This one was perfect for my fantasy-romance-loving heart. If you like ACOTAR and FBAA, this is what should be next on your list-- and this author is one to watch. Gemma is wealthy and loves her life, except she really doesn't-- she has it all but she's neglected and sick, her family a mess. The intrigue begins instantly-- protection from dangerous creatures may be slipping, family mysteries, and romance with a man named Talan. If you want longing and spice with demon villains and truly unique world-building, this is for you. This is the Cruel Prince meets A Light in the Flame, and I'm here for it all: Gemma's growth and bravery, and her burgeoning relationship with Talan. All I need is the next book in the series-- and you will too!

Unfortunately, this was not a favorite of mine. This is classified as an adult debut but the writing certainly didn't reflect that. I thought this was written even as well as some YA novels. The plot was sticky and didn't flow in an appropriate way. It just didn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: self-harm, anxiety, panic attacks (on-page), chronic pain, violence, parental abandonment (past), murder

It was really refreshing to see a fantasy heroine with chronic pain issues. There were so many twists and turns and interesting pieces of magic. I loved that the sisters and family were also part of this.

Steam: 3.25

Unfortunately, the ratings for this book are pretty accurate. I've heard great things about this author's previous books, so I'm surprised that this one missed the mark. I thought this was an adult book, and I had to double check. The writing is very YA and I was not impressed. If the characters had been really interesting, it would have made up for the inconsistent plot and the whiplash that I kept feeling. I couldn't give it more than two stars.

I think my time of reading a Claire Legrand fantasy is over. Her protagonists are always these great, complex, and sometimes unlikeable women, but this strength is always dwarfed by bland love interests, cliched fantasy tropes, and slow-moving plots. Especially with how expensive books are coming, this just wouldn't be worth the price for me.

I was disappointed. The writing is juvenile and I didn’t care for the characters.

I couldn’t maintain interest. Gemma kept me in a constant state of rolling my eyes. I was just a shocked that this book came from this author.

Leaving a review like this makes me feel terrible. But it sums up my brief thoughts on this book.

This book was a bit hard to get into in the beginning, it felt a little bit boring and there were so many characters and hard to grasp world building and magic systems. Buuuut, if you push through the first part, it gets a lot better. I found myself really enjoying this book and wanted to read more and more and more. It’s an adult fantasy book so it does have explicit scenes, also trigger warnings such as suicide, self harm, panic attacks, anxiety, self loathing. It was one of the more unique fantasy books I’ve ever read. Which I really liked, a lot of the fantasy books nowadays are so familiar to each other. Felt like a breath of fresh air. But do prepare yourself for learning looooads of new words, characters, magic workings, creatures and more. If you like immensive worldbuilding, then this book is for you.

This literally reads like two diff books - both equally bad.. I don’t mind ublikeable characters but this MC js just downright awful and so difficult to read about.

This follows Gemma Ashbourne, a beautiful and rich daughter of her family. However, she has a body that reacts negatively to magic, constantly fighting pain and being ill unlike her sisters who have amazing abilities with no pain. Not only that, her relationship with her father is not great, her mother had abandoned them, and her sisters has their own situations to deal with.

She also meets Talan d'Astier, an attractive person who she works with to destroy the Basks, whom their family has a blood feud with.

Throughout the novel, secrets gets uncovered, lies discovered, a romance that grows, and curses that unravel in the storyline and plot.

Overall, the beginning was slow paced but then it started picking up speed. There were a lot of twists and turns that made me wonder what else will be revealed. It was interesting to know more about Gemma's illness towards magic since I was looking for more answers to that as well. I did not like Talan much though so I am hoping there would be a good character development for him.

Lady Gemma Ashbourne has it going on, beautiful and wealthy, with a powerful family to boot. But all is not what it seems in her world. In this world of magic and anointed families bestowed power by the gods, Gemma struggles, because she's allergic . Any exposure to magic makes her sick, and while her family carries on being around it and using it (sort of??) Gemma is left bereft, and often times dealing with feelings of inferiority because of her affliction. This provides a really interesting and valuable interpretation of chronic illness, and mental health struggles, which you don't always see represented in fantasy books. I appreciated that aspect, and thought it was well done, and added a lot of depth to Gemma's character and growth. Anyway, the Ashbourne family has major generational beef with another family, the Basks, and a lot of the story centers that conflict, along with having big fancy balls and dances that felt underwhelming and pointless to me. In between the family battle, we have Gemma's arc falling in love with court newcomer, the mysterious Talan. There's an instant attraction there, and Talan and Gemma team up to settle the score with the Bask family, and fall in love in the meantime. Then the second half of the book happens and well, I got whiplash. This is where my real critique begins. I won't say much on the second half to avoid spoilers, but it was definitely something...

I wanted to like this story, but it was a miss for me. For one, the magic system in this book confused me. We have anointed by the gods powerful family lineages, lesser magic users, necromancers, and everything in between, but it just wasn't adding up, it felt like the story couldn't decide what it wanted to be. This is also true for the difference in atmosphere from the first half of the book to the second. They felt like entirely different creatures mushed together without any transition, and I found it boring and mid. So many new characters and new layers were introduced, and the relationships between Gemma and her sisters were elaborated upon greatly, and yet it still fell flat for me. I also wasn't very excited by the romance between Gemma and Talan, it was fine, but the spicy bits were so strangely timed, and I still feel like I didn't know much about Talan's character other than him being hot and mysterious and stinky? On the other hand, I did really like the relationship between the sisters, Gemma, Mara and Farrin, and I was really excited by the prospect of the forbidden love trope between Farrin and Ryder Bask (hopefully that's explored later). Gemma was a difficult main character to love at times, but I did enjoy her growth, and wish that her arc of coming into her power would have been less, flat? The idea of the Middlemist was also really cool, but not enough time was spent developing the magic for it to really work into the plot of the story well enough for my liking. Overall, this was 2/5 for me, I may possibly read the next one clinging to the hope that we see Farrin x Ryder, but we'll see.

This is a fantasy, romance novel, written in a first person POV. Our main character is a "fragile kitten" type who goes through a transformation to more of a "wild cat" type. IYKYK. The story is filled with mystery and intrigue, so much so that for most of it, I had no idea what was going on, but I desperately WANTED to know. As things slowly get revealed, the world and the magic system becomes more and more exciting.

This story also features a main character with GAD, who suffers from panic attacks and chronic pain. Readers should be aware this book also incudes several instances of suicidal ideation and self-harm.

The first part of the book allows you to get to know our main character and her intriguing new love interest, and her family/friends. It also delves into a little bit of the families history and the history of the land they live in, which is clearly not the real story. Things become infinitely more exciting when everything starts to become a lot more sinister. Half the time you're reading this, you'll think you know what's going on and then you realize you actually have no idea. I love a book that keeps me guessing. I was never sure of what certain characters true intentions were, which kept things exciting.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, however I felt like there was a LOT going on, so much so that it felt quite chaotic. The pacing was a bit all over the place. There's just a lot at play, but I feel like the next book in this series could be reaaaaallly good and there's a lot of opportunity for things to be better explained. It is only the first book, so there's much more to be revealed in the future, I'm sure. The world these characters live in is definitely not what it had seemed.

I did like the main character and the love interest, although at times I found the relationship a little cringe. I'm not always one for the insta-love trope. I didn't realize that this book was more of a mature/adult fantasy, as there was lots of spice and which I thought was goood. The tension was delicious. If I'm being totally honest, I would prefer a book about Farrin (her sister) and Ryder (their family's enemy). I also really enjoyed a lot of the side characters and I am excited to get to know them more.

I found the ending a little bit convenient, I really don't like in fantasy, when the character with newly discovered magic or untested magic "just knew what to do". HOWEVER, I am excited to see what comes next. I will definitely be reading the next book as I adore Claire's writing. I can imagine her characters so vividly as she is excellent at describing them in a way where it makes a clear picture in your mind. I also love how effortlessly the author's writing flows, like she's not trying to clever, she just is? Her descriptions of the setting transport me there, I can picture it like I'm standing there.

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks, Claire and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC.





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This has been one of my most anticipated reads this year and unfortunately it didn't quite live up to the hype.

To me, it did feel like it read more as a YA than an adult fantasy book, and it felt very long and maybe that is also why i started loosing interest.

Overall, i'm glad I read it, but not sure that I would continue on with book 2.

Thank you, Sourcebooks for my free copy.

Hmm this book was something. The first half of the book I was really digging. It felt like a fantasy Bridgerton world with a Frozen inspired story (told from Anna’s perspective). I was drawn in and happily going along with the mystery, the romantic tension, the feuding families.

Then right after the midpoint, the story changed completely! Suddenly, it was a YA fae fantasy. Then it bogged down terribly. I was left confused by what was happening in this sudden left turn and frustrated as I slogged through the end.

Overall, it felt like the author was trying to tell too many stories at once, too many genres. The original premise was good and I was interested. The sudden switch to something completely different killed my excitement. I’m sad because I ended up disappointed.

I liked the anxiety/panic attack rep in the MC. It reflected my own personal experiences and I enjoyed seeing an honest portrayal in a fantasy heroine. I enjoyed tension to the romance in the beginning and the question of “will he betray her?” playing out. But once that switch happened in the second half, the couple suddenly became honestly annoying. Maybe I just like a slower burn. The spice however was excellent! Sexy and romantic!

Right now I’m on the fence about trying book 2. Enough was tied up at the end of book 1 that I don’t feel chomping at the bit for more. I think if you are a big fan of author and books that are crossover (adult that feels like YA), you’ll probably enjoy this book.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*

"A Crown of Ivy and Glass" is smutty high-ish fantasy with strong fairy tale vibes. It has immense potential especially world building wise, yet the story remains focussed on a gullible and mostly unlikeable rich pretty girl type of character who doesn't understand that the dude newly arrived at court she lusts after is not necessarily one of the good ones. Often I felt like I was reading a sequel and the ending left me pretty confused too, but overall I enjoyed the book, it wasn't boring. The main protagonist is very unlikable though, be warned. 3.5 stars

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me! A totally unique fantasy, an very different kind of MC, a story that seems somewhat light and frivolous only to turn dark and gritty. Lets get into it:

Starting with the good, Claire Legrand is obviously a wildly talented writer. I loved her use fs imagery, and her prose style is stunning. She slips world-building in very effortlessly, and the foreshadowing is on point. The fantasy world really is unlike anything I've read: there is the world out MC, Gemma, lives in. Full of magic and prestige, and separated from the "Olden" world via the middlemist. The Olden world is full of ancient creatures and threats, such as demons and fae, chimeras and necromancers, and much yet to be discovered. This was a great dichotomy to explore, and it felt very dark and threatening. I also adored the exploration of Gemma's mental health, which I thought was handled in a very raw & accurate way without veering into any problematic stereotypes or overly triggering content (although I would STILL recommend looking up and heeding trigger warnings for this one).

A lot of my problems from here came from execution. While Claire's writing is beautiful, all the characters read as... very immature and thin. It wasn't so much the writing as the way the characters voices read. I wanted to know so much more about what drove all of them, and while we do get an amount of that with Gemma, I still found myself confused about her relationships with everyone else and how they all felt about one another (as well as why). Gemma was difficult to like, and she did grow a lot, but I didn't exactly connect with her or her LI much throughout this story.

Much of what I have noticed about this execution being messy is pacing. We spent a lot of time on unimportant storylines, of which there are many, and it felt like the reader was being tugged form one things to the next with no idea why or whether they were going to tie together. Come the end, most of it DID tie together, but it was thin and loose and left more questions than answers for me. I thought the concept of the Olden world was fascinating and had so much potential, but I also feel that I know very little about it.

Overall I think I just wanted much more from this, but I do see a lot of potential now that the stage has been set and we know who the enemies are. I am hoping to see this story slow down a bit in pivotal moments, and spend less time on side stories that end up being inconsequential. I have heard literally NOTHING but amazing things about her Empirium series, and so I absolutely intend to give this author another go and likely to follow up with the sequels in this series, as the last half read much better than the beginning and I'm hoping to see that continued.

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this one before publishing!

I was looking forward to this book, I've seen the highly anticipated reviews and such, heard all the uptalk on it and then was disappointed when I read it. For an adult debut, it falls more into a young adult type narrative with very inconsistent pacing. The characters really didn't go through any meaningful development and seem stale in many ways. I WANTED to like this book and I WANTED to order this and get it on my library's shelves, but now I am not so sure.

Okay, I absolutely adored this book!

Though it was slow to start, through some cliches that accompany most romances, I quickly found myself falling in love with the characters and the twists and turns of the plot as I read on.

Gemma Ashborne is a chronically ill woman who suffers from panic disorder and depression that coexists with her chronic pain and chronic fatigue. As someone who suffers from all of these, I absolutely loved seeing myself as a disabled woman featured as a main character whose strength does not come from her physical capabilities. I will say that it is important to pay attention to the content warnings at the beginning of this novel, as the story deals with self-deprecation, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. As someone who has suffered through these thoughts due to my chronic illness, I am happy to say that Claire Legrand did an excellent job handling these themes--they were not the main focus of the book, nor of Gemma's character, and were not glamorized in any sort of way, but they may still be triggering to some readers.

The romance in it, though I was a little hesitant at first, was super beautiful, too. The smut was lovely, steamy, and soft, and flowed so nicely with the rest of the story. The plot, aside from the romance that had me squealing "SHIP! OTP!" like a 2011 Tumblr girl, was full of mysteries, feuds, and magic. There is A LOT happening in the story, which was overwhelming at times, but I still feel all connected nicely by the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an e-ARC of the novel in exchange for an honest review! I will certainly be picking up a physical copy when it hits shelves.

"But I refuse to allow that to cage me. I will enjoy my life, for it's the only one I have."

⭐⭐⭐✨

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for a copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

content warnings: self-harm, suicidal ideation, ableism? (MC has chronic pain/chronic illness), panic attacks, manipulation, possession, mental illness? (characters have sort of dangerous episodes/hallucinations), murder, child abuse, parental neglect

I have been eagerly anticipating this novel since the Empirium trilogy by Claire Legrand is one of my favorites of all time (not counting that novella I hated!) The moment I saw the cover on Netgalley, I downloaded it without hesitation!

A Crown of Ivy and Glass follows Lady Imogen/Gemma Ashbourne, the middle daughter of three, a young woman with a mysterious chronic illness of sorts, who spends her nights chasing the thrill of parties and lovers to avoid thinking about how she is the only member of the powerful and Anointed Ashbourne family to not have any magical abilities at all and to avoid the guilt of believing herself the reason her mother abandoned them and her younger sister was taken away to the dangerous Middlemist.

When a mysterious and enchanting stranger appears, offering to help her find a legendary demon that is ruining her family and to destroy the Ashbourne's enemies the Basks, Gemma will stop at nothing. Except... what if she can use the demon to give her magic instead of destroying it?

Claire Legrand jumps right into the adult fantasy genre with as much of an enchanting world as the Empirium trilogy that will be living in my mind rent-free. I started this the day after Christmas and finished it right after Valentine's Day! Many days I didn't want to put the book down because the suspense had me delighted, and the atmosphere was so well-written that once or twice my toes were curled in fear! Other days, I read a single chapter and set it down because the pacing seemed to drag.

While this couple certainly had sexual tension, I think what I loved most about her previous trilogy was the tantalizing slow burn, the enemies to lovers, the plot twists that wrench your heart out and leave you reeling. Gemma and her love interest were lacking in this, and the plot twist felt a little like she'd ripped the jawdropping plot twist of her own previous book and served us a condensed watered down copy paste of that. I would have loved if this book pulled a <spoiler>Hans from Frozen, which is what I was expecting, along with some second romantic interest</spoiler>, so I was disappointed to realized we were stuck with this coward. 🤭 He never really grew on me, but Gemma did!

I think the foreshadowing for who I assume the main character of book 2 and her potential love interest is was fabulous though, and much more up my alley as far as romances go. That's a potential five-star for me already!

I think I would recommend to this to fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses (except imagine a POV of how Elain is perceived in book 1 + if their father hadn't lost all their money), romances with instant chemistry, and rich and chilling atmospheres!

Claire Legrand utterly masters her adult debut!

A Crown Made of Ivy and Glass is a hidden gem. Legrand has depicted an epic tale about finding love when you feel unworthy.

Legrand has written this book as a love letter to mental health survivors. Every page is filled with honest mental health descriptions. Legrand embraces real life struggles and adds a love interest who makes the main character realize she is worth everything.

Birthed into a life of trauma, Lady Gemma Ashbourne is reeling, living each day wading through the wreck that is her body. For generations, the gods have blessed the Ashbourne’s with magic. However, Gemma has none. Instead, magic causes her insurmountable pain, with her body reacting to surrounding magic like poison.
Gemma’s waking moments are filled with pain and loneliness.

Presented with an opportunity to escape the chains that bind her and forget her pain, Gemma pairs up with a man named Talan. His family was wiped out by demonic interference, leaving him the sole survivor. Intent on restoring his family’s name, he seeks Gemma’s help. Armed with a plan to save them both, Gemma guides him through high society for a chance to live freely.

However, what neither one of them saw coming was the passion they would develop for one another. When Gemma is with Talan, she can forget her pain and her losses. Talan comforts her weary soul and makes her feel wanted. Gemma has never believed in herself, but when she is with Talan, she feels alive.

Similarly, Talan masks his own childhood trauma and the family he lost. Talan’s past haunts him and leaves him breathless with remembrance. Gemma quiets the storm in his mind; she is peaceful and radiant- everything he is not. Talan attaches himself to Gemma like a man starved. He can not get enough of her comfort, of her warm embrace.

Talan d’Aister and Gemma Ashbourne are made for one another. If only they could admit to each other what they feel in their heart. Unfortunately, they may not have time. Attacks on their world are increasing tenfold and creatures of old are awakening. Not to mention, Gemma’s new perspective on life is drawing her towards something dangerous… There is a beast slumbering inside her, and it wants out. Will Gemma be able to tame it, or be consumed?

Overall, Legrand’s adult debut is a tale of being found when you’re lost. When all hope is gone, strength from loved ones shines strong. Family fuels the soul, and in A Crown Made of Ivy and Glass, it is the shining star. By putting faith in one another, the characters prove that love is the grandest force of all.

Legrand has built the start of which will surely be an eternally cherished series.

Visit your local bookstore and purchase a copy on release day: May 9th, 2023!

Thanks to SourceBooks Casablanca and NetGalley for this ARC!

I didn't even realize this was an adult book until the sexy times started. All the characters were very YA in behavior. Gemma was an awful character. Selfish and heedless - she just barreled into every situation without ever really thinking beyond her own impulsive desires. The insta-love was suspicious (with good reason) and yet they are still meant to be soul mates at the end? I ended up skimming through most of the book by the end. the scenes that didn't involve Gemma and Talan were fun. I want to know more about the Basks and the sisters.