This was my first book from this author but definitely won't be the last!

I did find the world building a little confusing to start with, but I soon got to grips with it (along with the main character, who was finding her own feet!) and then I just wanted to keep reading. The supporting cast of characters were so well developed and the plot was intriguing from the first page. So many romantasy cliches were avoided and I found the development of relationships and friendships to be believable and left me desperate to find out what happens next for everyone.

I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this novel and can't wait for the sequel. Huge thanks to the publisher for the eARC.
Rating - 4.5

Love this book: it was so good. I had been looking forward to reading it for a while and it didn’t disappoint. Thank you to the Writer, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this wonderful book.

This book was ok.

It was a bit slow and I think it could have been shorter but I enjoyed the journey and the ending 😊

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Love Mary E Pearsons writing once again.

I thought the characters were well written and I can’t wait to read what’s next

Absolutely phenomenol! This is easily one of my favorite reads of the year. The writing is exquisite, with intricate characters, incredible world-building, and a fascinating magic system. I was completely hooked and couldn't put it down. Every element was so well thought out and beautifully crafted. The ending took me completely by surprise, and now I’m eagerly anticipating the second book!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really hoping to love this, but unfortunately it did not hit as well I hoped. I'm a huge fan of this author's Dance of Thieves duology and The Remnant Chronicles series--those two series are what made me fall in love with reading! So i was surprised when I found myself getting bored throughout the book and not invested at all in the story or characters. It's very disappointing, but hopefully lots of other readers will find themselves loving this! It just was not for me.

I liked the premise of this book which follows Bristol Keats, a human mortal who recently lost both parents and is trying to keep her and her sisters afloat. Bristol receives mysterious letters from an unknown aunt which leads to making a bargain with a fae king and discovering a whole world she never knew existed.

I liked Bristol as a character, she wasn’t your usual naive human girl, though of course there are moments of this due to not knowing the faerie realm existed or even that fae existed. I enjoyed the tension between her and Tyghan overall, though when the romance finally kicked off it felt too quick and didn’t really hit the mark for me. This book is very much about giving you all the plot, I felt I really understood the end game of this but we don’t get there, and it did feel like it could’ve been covered in a slightly shorter book as there isn’t any real action which made it feel slow. However, I still enjoyed this and will be looking forward to the second book as I think that’ll be really action packed.

Overall I gave this book 3.75⭐️ which I’ve rounded up to 4 for Goodreads. Though I enjoyed it the pace was a bit slow for me and the romance didn’t hit the mark so I couldn’t quite give it a full 4⭐️.

Really good read with great character building, I could tell there would be a sequel but I do think this one ended in a strange way, not even a cliffhanger really just felt like it ended in the middle of sentence, however I would read the sequel

This one hooked me quickly, given that I immediately liked and sympathised with Bristol. Having lost both parents at an age when she and her sisters still needed plenty of support and guidance, she was trying hard to make ends meet and keep their small family together. And then she receives an offer she can’t refuse – even though it’s clearly dodgy.

As for Tyghan – I can’t say I warmed to him initially. For starters, it was clear he was trying to reel Bristol in and wasn’t all the nice about it. As soon as she learnt her father was still alive, she was determined to find him – and Tyghan and the fae were saying one thing to Bristol’s face and another behind her back. Yet were also very wary of her… It was an interesting setup that kept my interest.

The expected romance – enemies to lovers – progressed much as I’d already worked out that it would. As the political stakes involved in keeping Tyghan’s kingdom afloat continued ramping up, I became more invested in his welfare as I learnt exactly how and why Bristol’s father mattered so much to him. What I didn’t expect was to become so caught up in the emotional chaos once some of those big secrets spilt into the open. Pearson has written YA before and it shows in her ability to dial emotions up to the max. However, unlike far too many YA reads, she gives her protagonists strong reasons for becoming upset and I was really moved at the misery experienced by both the main characters. It helps that they are surrounded by a well-written supporting cast, who have their own opinions on what is going on and choose sides accordingly.

This story arc finished on something of a cliff-hanger – which I’d expected anyway, given it’s a duology. I will be looking out for the second book in due course, as well as hunting down more of Pearson’s writing. Highly recommended for fans of enemies to friends romance in a strong fantasy setting. While I obtained an arc of The Courting of Bristol Keats from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

I love The Remnant Chronicles and its spinoff, so I was very excited for this book, and it didn't disappoint!
I am typically not a fan of portal worlds, but I enjoyed the way it was done here.
The whole premise wasn't the most unique, but the way it was executed made it its own story and had me so excited.
My favorite part were the different beast, fairies and creatures, it made the world feel so rich and it just gave it a really fun twist.

I really enjoyed the romance, it wasn't my absolute favorite, but I was definitely invested and rooted for them.
I also liked the character development of the main character. I found her a tiny bit annoying at the start, but she really grew on me as she continued to grow throughout the story.

I will say that I think it could have felt a bit YA at times. I actually went to check at one point if misremember this being the author's adult debut because it just didn't quite feel like it.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and will certainly read the sequels, but it didn't quite live up to how much I loved the author's previous books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

The Courting Of Bristol Keates is a fantastic, fantasy fable.
The story tells us about Bristol and her two sisters trying to adjust to life without their parents. Their mother was drowned in a storm, and their father, never the same since, had been killed by a hit and run driver. Luckily for them their father had sold some art before their mother’s death, which allowed him to buy a house for the whole family. All Bristol and her sisters have to do is pay for the day to day living..
After receiving two letters from an estranged “aunt”, Bristol is tempted to a meeting by some priceless art. She knows that will pay some of the outstanding bills and make life a little easier. This meeting will open her eyes to a different sort of world, one that shows her things she only dreamed about, and makes her determined for a different future.
I loved the story, the descriptions of all the different characters, I loved it all!! There are fairies, ogres, you name it, it’s in this story!! A magical, fantasy land!.
I hope and pray that this will be a series and the next book comes along quickly!!!!
Many thanks to Pam MacMillan for the opportunity to read this arc copy via Netgalley. My opinion is my own.
#Netgalley, #PanMacmillan, #MaryEPearson.

I adored this book, it kept me on my toes and I was obsessed with the world building. I feel like I knew enough to keep me wanting more. I did struggle with the jumping POV's, but I knew it would all click the more I read, which it did. I am excited to see where this goes in the next installment.

I had quite high expectations for this but unfortunately I struggled with this book.

I found it quite confusing at the beginning with multiple POVs but you didn't know who's POV it was in the chapter title. Lots of characters were introduced at once and I found it hard to differentiate and remember them as the story progressed.

With the story I found it quite slow and I also kind of forgot why Bristol went to the Fae lands until about half way through.

Overall I think it was good but I just struggled with a few things.

Ever since this book was announced I was looking forward to it. Mary E. Pearson is easily one of my favorite authors in the entire world and although I love her YA books, I'm not a YA anymore. I was therefore really curious about her first adult fantasy. So, when I saw the book on Netgalley I requested a copy and luckily Tor Bramble granted me one. On top of that, the Dutch store So Many Pages had the book available a few weeks ago already and I had to order my physical copy too.

This book did absolutely not disappoint. Yes, the start of the book is slow and overwhelming. There are a lot of characters, we end up in a strange world with a lot of new words and it takes some time to understand what has happened in the past and what is going on now. It's not the kind of book you pick up and just understand. It takes a little time. However, I can assure you that it's so totally and completely worth it!

What I've always loved about Pearson's books is how emotional they are. Her characters feel, they feel deeply, and when we read their story we feel with them and for them. Since there is so much build up, those intense emotions are not there right away. However, today I was reading the last 100 pages of the book and I was glad I decided to read them in one sitting. Those pages were intense, those emotions were intense and I can't wait to get more of this!

I also love both main characters and their journeys. They're both confronted with themselves. They're both facing impossible choices and I was also quite surprised with how they dealt with issues and choices. Yes, they are a lot of lies standing between these characters. Yes, we all know that this story is far from over. But there are talking, they are communicating, they are sharing their feelings and emotions, they are trying.

I'm in love and I can't wait for more.

Bristol Keats is the ordinary middle child. Her parents used to travel all over the country with her and her two sisters. The family only settled down recently and then tragedy struck, first her mother died, then her father. To keep her family afloat, Bristol strikes a bargain with one of the fae kings. She follows the fae into their realm and becomes one of only a few new recruits training for one specific purpose, closing a magical portal, but she seems to be the one recruit with the least chances of making the cut.

The two main characters both have trust issues. Bristol who hasn't been able to form roots, whose family history is a web of lies and secrets, who doesn't trust easily; and Tyghan, who is equally reluctant to trust, he was betrayed by his best friend and forced to ascend to the throne because his brother was abducted. By day the two of them can't stand each other, by night things look different. There's attraction, but they have trust issues. Their animosity by day turns into long talks and exchanging of views on life at night. And we know where it is headed.

For an avid reader of SFF this book didn't have many new ideas. I liked the world-building and tolerated the epic aspect of the story (I'm allergic to epic fantasy, so not a fault of the author), I didn't like that the book ends in the middle of a scene. I liked the relationship the three sisters had with each other.

3.5/5 stars

I really thought I was gonna love this as I'm a big fan of a lot of the tropes (fae, slow-burn enemies to lovers), however this just wasn't good.

My main issue was that I found it really boring. I just thought the plot wasn't developing in an interesting way and the progression from one plot point to the next felt very choppy and didn't flow well. Also, there's training and trials involved in this story and a lot of that happens off page, which I think would've been really interesting to see. Even worse than that, the relationship develops off page, in a fantasy ROMANCE?? That's a pretty important thing to see develop. Finally, there were just SO MANY characters! I couldn't keep track of everybody, nor did I care to because none were really developed properly.

This is very ranty, sorry, I just really wanted to love it, but it didn't work for me.

Overall I had a good time with this book and something about it kept me gripped and wanting to read more. However, the flaws in it were impossible for me to ignore too.

The positives were the rich world building which I enjoyed jumping into and throughout the first 50%, and the characters were fun to get to know too. The overall premise whilst familiar, was still unique enough to feel relatively fresh too.

But on the more negative side, the POV jumping from one paragraph to the next was confusing. The secrets hidden from the FMC was so heavily alluded to in the other character’s POVs that you got the gist of them long before the FMC found anything out, so the reveals fell flat and because of this the book just drifted to an end rather than packing a punch. The timeline (whilst deliberately confusing) seemed off in places too and there were also inconsistencies with characters, for example Bristol saying her and her sisters were never apart but we know she’d been travelling in her own for at least a year before we met her.

Thank you netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I think unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. From the title and cover I was expecting quite a different vibe than what we actually got. Maybe it's just me but I didn't pick up from the synopsis that this is an urban fantasy, the title gave me the impression it was going to be more sort of 19th or 20th century gothic.
I found the inclusion of gods a bit confusing and unnecessary and overall the book just wasn't to my taste.

I had a really good time reading this book. The plot was interesting and a good level of world building. Would recommend if you are looking for a new adult fantasy!

3.5

Romantasy | Fae Romance

The story was more interesting than what I expected. I found it difficult to keep track of some things for most part of the book and I would have loved more descriptions of side characters, monsters and places to make it easier to imagine, but overall it was a nice read. The way it’s written is beautiful and that ending... - let's just say that I can’t wait for the sequel!

Thank you to netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.