae Quarter with no memory of how she got there. Her life is saved by Straid, a fae lord who claims her as his wife to protect her from the harsh laws of the fae world.

From the moment Carra is introduced, I was captivated by her struggle to piece together her past while navigating the complexities of her new life. The amnesia plotline added a layer of mystery that kept me turning the pages, eager to uncover the truth behind her lost memories.

Straid, on the other hand, is a character shrouded in his own past traumas. His fiancée died fifty years ago, and since then, he has withdrawn from society. His impulsive decision to marry Carra to save her life brings him back into the world, and their relationship evolves in a slow-burn, tension-filled manner.

One of the strengths of this book is its character development. Carra and Straid’s interactions are filled with emotional depth, and their journey from strangers to partners is both believable and engaging. The romance is very slow to build, but it feels authentic and well-earned by the end.

However, I felt the world-building was a bit lacking at times, and there were a few plot holes that left me with unanswered questions. Some parts of the story could have used more development, especially regarding the fae world and its rules.

Despite these issues, Mortal Memories is a compelling read. The blend of fantasy, romance, and mystery makes for an entertaining story, and the characters’ emotional journeys are genuinely moving.

BOOK: MORTAL MEMORIES
AUTHOR: F.A EDEN
PUB DATE: OCTOBER 2O24
REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

To be honest, there was not much I liked in this book. I didn't even finish because I didn't like the characters or the storyline. I didn't even finish it, but I got past 50% of the book.

First of all, the storyline was just too fast. Striad practically lived as a loner and then literally offered marriage to a mortal woman. It was totally unexpected and out of character. Then, it turned out the woman he saved lost her memory.

Carra/ Anna was a character I didn't like at all. She lost her memory, then literally a few chapters into the book. She recovered some and went back to her job of being a prostitute.

If you want to be a prostitute, do so without being married to someone even if the marriage was a cover. Besides, if I lost my memory, the next thing I would do was not get back to a job when I didn't even have all of my memories.

All the talk of independence and freedom and stuff really annoyed. I believe in those things, but when you're married, both parties have to compromise and make decisions together. Carra was married, but she kept saying it won't affect her job, her job being a prostitute. And Straid didn't have any problem with that because he also believed that. So, this really set the tone for me.

50% of the book, and I didn't notice any romance or development of love in their relationship. The plot didn't deliver

That aside, I just didn't think the plot was well thought out. This was not my favorite book. There was hardly anything I liked shout it.

Below is what I posted on my Instagram and Goodreads! I really did enjoy your book. It felt like a different take on fantasy. Some aspects just felt a little glossed over. I would have really liked to see Straid and Carra interact more. Sometimes it felt like her job was focused on more than their relationship but that was what I was the most interested in. Also when you started introducing Straids family at the end, I was SO interested in them! I can't wait to learn more about them in the next book!

I have to start by saying, I really enjoyed this book. It got me hooked right from the start and I had to keep reading until the very end to see what happened to the MFC. Although....spoiler alert, sort of....we have to wait for the next book to find out. The ending definitely leaves you needing to read the next book.

I really enjoyed the marriage of convenience trope and Straid and Carras relationship. However, I wish we got to see a little more of it. There were times were it felt like spice was thrown in just for the sake of having spice and it took away from their relationship. I also really wanted more information on Straid and his family. However, it looks like we will get more of that in the next book!

Overall, if you like spice in your fantasy books and you like the marriage of convenience trope, this should definitely be added to your TBR!

DNF at 30%.
I am so so sorry but I just couldn’t connect with anything or anyone.. i feel like we are missing half the story and everything is just very conveniently happening in a way that is just not very coherent. I read to forget that I’m reading, in this book I very much knew that I was reading.

Carra finds herself fleeing from danger, and doesn't remember anything. She has to choose to get married, or risk being killed. She chooses to marry the mysterious fae. Carra works on trying to recover her memories while her and Straid try to navigate the marriage they were thrown into.

I loved the characters in the book, and the story was very intriguing.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

This book has me torn on what I should rate it. On one hand with my enjoyment, how quickly I read the book and how invested I was in the story I would definitely rate it a 5 star! However, with all the grammatical errors, editing problems and even revealing the FMC name earlier to the MMC when reading before she actually does is another error that probably should be addressed before it is published. For those errors I would definitely give 3 stars overall.

This is where I'm torn, I absolutely loved this book and the uniqueness of the story. You are following our FMC who is found in the Quarters by a guard. She has no memory of who she is or anything from her past. She is saved by a very handsome fae male that states they are getting married before sunrise. She has a choice, but she chooses to get married to this Fae to save her life.

As the story goes on, we are trying to solve a mystery within the Quarter, our girl has a side job that her Fae husband doesn't have a problem with her doing. I understood this concept and felt it was done very well, however, I don't think it should have went on as long as it has. I feel that the side job should have been wrapped up by at least 70% of the book.

Not really sure where this story is going but I definitely want to read more!

This was an unfortunate DNF for me due to writing, rather than plot. I was very intrigued by the story, but the grammatical errors were hard to get past. If this got another pass from an editor, I would be interested in seeing!

This had everything described plus more. The slow burn romance was written really well and I had little idea where the book would take me and I loved reading to see what would happen! Would recommend this is you like books by Sarah J Maas and Hannah Whitten.

3 ⭐️

I really liked the concept of this book and was excited to see how the author made it work.

I really struggled at the start with getting into it. I think about halfway thru the plot finally grabbed me and I was invested. The ending left me with more questions than answers and I’m still confused.

Not much world building, I’ve would’ve liked to read more about the Quarters / the human town. Also interested to learn more about the magic system.

All in all, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it. Just meh.

**I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity!**

This review contains spoilers.

I am rating this book 3.5 stars. I actually am struggling with the rating to be honest. There are things about this book I did not enjoy at all. Yet, I picked it up because of the description. Intriguing - a mortal woman running in the dead of night in a Fae area where mortals are not allowed. A prince in hiding, mourning the death of his fiancee (who'd died 50 years before). The woman has no memories of her previous life, nor why she was running or from whom she was running from. She must marry the Fae who saved her or face death. He vows to help her but not demand anything from her or their marriage. So - yes, sign me up. Mystery, intrigue, betrayals, love (maybe).

Maybe I should have read more into the content warning "One of the main characters is a sex worker and one side character does take issue with this.

And that is where my hang up is. The woman quickly recovers her memories of her "profession" - which is call-girl to the Fae Lords, a very well paid prostitute who enjoys her job greatly. I mean, I guess my old-fashioned sentiment comes into play here. I would think she'd have some loyalty to the man she is with. Maybe, some distaste for prostitution and maybe wanting to change her life. This is actually the first book that I have read where given a chance to leave that lifestyle the person chose to stay in it. I would even say that this book paints prostitution as any other job with several of her clients telling her that she provides valuable services, that her job is important. Even a memory from her father saying something along the lines that prostitution is the oldest form of work (much like my own grandmother's sentiment of bartending). I just had an ick feeling, it made me uncomfortable. Though I am not one to judge people, I have walked along side people of all sorts of jobs, picked a girl up out of a prostitution ring, and myself been a victim of SA in the form of "loaned out to people". Maybe because this is her choice it is something that confounds me, makes me deeply uncomfortable, and just gives me an overall sick feeling. And worse yet was when her husband cleans up an entire wing for her to use for her clients in his house! That was just it for me. Then he hires guards to walk her to the clients houses who don't want to come to her. And the person who takes an issue with this just so happens to be a gaurd - who is promptly shamed and fired for his conviction that her behaviour would negatively impact her husband and that she should be loyal to her husband or in the very least practice discretion for her affairs.. He was fired. Fired because he believed in fidelity and loyalty. Fired because he opposed prostitution.

This may be unfair to some. May be a tangent not worth discussing. But this bothered me so deeply that finishing the book was difficult - but I did. I finished it. And in the end - well, I am not even sure I understood the ending. Was Cara actually Lyenna? Or was Lyenna needing Cara to become immortal? It sounds like Lyenna took over Cara's body. I was so confused on the last two chapters and the epilogue I don't even know. And now I am wondering is there more to this I seriously read the last two chapters and epilogue THREE times trying to figure out what really happened. I am lost, and deeply disturbed and unsettled.

Scenes:
This book contains on page scenes with each of the four major clients of the MC. These are scattered throughout book. Because they are clients, scheduled it is not an unfolding scene that you stumble on - it is obvious, and therefore it is easy to flip the page and skip.

Things I absolutely do not agree with: The glorification of sex trade work. This work comes with a sacrifice of self. Unpopular as that opinion is that is the truth of what I have seen as a counselor. As a survivor of SA I can say that while you learn to compartmentalize, to disassociate, or to pretend there is always a part of you that detests it. I was very glad when I was able to escape. That being said I realize that some women make tons of money willingly involved in this type of work - I still believe that even those women long for the fidelity of a relationship that is mutual and secure. Maybe not. But I don't think that for YA this type of work should be glorified. And I find it disturbing that a husband would set up an entire are of the house for his wife's "work". But then I knew of open marraiges while I was growing up.

So - in the end I loved the premise of the book, just not how it was carried out. The writing was good. The characters are okay.

I was so excited for the premise of this book and I was looking forward to reading about an MC who suffered post trauma amnesia.
Although the book read rather easily and you're thrown into the action right at the start I did feel there wasn’t very much world building. In saying that I did enjoy the relationship between the characters. I feel the author did a good job at setting up the ending and I can’t wait to have the second book in my hands and find out more about the world!!

The premise of this book was so interesting and i knew imminently that i needed to get my hands on a copy so i could find out what happened! I don't think i have ever heard of a story surrounding the fae that has this interesting of a concept. It was really refreshing and unique, and held a lot of tropes that i really enjoy in my fantasy romance books. We're talking; a marriage of convenience, amnesia, fae (duh), humans being where they shouldn't be, and a morally grey mmc. With all of this happening i really thought that i would love this book and enjoy every moment of it, but it did fall a little flat in some areas unfortunately. It didn't impact my overall enjoyment of the book, but it did make things a little harder to follow and overall felt a little rushed.

Again, the plot was so unique sounding that i had to give this book a go! Initially i thought that the mmc might have been the villain/bad guy of this book, because who in their right mind declares that they are married to someone they don't know? I thought that there might have been ulterior motives, or that he actually knew something about her/her past that he just wasn't letting her in on, but the further i got into the book the more i really enjoyed his character.

While i did enjoy this book, and can really see the potential in it, there were things that left me confused. Firstly, the fmc has amnesia right? Yet she immediately dives back into her work instead of trying to uncover her lost memories. Doesn't actually sound too bad until you learn that she is a sex worker... I have nothing against that in and of itself, and thought that it was an INTERESTING direction for the book to take, but i had trouble rationalizing her character as being the kind of person who would jump into that type of work without having her memories back first. Surely there were so many decisions and sacrifices she made before she took up that work in the first place that would be crucial for her to know??? Just seems kinda weird to me, especially the fact that she made the choice to go back into it without any prompting really.

There was also a lot of plot hole and moments that just didn't add up entirely. Maybe i just didn't connect the dots properly, but it really did seem like the author was trying to throw too many things into the mix without properly connecting them all together.
There was just a lot of things that i think need tightening up and tweaking to make the story flow a lot easier, and to take away that confusing quality that it currently has.

Again, overall a good book with an interesting premise and a unique way of story telling, but, it did fall a little flat. If you just read it without doing any critical thinking and take it entirely at face value then it is really quite enjoyable!

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the chance to read an arc of this book <3

“Mortal Memories,” by F. A. Eden

I really liked this book. It had a unique plot with the Fae and human marriage pact because she forgot her memories. The plot was so unique because he allowed her prostitution career even though they were married so as to not control her. The silk spider part was very sweet and was my favorite part. It is on the slow side and felt a lot like a slice of life. 5 out of 5 stars.

-Fae
-Amnesia
-Marriage Pact/ Marriage of Convenience
-Prostitution

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

Mortal Memories is such a fun and entertaining read! The slow-burn romance between Carra and Straid had me hooked, and the mix of mystery and fae magic was also fun!!

The premise for this story sounded so good, but the whole book was a mess of plotholes, mixed up names and more. The story and plot would do so well with a massive overhaul.

Not only did the FMC and MMC have zero chemistry, but most of the actual plot, the missing people/missing memories thing, happened off-page. Most of the scenes with Anna/Carra and Straid included them working in silence...

But the biggest turn-off for me was Carra. I am completely supportive of SW, so that wasn't the issue. But the fact that this amnesiac woman just through herself back into work was weird and icky. Even one of her clients initially commented how he couldn't see her until she got her memories back because it just felt like he was taking advantage of her. The only memories she seemed to care about recovering were those of her clients, and finding her family, which she initially said was so important to her, is never brought up again.

75% of the book was spent with Carra either meeting with clients (and only about 1.5 of those sessions resulted in an inkling of information about the plot) or fixing up a room with Straid.

There are so many plot holes throughout the story as well. And even though this is set up to be a series, the plotholes really tank the flow of the story in general because too many things are left open to make you care.

The premise of this book immediately caught my attention. Amnesia. Fae. Marriage Arrangement. Sign me up! This book is great for people who love face-paced books. There isn’t a ton of world building, but I did enjoy the plot (even with the plot holes). There were definitely grammatical errors, which as an ARC reader is expected, but I found myself confused more often than not. I think it needs a bit of editing and some world building and the book could be great!

At first I was unsure if I would enjoy this book, but towards the end I couldn't put it down! There were times that I was really frustrated with the FMC, but I really enjoyed her directness. There were also some small typos and some sentences that didn't really make sense in my head, but perhaps I didn't read them correctly. Honestly, in order to enjoy this book, you have to have a very open mind when it comes to the relationship dynamics. I had to remind myself constantly that both main characters were happy with their relationship and the FMC's line of work. I was also hoping for more spice between the main characters so hopefully that ends up in the sequel. I am looking forward to the next book already!