After a fraught beginning Thornfell College of Magic is thriving. The school is opening it's doors for a night of dancing and magic. The first ever class plans to dazzle their guests with a demonstration of their magical abilities after a ball under the stars. As for the school's top pupil, Juliana Banks, she has other things on her mind, other things that she is avoiding through denial and hard work. What's really on her mind is Caroline Fennell. Caroline and her have been secretly engaged for quite some time. Caroline has been trying to establish herself as a politician so they have sacrificed their own happiness for the moment to achieve their happily ever after down the road. But ever since Caroline's cousin Honoria fell from power in the Boudiccate Caroline's letters to Juliana have seemed cold and restrained. Is their love in danger? Now that Caroline no longer has her cousin's protection might she view Juliana as a liability as well? All these thoughts are racing through Juliana's head as her classmates primp her in an effort to show Caroline just what she's missing. The problem is, Caroline knows exactly what she's missing. She hasn't stopped loving Juliana, she's been distancing herself from her in an effort to not let the taint of Honoria's crimes effect her. Because if there's one thing Caroline can see clearly it's that Juliana is thriving at Thornfell. She has new friends and is excelling in her studies. How can Caroline force her to keep their betrothal when there's this whole new world at Juliana's feet and Caroline's prospects have been destroyed? Why force her fiance to stick to the plan when the plan is no longer possible? It would be better to just have a clean break. Both women are willing to do anything for the love of their life, but it will take a dangerous confrontation with a fey to get them to bare their hearts.

Moontangled is a short and sweet love story based around a tragic misunderstanding. It's basically Stephanie Burgis's The Gift of the Magi by way of Emmet Otter. Because, let's face it, Emmet Otter is the perfect retelling of The Gift of the Magi once you realize that Emmet's mother is totally selfish and didn't need that dress. And yes, this review has gone off the rails but I think I can get it back on track. Caroline and Juliana are both willing to sacrifice that which is most important to them to make the other happy. Sure it's not watches and hair or washtubs and tools, but they love each other so much that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make the other person happy all without grasping at first that all that matters is each other. As Doc Bullfrog says, "it appears to me that what you needed was each other." Their love is true because they are willing to sacrifice their own happiness for the other's. Thankfully though neither needs to sacrifice anything because all that was needed was open communication. All people get in their heads too much. They overthink and overanalyze to the point where they've worked themselves into a corner. They think they know the truth because how could they not after they've spent countless sleepless nights working through all the permutations of how things could go in their head. And who among us hasn't been derailed by things going differently than we imagined? Even getting to the point where we're not sure what we've said in actuality or in imagination. But thankfully in Caroline and Juliana's case they have fey intervention. The centuries-old fey guardian of the Harwood woods has vowed to watch and keep Thornfell safe. As she had experienced heartbreak she knew she had to protect the hearts of the inhabitants of Thornfell as well and therefore she staged an intervention and the truth did will out. Caroline and Juliana will have their happily ever after after all.

Beautiful and magical. I love this world and these characters. Plus this F/F romance is so refreshing!

A novella in a highly engaging and readable series about an alternate regency era with magic. This one should probably be read after others, as world-building and plot elements are not fully fleshed out here. Short and fast-paced adventure and romance with an f/f couple. The relationship roadblock may feel a little contrived and frustrating to some readers, as it involves lack of communication between them. Love the writing and dialogue, and enjoyed this frothy adventure.

this was a really interesting read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the plot. I loved the cover and am glad I got to read it.

I hadn't read the first two books in this series, so I was a little bit confused at the beginning but I was soon swept up by the characters and the world.

Moontangled is a novella by Stephanie Burgis and is part of the Hardwood Spellbook series. Overall this was a fast read and simple love story. The plot was incredibly predictable but I still enjoyed reading it. This is LGBTQ friendly if not guessed by the cover. I had not previously read other books in the series but I probably will read a book by Burgis in the future. I did not get the world building really in this but its a novella so no surprise there. I give this a solid three because it was enjoyable but so short it was hard to form a really strong opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and Five Fathoms Press for an ARC. This is an honest review.

A lovely bit of lesbian romance, set in a school for magic. It’s weighted somewhat by a disproportionate amount of backstory for those who, like me, are new to this world and its characters, but the smooth prose, lively verbal repartee, and sympathetic characters held my interest to the end.

F/F romance are not my usual jam, but this was a lovely satisfying short read.

It is set in an alternate fantasy world some time in the past, and the magic world has finally accepted the existence and skills of female practitioners. Felicity, an dedicated and very studious pupil at the Thornfell college of magic, is studying so hard she has forgotten about the ball being held there. Her magical friends come to the rescue, getting her ready for the ball, but she is distracted by worrying about seeing her beloved Caroline Fennell, political candidate and niece to the recently disgraced female politician,

Caroline’s political career has stalled as her supporters have fallen away due to her aunts scandal, her family have also rejected her. She is anxious she cannot fulfil her promise to Juliana of becoming a political success and then announcing their betrothal. When they let their hurt and misunderstandings get in the way of their relationship, it takes a Fae intervention to get them to face up to each other and work together to save themselves and get to their HEA.

This was a short, sweet comfort read in an interesting alternate world, with lots of intriguing details, which make me want to read the other books.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book and all opinions are my own.

Moontangled, a novella by Stephanie Burgis, is a beautiful urban fantasy love story.

I was very impressed by the level of description of the world this story was set in. It was written so eloquently and lovely I truly envisioned myself there. It is the story of Juliana, a student of magic and of Caroline, a magical politician and how their love is tested. I was enraptured by the story of their love and the tidbits of prose scattered throughout.

This was my first traipse into the writings of Stephanie Burgis and I look forward to reading the other books in this series, as well as checking out her other books. I would recommend this novella to anyone who is interested in the urban fantasy genre.

Special thanks to #NetGalley and Five Fathoms Press for an electronic ARC of this story in exchange for an honest review.

Okay so I coming back here, in this world was like a dream come true. I was so excited to read it and of course it lives up to the expectations. The character development, world development, solving of all the problem, done well. But I have one problem that this book is too short, it could've been a bit longer so that we can see more depth to the world and characters. Still I loved it, so much.

I really enjoyed this But saying that Burgis writing is always strong and engaging. Good Novella length, interesting and romantic storyline.

While I did enjoy this book, it was clear that you need knowledge of the series to be able to understand everything that's going on entirely. I very much enjoyed the representation happening in this book. The biggest issue that threw me off was that there seemed to be a lot of people thrown at you at the beginning making it kind of hard to follow who was who. Again, if I had read the rest of the series, it may not have been as confusing. I think I'm going to pick up the other books to see what happens.

I love the idea behind this series, that men are too emotional to for politics so the country is run by women. I suspect it was inspired by 2016 Election Season.

I just had a hard time getting into the story. I think it might be because it’s in the middle of the series and I had too much catching up to do.

I love this novella series. It's so carefully thought out, with a really interesting take on gender roles in society. I'm a sucker for historical recency magic books, and I've read most of the ones I have found - this is a highlight for me as one of the nicest.

Sweet, and very clever, but I'm always so frustrated when people simply don't communicate. And I am apparently not the only one. It's such fun to return to this universe of magic, love, and acceptance.

[I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.]

Featuring fan favourite second tier characters from previous books, Moontangled is an adorable, fun novella that concentrates on Caroline Fennell and Juliana Banks. The pair are secretly engaged but Juliana is dismayed that after months apart, Caroline is being distant. Luckily Juliana is the most promising mage student – why have magic if you can’t use it to get your politician girlfriend to pay attention to you again? This is very short at just 75 pages but is a supercute story. Recommend this entire series.

Didn’t realise this was the second in a series but it made no difference at all. I as not lost and everything still made sense. The world building was wonderful, characters well rounded, the relationships are wonderful and I really enjoyed the story. I need to go buy the first book now.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

An excellent historical fantasy novella that made wish to read the rest of the series.
I loved the world building, the characters and the plot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

A delightful fantasy about two ladies' love at risk. I read Snowspelled, but not the second Harwood book, yet I had no trouble following things here. I liked both Caroline and Julianna, and the peek into Julianna's magician friends gives me hope they may eventually get their own stories. The conflict here comes mostly from the threat to their relationship, but the addition of outside pressures kept me turning the pages. I like the worldbuilding in this series, and I think this was better than Book 1. Recommended!

This is apparently the second book in a trilogy, but I came at this not having read any of them, and I was still able to follow along easily. It’s a sweet, quick, and fairly adorable read. If you know certain tropes in historical fiction (secret betrothals! boarding schools! balls! marriage to Secure Futures!), there’s plenty of those, but with the twist of the fae and lesbian romance. Sometimes you just need something light and quick, and there’s definitely an air of a Midsummer Night’s Dream to it. Use it as a palette cleanser, and look at the other books in the series too!