I love fae romantasy novels and this one was fabulous. I loved the characters and found it really easy to get into this story. Loved it!

Wow! This book had me hooked right from the beginning. Amazing world building. Great characters. Can't wait for the rest of the story.

I have no words! This is the type of Romantasy book that makes me love this genre. I am still very new in this world and this book is it.

It took me a while to get into this book, mainly because when I get a chance to read my Kindle it's near on midnight and I've switched off. This book is so rich with detail, that I took some time to get into the flow, but when I did. Well, it was like fireworks and I devoured this book. I had to stop reading because of work and then I discovered that there was an audiobook and I managed to get my fix and finish it. That ending, I had my heart in my throat when the daggers started to fly. I was so worried that my favourite was hurt, but phew - they weren't. It was crazy once you see the betrayal on both sides. And yet it's Aisling I worried about and another character. She has no idea who she is or how powerful she is. The even better thing is, nor do we! I CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT!

I absolutely loved this twist on what the humans and Seelie knew. Aisling is so naive in the world, that everything is kept hidden from her. The lies that she had been spun! She didn't even know what a dragon was! Crazy! And these lies were so clear to be seen, and unlike most other books we were not in the mortal world. We spent time with the Seelie, the Unseelie, we learned about them, their culture and their ways and you care. You care so much about what will happen to them, sod the mortals. The evil men destroying their homes and forests!

But as we drew nearer to the end, I realised, Aisling was just a pawn between two worlds. She is being played, and I have no idea who I can trust for her. Secrets and betrayals and love. A love that is not " natural " but it darn well feels it to me. I loved that it was an instant-love, and it's not even love that either has admitted to, but it's a love that is there. That kiss *sigh*

Metzler has created something so special, and I can't wait to find out why the Mortal Queen becomes the Savage Queen!

The Mortal Queen by author Ashley Metzler was another take on the fae world and a newish genre for me.

I did enjoy this debut novel and will be reading the next book in this series but I did find it fairly difficult to follow at times, that maybe with me being new to this genre of novels.

We follow Aisling who's father has promised her hand in marriage to a member of the fae - namely Lir. When she meets him, she is astounded as he is not the monster that she thought he was going to be.

It is one of the cult enemies-to-lovers novel that seems to be doing the rounds at the minute, but the narrative is enjoyable and I did like to read about the situation between Aisling and Lir.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me an arc.

A really enjoyable fantasy novel, with deliciously descriptive prose. The world building only outmatched by the vivid character building through tough the story. The main characters Aislinn and Lir are arch races and forced to wed with a fated twist. It follows their story and Aislinn’s discovery of the truth and herself.

Read along if you like:
- Magic based novels. Seelie vs Unseelie vs Mortals.
- Mortal enemies to forced proximity with a super slow burn…. I warn you…… super long burn.
- Weak to strong FMC character development
- Includes the following tropes: A quest, reluctant chosen one, fantastical creatures, hidden truth and price for winning.

Given a 4/5 purely for my personal dislike of how slow the burn was…. It was barely a flame smoldering for most of the book. Only the last 5% did we see some progress between main characters…. Finally.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the NetGalley Team!!

I have to say this book surprised me on different fronts.
With a typical enemies-to-lovers plot, I’ve gotten used to the overtly violent, cunning, assassin female MC - but Aisling was a breath of fresh air. A young princess used to create an alliance with the enemy, described not only as rather helpless with a blade but utterly terrified of the man she now calls her husband. Despite this constant fear and horror at the challenges she faces, she navigates her new world with a kind of iron will that I find admirable and far more relatable than the typical fantasy female MC. Not to mention her naivety, her rage, her empathy, and the pride that she continues to hold herself with; not once showing her discomfort or fear in the enemy’s company. Aisling has to start from scratch and build her strength and courage from the ground up.
She is incredibly human in her struggles and it aptly fulfils the title ‘The Mortal Queen’.

The prose was beautifully written, each sentence bringing the world of the Fae to life. The cast of characters were also quite complex and their relationships to Aisling built on different facets of her personality creating a well-rounded MC. Not much seen of the husband except around seventy percent of the way through when events started to build - and the cliffhanger at the end definitely had me wanting more. This is quite a slow slow-burn book and it takes its time with world-building, setting up mythology, creatures, and cultures; more so than the actual romance.

However, the pace of the book was a bit too slow in some parts and I felt that it needed a little more action. Aisling kept recalling things her father said to her throughout the book, word-for-word, and it got too repetitive. And while the description of moments was rich and absorbing, I found it took too much away from dialogue interactions between characters - sometimes a whole page would separate lines of dialogue in a single conversation - and slowed the whole story down.
It was Aisling’s character that kept me reading, wanting to see how she carried herself through each intense moment and watching her grow into her new role.

I am looking forward to the sequel and I want to see how Aisling takes her fate into her own hands - as well as that relationship with her enemy husband.
4 stars ****

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out on Valentine's day. Do you want to hurt people? Cause this is how you hurt people. That ending destroyed me. A dark and also true slow burn fae romance where everything isn't just solved quickly.

I enjoyed this book, from the world building, character development. It’ll be interesting to see where the story goes moving forward

4.5/5 ⭐️ ARC read- releases February 14, 2025

Aisling had been told all her life that her enemies were the fae- barbarians who relished in the suffering of mortals and killed without reason. But with a peace treaty on the line between the humans and the fae, Aisling must marry the king of her enemies, Lir, the king of the fae. With hatred in her heart Aisling enters Lir’s kingdom and what she finds causes her to question everything she thought she knew about the fae, her people and most of all- herself.

This was amazing. The Mortal Queen is a true enemies-to-lovers slow-burn and I ate it up. I immediately requested the second book because wow!

World Building:
Ashley Metzler’s writing is so insanely descriptive, she perfectly paints this world and the people in it. I was constantly in awe of how she described things and of the metaphors that she used (I did have to look up a few words but I like learning new things lol). The world building was perfect, no notes.

Slightly Annoying:
Aisling holds so firmly to her beliefs even when faced with clear fact that contradicts them. This was annoying because it was so obvious to me that everything she believed were lies. However, I think it’s very accurate for a person who is in her position to be holding on to their beliefs. So while I was annoyed by her constant defense, I understand it and it made sense for her situation.

Side Character Depth:
I also wish the side characters had a little bit more depth. Gilrel and Galad were really the only ones who I didn’t have to check my highlights to remember who they were lol. But I expect this will be better in the next book, because in the first there is still the whole fae hating mortals and vice versa so there was really no opportunity for depth since they mostly avoided Aisling.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC- I received this eARC for free and all of my opinions are my own

Hooked from the beginning. Who doesn't love fae, unseelies and magic. Loved the unexpected twists and cant wait for more.

Thank you Ashley Metzler, Second Sky and Netgalley for the ARC

This book really surprised me! I really did enjoy this and I’m super excited to read book 2. The world building was really good, the plot is really interesting but I definitely expected more romance for the way it was promoted. The slow burn was really slow but I'm excited to see how they will find their way back to each other and to see them fall in love in the next book hopefully. Aisling’s naivety annoyed me so many times but I'm looking forward to see her growth and I loved Lir.

Over the last 12 months, I have been reading more fantasy and romantasy books so was excited to read this one when I was accepted.
It definitely leans more into the fantasy than the romance aspect - the fantasy element driving the plot compared to some others I have read. That being said, the (very) slow burn romance between the FMC and MMC definitely added to it and I really enjoyed watching their relationship slowly develop. One thing I did particularly like about the slow burn aspect of the enemies to lovers trope is that it seems more realistic given their starting points.
The world building in the first few chapters I found more challenging (probably because I’m not sure how to pronounce half of the names either!) but the plot moved at a good pace so this didn’t last too long.
Definitely recommend - and I’m so glad I requested the sequel as I’ll be going straight into that!

I absolutely loved this book. I want to say I devoured, but it took me a little to finish because I read a portion of it to my husband while he was in Icu and he passed away the next day. I enjoyed the relationship between Lir and Aisling immensely. Aisling is such a well written fmc. I can't wait to dive into the next book!

Yeaaahhhh! What a story!

Absolutely devoured this, I couldn’t stop reading, the story is fairly complicated in the beginning with lots of detail around the world, the family, the names to remember, but, stick with it and it unravels into a wonderful fantasy with very last minute romance addition, although the tension is there, it’s a slooooowburn.

Aisling is “sold” to the fae king, but unbeknown to her family, she’s actually a kind of fae as as she spends more time in the fae lands and with the king Lir, her powers develop.

The ending was unexpected, when Aisling fled Lir’s side to run away with Dagfin to find a way to break the curse, I didn’t expect Lir to let Aisling leave his side, let alone set off with the “enemy”.

The tension built and built as the story unraveled and it left you on the edge of your seat waiting for the second instalment to find out what happens next!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC for an exchange of my honest opinion!

I started reading this book without any bigger expectations but to my surprise, this story hooked me from the beginning! I was invested since the first chapter and I got into it instantly.

Although the writing isn’t my style, the whole story and character were amazing. It was more political than I thought and little to no romance despite arranged marriage 🤭🫣

I love this book. I was hooked from the second I picked it up. The narrator was brilliant and I think it was really well red and such a beautiful story. I’m really intrigued to see where book 2 takes us although the ending did annoy me a little bit because Yeah this is very enemies to lovers which I was not expecting but I’m very glad it was. I was annoyed though that Aisling went back to her brothers despite knowing that they had betrayed her

An arranged marriage between two mortal enemy species, what could go wrong?

Aisling is being sacrificed in the name of duty. The only highborn princess of the mortal realm, she is being made to marry the king of the fae in a treaty for peace between the two species. Aisling had been taught her whole life that the fae are evil barbaric monsters who invaded and stole the land they now occupy from man. Though she doesn't wish to, she will uphold her duty and marry this fae so that there may be peace between them. During the ceremony Aisling pasts the test that exposes her and the king as soulmates in the eyes of the fae, if that wasn't already a surprise to Aisling, her world and views are about to be shattered as the truth to everything is revealed while she lives with the fae.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was a bit hard to get into but once we get to the location where the marriage will take place I understood it a lot better. The writer tended to get a bit flowery with her words and a lot of the names and fae words were a bit hard to understand but the plot is easy to follow and towards the halfway mark you don't want to put it down.

The secondary characters were easy to follow and I really enjoyed the character of Gilrel (an animal handmaiden) and her relationship with Aisling. To put it bluntly, Aisling is a bit of snooty aristocratic bitch at the beginning. She feels like the animal fae are beneath her and thinks the other fae are highly improper...it was off putting but it was the way she was raised and all she knows. Slowly throughout the book she and Gilrel's relationships changes to one of true friendship I feel, and it was nice to see Aisling overcome her upbringing and come to appreciate and care for all the species around her.

This is a real and true slowburn, so if you're looking for spice you'll be left wanting. There is only one kiss (and it's at the end) but the tension between Aisling and Lir the last half of the book is very intriguing. I can't say how the next book will be, I've never read this author, but I have hopes we can get a bit more from Lir and Aisling since they are supposed to have this all consuming dangerous true love thing going on.

I listened to most of this one thanks to an ALC and I really have to commend the narrator, Samantha Norbury. With so many fae conversations that occur throughout the book it was really amazing she made the language and the pronunciations seem so easy. And it was way better hearing how it was supposed to be said than what I would've made up in my mind if I was reading it. I would've butchered the hell out of it lol. Samantha's pacing was great too and her voice was pleasing as well. She did a good job of mixing up the voices for different characters too. I will be keeping an eye out for future narrations done by her.

I will most likely continue on in this series as I want to see how Lir will find Aisling after she took off like she did and I'd like to see if the author tones the flowery stuff down a bit. Thank you so much to Second Sky Books for gifting me an eARC and to Bookouture Audio for gifting me an ALC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

I loved the pace of this book, the descriptive world building (that wasn't just randomly dumped on you), and the slow burn. I really enjoyed that it was a romantacy but it was a lot of fantasy to begin and I cannot wait to continue the series!

This book has such fantastic world building! The characters are believable and I really enjoyed reading Aisling’s voyage. I enjoyed the tension between the characters and how they overcame the difficulty of not understanding each other. It would be great if more people would be so open to learning about others. The writing is strong, the characters are great and the story, overall, was so enjoyable.

3.5

Ashley Metzler's writing is beautiful, creating a magical world I felt fully immersed in. The way she brought nature to life and described the connection between the natural world and the Sidhe was captivating and one of my favourite parts of the book.

This was slow-burn done well - I felt the desire between the two main characters (very) gradually building throughout the book as they got to know each other and built trust. The author has left me hanging on for more and I can't wait to see how the relationship develops in the next book.

I did find that the writing was very repetitive, specifically the dialogue and flashbacks, which was disappointing as the descriptions were nothing short of stunning.

I also found myself getting incredibly frustrated with the female main character; her naïveté and refusal to accept facts that were served to her on a silver platter. However, I suspect this was mostly intentional and will allow for greater character development in the next book.